I have mentioned it before. Go to any church and have a search for it. It's a fascinating subject which I have touched on before. But I use the term to cover anything from the past scratched into stone or wood in churches from any era.
There's quite a bit of it in Wymondham Abbey and on Monday I had another look along with cousin Belinda who took some interesting photographs including a memorial stone to the Papillon family. There is a Papillon Road in Wymondham and I always assumed it was named after the French word for a butterfly. It is more likely that it was named after this family.
But back to medieval graffiti. It usually consists of scratchings in stone or even wood. I mentioned before that I found what I believe to be an ancestor's name scratched into choir stalls in Salthouse Church in North Norfolk.
How authentic is medieval graffiti somebody once asked me. Well very is the answer. It is often uncovered when churches are cleaned. Images of ships/boats from medieval times are often uncovered. Pictorial comments on members of the clergy can also be seen, often well covered due to the trouble the artist would have got into had he allowed everyone to see them.
Much of the medieval graffiti I have been interested in is simply names and dates scratched into stone or wood - the kind of thing you did unthinkingly when at school unaware that it was a way of keeping your name alive.
There is a photo with today's blog of some of the graffiti you can see in Wymondham Abbey. I hope this encourages you to look round churches with a renewed interest. I would love to see any photos of church graffiti you come across.
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Had a very pleasant visit to Holt yesterday on the way to North Norfolk. Lots of boutique style shops so got a few Christmas presents.
The shopkeepers were all very pleasant and I actually bought a book from a charity shop with cash!!!! Who uses cash anymore? I could have used a card but I've had a note in my wallet for absolutely weeks so thought it a good idea to break into it. An elderly gentleman perched on a chair bemoaned the fact that he had recently been in a shop where they actually refused to accept cash.
"What is the world coming to. I had no way of paying," he said. I must say that I sympathised. The book was a history of the Railways.
"Did you buy that because it was a large book or are you interested in railways?" he inquired as if I am in the habit of buying books according to their number of pages rather than content (actually he might be right there). It will take lots of energy to get through it.
We had coffee and coffee and walnut cake in pleasant tea rooms down a side alley. Unfortunately the chips I had for lunch from Eric's were quite horrid. They tasted as if they had been re-heated (as opposed to being triple fried). As a result they were like leather and not to be recommended I'm afraid.