YAXLEY. CHURCH : ST PETER
I originally visited the church of St Peter at Yaxley back in 2006, on one of my earliest days shooting for this site. Poor camera and poor photographer meant that the end results were pretty poor. I always promised to go back, armed with better camera and I finally made the return trip on a bitterly cold day in early November 2008.
This church is usually kept locked and sadly vandalism has happened here before. On my original visit a lady told me that a window had been broken and a section of the main door had been kicked in!
Those who are regular visitors to my site will probably know that my main nterests are gargoyles, grotesques and intricately carved graves, so I started off by having a look around the church gronds at the gravestones. Fell lucky here with a couple of decent examples of Deaths Head stones. These are gravestones which have on them symbols of Man's mortality. These can be skulls, hour glasses (sometimes with wings), human bones...anything that will symbolise mortality!
One of these, albeit very worn, was a particularly good example. Pictured second from the bottom on the left hand side of this page, this gravestone depicts a skull with crossed bones underneath. This is a particularly rare example in this part of the country as it also has images of the gravediggers tools. Pick and shovel in the bottom left of the photograph, and torch on the right as burials were made at night.
To the West, the church looks out over the edge of the fens, with four inquisitive horses either interested in what I was doing or interested to see if I had any food on me. The latter I suspect.
On the exterior wall on the West side of the church there are musket shot marks. It is said that these were made by Cromwell's troops, but it is more likely that they were caused by Tudor or Stuart local militia, whose arms were then stored at the base of the church tower. Photo included third from bottom on the right.
And talking of Cromwell's troops. They are said, in 1643, to have baptised a foal in the 12th century font! The tower dates from the late 15th century and the South porch dates from around 1500. Figures of a dog and a lion can be found over the porch whilst carvings of a chained bear and a crocodile can be found on the East side. There are plenty of gargoyles and grotesques dotted around the church. Several are broken and others very worn. The oldest of these can be found around the tower, and are thought to date from around 1500. Some of these are very worn, and others vandalised. Some lower down look to be considerably more recent and are in very good condition.
Inside, there are fragments of a wall painting on the West wall of the nave. A coat of arms and bible texts are present, along with a grave digger and death. These are thought to be Elizabethan.
It was absolutely freezing on both of my visits here. Mental note to make another trip here in the Summer, when it is a bit warmer. Lovely church, nice village and well worth a look if you are in the area.
