Here is a brief bit of information and some photographs from the church in Kingston, Cambridgeshire. It’s within cycling distance from my home so I went and took some photos of the church and surroundings.
The most interesting features of Kingston Church is the wall paintings with-in. Many didn’t survive the reformation and ‘whitewashing’ of churches and fewer still the later Victorian fashion of stripping plaster from walls in favour of stonework and totally refitting the woodwork.
Above is a wall painting of the Crucifixion, with unusual iconography. On a red ochre ground decorated with a brocade pattern there are three silhouettes, of a crucifix and two figures. On either side of the crucifix is a kneeling angel holding a cup which catches Christ’s blood; beyond these a pair of angels playing musical instruments and a pair censing. The censers, with their chains, were probably appliqué wood or metal. Above the rood are two faint circles, representing the sun, to the left, and the crescent moon, to the right, symbolising life and death.
One of the paintings on the walls is of the Devil standing on a tree. He has bat wings, a tale and horns.
The Seven Acts of Mercy – Wheel of Mercy.
Six of the seven acts, intended to counter-balance the Seven Deadly Sins, were derived from the gospel of St Matthew, Chapter XXV:
- feeding the hungry;
- giving drink to the thirsty;
- offering hospitality to the stranger;
- clothing the naked;
- visiting the sick;
- visiting prisoners.
- burying the dead – this one comes from the Book of Tobit, Chapter I.
The wheel is turned by two angels with outstretched arms, one to the lower left, the other to the lower right.
