Teigh and its church

Another in my occasional series of interesting churches.

This one is near Oakham, and a church I've intended to visit since walking the Rutland Round in 2012.

From the outside it doesn't look special, but its interior is light and welcoming, and today was filled with the scent of fresh daffodils.

The base of the tower is all that remains of the original 12th or 13th century building. The present church was built in 1782 by the rector, Robert Sherard, Earl of Harborough. The style is "Strawberry Hill Gothic", and the pews face inwards.

Looking toward the pulpit, with the trompe l'oeil window.

toward the altar at the other end of the church.

The two fonts - the smaller one was originally attached to the altar rail. The stone one was carved by a former rector, Anthony Singleton Atcheson.

Teigh is one of the "thankful villages", where all those who served in World War I returned home.

Notable rectors of Teigh

1321 Richard de Folville joined outlawed relations in robbery and murder. He was overpowered by the under-sheriff and his men in Teigh church in 1341, and beheaded in the village street.

1604 Zacharias Jenkinson, a Puritan, refused to bow at the name of Jesus, or stand at the Gospel.

1782 Robert Sherard, later Earl of Harborough, rebuilt the church at his own expense.

1830 Anthony Singleton Atcheson, water colourist and stone carver - he carved the stone font.

1940 Henry Stanley Tibbs was interned on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathiser, but later released as harmless.

Quite a selection for such a small place!

Painting the Modern Garden

The blushing pink on petals close to white
of climbing roses entwined among the trees
the play of light and shade and form
I think I sense the faint smell of decay
from leaves heaped up and rotting on the soil
I lift my head and swear I taste the breeze
and hear the distant notes of a piano

Such is the power of paintings
of gardens full of vast flowerbeds
rioting colour and subtle change of tone
the shapes of leaves and petals
the fruits of long physical labour
with spade and soil or brush and pigment

canvas fixed on walls like windows
where we spy the artists’ friends, lovers,
children and dogs among the plants
or sometimes absent, as the place speaks
its own language, draws us in a while
to a world which feels more real than ours

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/painting-modern-garden-monet-matisse

Grey cat at Tickencote

oh grey cat of Tickencote

are you the guardian of the church

or a volunteer guide?

You watch us as we park the car

and as we lift the latch 

below the lych gate roof

We walk among the gravestones

looking at the carved window arches

and the inscriptions to the dead

the moss-covered ancient mound,

the solid stone statement tombs

and there you are, rubbing against my leg.

A bench for contemplation

faces the old hall's lake

and you leap up, then lightly to a table tomb

the sunlight catching the way your fur

outlines your frame.

When we open the heavy oak door

to admire the chancel arch

and grotesques in ceiling corners

you follow and show us the old cast bell

replaced some eighty years ago.

You stroll along the tiny nave

into the chancel - we'll not miss much.

As we leave we make sure you are outside

our farewell photograph sees you seated on the wall

blinking in the cooling sun.

Are we at the seaside yet?

I wake after a night of troubled dreams

chasing teenagers from a building site

through a fairground

to find that rain has been falling all night

on saturated ground

not gentle pattering, but hammering steadily

rain lies in deep pools in gardens

on roads, on fields

refreshing the mud I hoped was drying

if this continues it'll be a case of 'man the lifeboats!'

and make vast vats of porridge and cocoa

so far inland

sea level's rising - 

has the shore reached our valley overnight?

That'll save my friend a birthday trip to Hunstanton.

the roads are flooded

facebook warnings flash up

take care, even the top road

worse than we've seen

I'm pleased the house is on a hill

I haven't been outside to check

are we at the seaside yet