TANSOR. CHURCH : ST MARY
A lovely, sunny, Saturday afternoon in September 2006. The first day of shooting for this site. Armed with a tiny and very basic digital camera and a new bike, which I had just picked up from the cycle shop, I headed out in to East Northamptosnire.
At that point I didn't really know if I was serious about this site or not.
It looked like a lot of time, effort and cycling and I just didn't know if anyone would be interested in following an eccentric Englishman's trips to see village churches that, with no disrespect meant, were of little or no interest to some of the people who actually lived in those villages!
Any doubts about whether I wanted to make a go of this site or not were dispelled that first afternoon. After visiting Nassington to start with, I visited Fotheringhay, Tansor and then Cotterstock. I fell in love with this part of East Northants that afternoon. And have spent several pleasant days out in the same area since.
Tansor is an exqusite little village, just a couple of miles away from illustrious neighbour Fotheringhay. On that first day of shooting I entered in through the main gates and there were chickens ambling around in between the gravestones. As I mentioned earlier, I arrived with a very basic camera and apart from the photograph of the chickens below right, all of the other photographs on this page have been re-shot since with a better camera.
It is hard to imagine a better scene for a church than this. St Mary sits on the main road with Fotherinhay off to the north and Cotterstock and Oundle off to the south. Some beautifully carved gravestones could be seen in the nicely tended church grounds. To the west of the church there is the river Nene, with a rather nice motor boat tied up to a jetty whilst I was there.
A carved head, with bulbous nose and questionable dental work, sits on the south wall of the church. This caught my eye on that first day of shooting and is still a favourite of mine now. At the east end of the church, the Tansor War Memorial proudly stands.
There was no church noted in Tansor at the time of the Domesday Survey in 1086. The church of St Mary itself dates from the 12th century. The tower is a squat affair dating from Norman times. There are three bells in the tower. The earliest of these comes from London and was cast in the 15th century. One is from Newcombe at Leicester and is dated from the 16th century. The third is from our old friends the Stamford Bellfoundry and was cast by Tobias Norris in 1611. At the time of typing this (May 2009) I have just started to research this bellfoundry, and the men who worked there. Time will tell if this is a worthwhile project!
Inside, and some graceful arches date from the 12th century. These have traces of a painted pattern on the underside of them. Probably the main point of interest inside this church are the medieval choirstall with their elaborately carved misericords. The misericords at Tansor came from the chancel at neighbouring Fotheringhay, the village where Mary Queen Of Scots was imprisoned and executed.
A pleasant stay, a gorgeous village. Tansor is well worth a visit. I believe that the chickens are now gone, sold to a neighbour, but it is still worth a visit nonetheless! The church is normally kept locked.
