If Walls Could Speak...

Dave Tonge, storyteller, telling medieval tales at the site.

When you enter any medieval church site, you are in a special place. Here are some of my thoughts about this:

• The church acted as a focal point and meeting place for the community for so many hundreds of years. A parish church has witnessed all of the bitter-sweetness of life. 
• It has been a marker against which wider events took place.
• In those still places, we stand in the footprints of others; physically, in that same place where their hearts raced and their tears fell. Pettiness, day-dreams, discomfort, hope... all of these and more have been felt here before we pass through. A ruin has stories to tell (see photo, above). 
• A sense of this time and connection makes me aware that we are not only time-travellers in the present; we are, simultaneously, and instantly, part of the story too. 
• In those still places, I am moved, imaginatively, to reach out for those past presences. We should, in my opinion,  all be humble in the face of this.
• A medieval church is a space where I am open to possibilities. Here, my imagination is challenged and stretched. I begin to feel for the nature of things and our place within it.   
• The movement of seasons and the natural life which passes through are part of the story too.
• I am full of wonder and inspired to creativity...

Colin

Inside the original medieval church...

In the original medieval church some of the key things which are no longer there would have included:

An altar...

Standing here in the chancel of the church, you are looking eastwards where the altar would have been (now marked by the cross) All medieval English churches were built with the altar at the east end (in the direction of the Holy Land) . The altar is a table or platform where the service of mass was held.

The picture above is of one of the altar at Merton church, Norfolk. 

A Crucifix 

This is a cross, but with the figure of Christ fixed to it. Christians, however, do not think that Jesus’ story ended on the day he died. The Gospels speak of the discovery of his empty tomb two days after his death and describe sightings of him by his disciples. For Christians, therefore, the cross in not just a symbol of terrible suffering and death, it also a symbol of hope and new life.

A font
The font would have contained water which had been blessed by a priest ('Holy water'), and which would have been used to baptise a baby. In the original church this probably would have been situated in the nave, near the entrance.

Fifteenth century (1400s) font, in Binham church, North-West Norfolk.

Parish chest
This would have contained the priest's 'uniform' as well as the church's silver cup for holding wine representing the blood of Christ. From Tudor times (1485 onwards) important documents recording things like births, marriages and deaths, would have also been kept in this.

Although we have no way of picturing the past exactly, the church might once have looked something like this...

Looking down the nave at the chancel in Rougham church, Norfolk.