LUDDINGTON IN THE BROOK. CHURCH : ST MARGARET
Both Chris and myself have attended the church of St Margaret, Luddington in the Brook. Chris Stafford attended on a beautiful January day, and I daresay that he was a bit fresher than myself, who arrived by cycle from Peterborough on an Easter Day Churchcrawl which see me take in nine churches. This was church number six of the day for myself, and I was starting to look forward to lunch. Looking for a pub as well as the warm eather had meant the my liquid intake thus far was a bit higher than I had anticipated. Sadly, no pub to be seen and that trend was to continue for the next couple of hours!
Anyone liking stone grotesques, then this is well worth a visit. That area of the country seemed to have a large number of very nicely carved grotesques and gargoyles, with nearby Hamerton and neighbouring Hemerton being particularly blessed in that department.
This church was locked when I arrived, as it was I believe when Chris visited three months previously. It certainly appeared as if locked churches were to be the norm in this part of Northamptonshire, and in all I had five in a row that were locked on my arrival. The church wasn't the easiest to find, and I had a frustrating ten minutes ride around the village seeing the church but being unable to find the road leading to it. In the end I had passed a likely looking side road which had "Private" on it, but I ended up going down there anyway and no one seemed to mind.
As mentioned earlier, this is a must see for those with a love of grotesques. One theory is that these were carved to look frightening to keep away evil spirits. What is frightening about the dog pictured below left....well, just take a look at it's fearsome looking teeth and wild eyed expression!! The dragon-like grotesque below right, with tongue stuck out in typical medieval gesture,is probably the most frighening of the grotesques at Luddington whilst others are just bizarre!
The grotesque with the large ears and the feathers, which can be found on the porch, certainly fits the bizarre catagory. The Hag crawling out of the wall, with mouth wide open is also worthy of mention. This is pictured below right, and take a look at the portly and depressed looking man looking down at her!!
A very talanted stonemason obviously lived in that part of the world all those years ago. This also appeared to be a trend in that part of the county, with some very fine gargoyles and grotesques photographed that day.
The photograph of the fearsome looking Gargoyle with wings below right is kindly provided by Chris Stafford. The other pictures on this page were all taken by myself.
