St Wilfrid's Church, Alford, Lincolnshire

Saturday afternoon, though still cool, the Sun decided to shine on the righteous. I wanted to visit the Alford charity shop which supports Fen Bank Greyhound Sanctuary. That is the rescue centre where I found Penny six years ago. I knew she would jump at the chance of a car journey and visiting somewhere different to investigate so in no time she was sprawled out on the back seat of the car and we were on our way.

Once we were parked up near the town centre I had a pleasant surprise.
The first hour's parking was free.
Just enter the car registration number and hit the green button on the ticket machine.



First task was to walk out the back of the car park which leads to a country lane. That gave madam a chance to have a good stiff at every tuft of grass and do whatever else she needed before we walked into the market square. As we ambled back past the shops I saw the charity shop was busy so I decided to have a look round the outside of the parish church.

This is the second church built on the site, the first being constructed of wood.
At least part of the present building is said to date back to 1289.

 

On previous visits, mainly in the Summer time, I have seen people abseiling down the tower, usually to raise money for charity. This time all was quiet apart from the traffic which passes the church on the way to and from Mablethorpe on the Lincolnshire coast.

Once we had found a gap in the traffic we dashed across to the church where we could relax and take our time.
I had not walked round the church before and there was plenty to look at.

First the base of the tower and its entrance door





Once round the back, the North side, I could see the roof edge was lined with well weathered gargoyles.



One thing I did notice was that most of the arches over the doors and windows were terminated with carved heads. A couple of composite pictures made with the Mac App Photo Wrangler to show closer views of the carvings.

 

Just look at those magnificent hinges.



A clearer view of one



Nearing the East end of the church a glance heavenwards showed the pinnacles which top the tower.



Moving round to the front of the church one can see the very prominent war memorial.





There are several grave cover stones in this area.
One which caught my interest (complete with patient greyhound shadow).



An enhanced view of the inscription.



That led us to the main entrance.



After this quick tour round the exterior of



we walked back to the market square and visited the charity shop. I achieved my purpose - to buy a pack of Christmas cards which have been specially designed for Fen Bank Greyhound Sanctuary. The four legged boss fell in love with the lady who had the tin of dog biscuits kept to reward doggy visitors. Then it was time to return to the car and journey home.

A Peek Inside the Village Church

I had to leave the car at my local garage as its air con had developed a leak and lost all the Nitrogen. (Expensive stuff to replace!) In fact it needed a replacement part as well as re-charging.  On the walk back home I followed a footpath which lead me to the back of the churchyard. As I was on my own I decided to have a quick look inside the village church. There were a couple of things I wanted to see and photograph where possible.

So I headed to the porch doors hoping they would be unlocked:



I opened the extra, fragile looking, door which is mainly wire mesh and normally kept shut to keep birds out when a main door is open. Yes. The doors were unlocked.

Once inside the porch I could see the small stained glass window on the West side:



and the inside of the porch doors:

 

Ahead of me was the main door to the Nave:



Unusual, I think. It is really hefty at about 4 inches thick as the inside is lined with planks of wood:



In spite of its weight it moves easily on those three large iron hinges.

Walking down to the East end I could see the screen dividing the Nave from the Chancel.



It was worth a closer examination as the panels are carved:





About half of the panels contained carved faces:



Hanging above the screen is a beautifully painted carved crucifixion:

 

To the left is the pulpit:     To the right, the organ:

   

Walking back to the West end of the Nave lead me to the font:



On which I found one of the things I was hoping to see.
Carved in one shield on the font:



Graffiti. Not any old scribbled carving. Medieval graffiti. What looks like a W is in fact two overlapping Vs, a reference to the Virgin Mary / Virgo Virginum. A design which can be found in many churches up and down the land. Thought to have been used to keep evil spirits away from the baby being christened. I only found out about this from an article in the latest Village News.  A group called U3A Louth Church Mice had visited the church to search for and record any Medieval graffiti.

In the article they suggested a book for those interested in the subject.
Medieval Graffiti: the Lost Voices of England's Churches by Matthew Champion.
 
There are many places where a copy can be bought as well as an electronic version for Amazon's Kindle and an epub version from Kobo. The latter is the version I bought and am now working my way through its 263 pages. Very wordy and discusses many of the different theories about the meanings behind all sorts of Medieval church graffiti. Some illustrations. I wish there were more.

Whilst in the Nave I photographed the stained glass windows:
     




Finally, a carved head supporting a roof timber in the porch:

As always the photos can be clicked to take you to my Flickr account where they can be viewed larger. They were all taken with the Nikon Coolpix S9050 pocket camera.

You may have noticed various non churchy items strewn about. Every Saturday there is a sale of donated items organised by a local resident. All proceeds are given to various local or national charities. The chosen charities being different each month.

Oh, yes. I said I was looking for a couple of things. The other was a plaque commemorating one of the village war dead. Unfortunately I couldn't find it. There is more Medieval graffiti to be found - another day maybe.