The Finest Anglo-Saxon Sculpture in all of England - a Visit to Breedon-on-the-Hill Leicestershire
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 พ.ย. 2022
- #anglosaxon #anglosaxons #mercia
The church of St Mary and St Hardulph at Breedon sits on top of a hill in Leicestershire. It was founded as a Mercian royal Minster and the burial place of St Hardulph, who was possibly a deposed king of Northumbria. The present building is just the quire and aisles of a 13th-century priory church, which at the dissolution of the Monasteries was purchased by the Shirley family of Staunton Harold. It contains the Shirley family monuments and their pew, but the great treasure is an extraordinary array of Anglo-Saxon sculptures from the Mercian minster, perhaps the finest collection of sculptures from the 9th century in all of England. Let me take you on a tour of this amazing building.
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What an amazingly beautiful Church. As you said it is worth visiting for the tombs themselves but the Anglo Saxon work is gorgeous. Thank you for showing us this place. It is wonderful for me as now I can no longer get to these Holy places.
Amazing, thankyou sir 👏🏻👏🏼👏🏽🇬🇧🏴🏴🏴
Nice bit of English heritage I never knew about.
I confess to be addicted to your videos! Thank you!
That's a very kind thing to say, thanks! Glad you're enjoying my channel 😊
Love your channel.
About those scratches on the wall at 0:38. I read years ago that in times of plague, victims were not allowed inside the church. Because the building was consecrated, people believed the structure itself had medicinal properties.
They scratched the stone and used the debris as some kind of medicine. You see those scratches at many churches old enough.
Interesting!
An ancient practice, as similar vertical grooves and scratches from devotees removing tiny bits of stone for their healing and protective properties are found on the exterior wall of Egyptian temples. Perhaps Breedon was a place of pilgrimage in Anglo-Saxon times. The quality of the church's Anglo-Saxon sculptures is both extraordinary and interesting because the rendition of classical antecedents is so assured.
It always makes the heart glad to see Anglo-Saxon sculpture and stone work...
Simply wonderful to see a church like this going forward 1100 years after its establishment. Thanks Allan as always for your informative tour.
Glad you enjoyed it!
How special and just breath taking the sculptures are. Just to think of the stories they could tell. Bravo Allan x
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching!
Thank you for looking into the ribcage! That's amazing work!
The scratches on the wall are from sharpening arrow heads as in the Middle Ages all men were expected to practice archery Usually after Mass on sundays
A very sweet church and informative video! I love Anglo-Saxon survivals. It is a miracle even one piece of ancient sculpture survives. Have you ever visited St. Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale, near Kirkbymoorside? When I visited, I was alone there, could not get in due to COVID lockdown, but I spent a long time examining the exterior of this ancient church. What a special atmosphere it has! Set in the walls are bits of old knotwork crosses. There also is a 1000 year old sundail under the porch; and I found what I figured out were lunar calendars pecked into the stone around one door. The stone church was bult just before 1066. I'd love to see the inside. and get your commentary! 😉
What a lovely little church!! I LOVE the stained glass windows!!
That pew with a roof must've kept the Shirley family nice and warm when they sat there, especially in winter!!
Another EXCELLENT video, Allan!!💚💖👍
Thank you again for an informative video. I had no idea that carvings like this were made by the Saxons, let alone that there were any extant - what a marvellous survival. And this in a church that I can see from my bedroom window on a clear winter day!
Another fab video, Allan, and another church on my bucket list.
Throughly enjoyed the video. Bless you🙏🕊️
Oh, the stone carving! Spectacular!
Beautiful Saxon sculptures. I love the proportions, especially how the saint's hand is much larger than his head! Also very interesting to see the pattern that looks like interlacing swastikas - here in Japan, there is a similar one called "manji" that is linked to Buddhism. I'd read it was prehistoric and found on several continents, but hadn't seen anything like it in the UK until this video.
Hi Allan! One-of-a-kind sights. Thanks for taking me along for the trip.
Glad you liked it, thanks for watching!
I amlucky to live near the saxon church at Braemore, north Hampshire, but would love to visit breedon
It would be a large project, but a series on various styles of church architecture would be welcome. I'm sure we'd all like to recognise Early English and get our Perpendicular straight, so to speak!
Greetings from the Hudson Valley.
I just discovered your wonderful site, and I was struck by the beauty of the Anglo-Saxon carvings, the Angel in particular. The carving is so distinctly late Romano-British. Simply breath taking.
What gems these are, and set in such a modest crown. Many thanks.
I’d also be curious to learn a bit of history on the Shirleys. Like how’d they make their fortunes way back then? were they royalists or roundheads? are their descendants still existent? all so very many little alleys and sideroads, per se, of history to explore apart from the mainstream “big” history stuff like wars and kings and empires. love it!
I live not far from there, I would like to visit it now, thank you 👍
Wonderful video and fantastic channel. Very much enjoy your style of presentation and lack of pretension, to say nothing of the content itself.... Truly excellent. Thank you very much. Greetings from Florida.... Subscribed!
Thank you for your kind words, I'm so glad you're enjoying my channel!
This architecture rattled me to the core what an amazing place I can't believe that a place like this exists
Thanks for the tour 😇
My pleasure 😊
Thank you again. These are all so interesting and your style is just perfect.
Another interesting video 📹.
Thanks, glad you liked it!
That carved skeleton is pretty wild
Love watching you ,many thanksx
Lovely!
I had not heard of transi tombs before; it is satisfying to learn something new every day.
Spectacular! Question: wouldn't these be better kept in the British Museum? I would imagine that examples of Saxon sculpture are rare. Especially in this relatively fine condition. Greetings from America!
No ! It is massively important that artefacts such as these remain where they belong and in their proper context. Anyway, there are so many similar things in and around British historic sites and buildings that the British Museum would have to be many, many times larger to accommodate them.
You could post a video about how the Tudors chose from paint swatches and I'd find it fascinating! Well done.
Be careful what you ask for, I know wrote and article on medieval painted cloths!! 😂
@@allanbarton I saw a video on the surviving remains of Elizabeth I's dress from the Rainbow Portrait- it was, indeed, amazing. So bring it on!
It’s been some years since I visited this church so thanks for refreshing my memory. You said that some of the sculptures could be from a stone coffin. None of them are in situ and look quite weathered, could they have once been part of an earlier shrine/building nearby?
Stunningly beautiful
I actually took a minibus up to this church recently! I'd hoped to have a look inside but couldn't park there. Now I really regret that I couldn't see it!
Wow that's an amazing place
So beautiful!
Another great video!
Allan: you should visit the Saxon Church in the Village of Escomb, which is 3 miles out side Bishop Auckland, County Durham.
Bishop Auckland is also worth visiting the Bishops Castle, which was the residence of The Bishops and Prince Bishops of Durham.
the panels of sculpture seem to be anchored in the wall with a surrounding band of what appeared to be metal, possibly lead? What do you know about that feature? Great video, I was truly awed by the good condition of these very old pieces, quite a heritage for England
i imagine it may be to protect them from damp.
Would the exterior walls of a stone walled church have been painted with distemper in centuries past or did that just apply to flint ,clunch or brick foundations?
Sorry off topic. It’s been so long since I visited England. Do I recall correctly that the tombs of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots actually face one another in The Abbey? Thank you for your brilliant channel! ❤️🇺🇸❤️🇬🇧❤️
How do you go about getting permission to go inside these churches and film your videos? Was the skeleton below the main part of the Shirley tomb made of alabaster or some other type of stone? That was quite the tomb! I’ve noticed that a lot of the churches that you visit have what looks like sunken doorways on the south side of the chancels. What are their purpose? The Saxon stonework is so beautiful! Compared to Gothic stonework they look a bit primitive, but that’s what I enjoy about it so much. Another marvelous video! Thanks.
All the churches I visit and record in are open every day. Yes the skeleton and all the monuments are all alabaster, which was quarried only ten miles from Breedon.
Allan, you’re so fortunate that these churches are open for anyone to visit for free during the day. This would not happen at most churches, with the possible exception of cathedrals, here in the US which is such a shame.
@@allanbarton , thank you for your videos.
Why would they have a skeleton as a monument of the deceased person .
The crafting of the skeleton is amazing.
@@indigocheetah4172 it was a particular fashion in the 15th and 16th centuries - to demonstrate that the deceased understood that riches were futile in the face of the great leveler that is Death. I should do a video on them.
@@allanbarton , thank you Alan. How fascinating. I had no idea and it would be an interesting topic.
To learn more about our history is always important.
As an Australian, my ancestors were from England.
Properly framed stills would help enormously for the viewer.
A church which clearly merits visiting.
I'm new to this, I will be working on improving my skill set. It is well worth visiting.
i would wonder why the bits of glass eyes were never replaced once they fell out of those statues/sculptures?
These carvings surely were painted vividly as glass eyes on a unpainted sculpture mightn't have meant too much.
They need protecting behind glass or perspex.
Do all churches in the UK have boxed in pews?
In my non-expert experience, they are the exception, rather than the rule, at least nowadays.
Crazy name, bre welsh for hill, don old English for hill, so hill hill on the hill
When England was Orthodox Christian.
as a “southern” American who takes pride in American pronunciation, I like to pronounce Leicestershire as - ready for it? - 😅 Lie-chest-rrrr-shy-yerrrr. Which is probably also wrong by American English pronunciation rules too. But anyways, dah well....
So they wanted to be separated from the congregation.
Really enjoy your content but your camera work makes me physically ill. Maybe think of the framing, come to rest on subjects being described and keep it steady there, stop using it like a laser pointer. Swing less, feature more. Thanks.
This video gave me motion sickness. Try holding the camera still so the viewer can view the subject.
The last comments echo my thoughts and feelings also,I was a bit queasy, try to smooth out the camera movement, or at least linger on points of interest,far too 'busy' ,I watched one of your longer videos and was unable to get to the end.I will end on a positive note and say all of your videos are enlightening.