Arts & Crafts at St Edward’s Church, Kempley
External Architectural Artefacts
1. Stone and Lead work
The walls of the church were constructed in sandstone from the Blakeney quarry in the Forest of Dean. A number of stone blocks occur on the East Wall, – some appear to occur in a regular format whereas others appear to be irregular. Why were they located in this way?
The ethos of the Arts & Crafts builder was to highlight particular aspects of their work. The regular stones illustrate the ‘ends of the rafters’. The irregular stones provide a decorative pattern comprising squares, rectangles, diamond and triangles, which were important artefacts for the Arts & Crafts Movement. The ‘cross‐shaped’ ventilation ‘window’ for the Lady Chapel provides a roost for a colony of long‐eared bats.
Note the stone hopper, to take rain water from the gutter between the two roof areas: the hoppers are at the top of lead down pipes but, as can be seen on the East wall, hopper blockage with leaves or other detritus has led to water and moss staining of the stone. During the recent restoration, new lead overflow systems have been installed to divert water away from the wall in the event that the outlet becomes blocked.
2. Stone Relief Sculptures
In his instructions to the architect (Randall Wells), Earl Beauchamp directed that the church should be built without an East Window. Instead, he directed that a “Wayside Shrine” should be built on the East Wall. The Relief Sculptures of the Crucifixion of Christ, illustrated below left, and Christ delivering the Sermon on the Mount (over the front entrance, see below right), were drawn by Wells and carved by the village carpenter, Walter James. Consider the fantastic detail in these artisan carvings and particularly the typical Arts & Crafts symbolism: the doves above the cross and the vines and grapes around the figure of Christ. It is supposed that the use of the phrase “Blessed are the Peace Makers” reflected and endorsed the pacifist ideals of the 7th Earl Beauchamp.
The sculpture of the Virgin and Child, above the doorway into the church, was done by Laurence Turner, brother of the architect Thackery Turner and a leading woodcarver and stonemason of the day, who had executed ceilings in Hampton Court Palace and produced the ‘jewelled panelling’ at Headley Court in Surrey. The Great West Window
The Great West Window
Another of the Earl’s instructions to Wells was that there should be a great window in the West wall to illuminate the entire church. Wells had previously included a lattice window in the church at Brockhampton. This window differs in that the glass in each diamond of the lattice is held
within a wrought iron casement that sits inside stone supports. The ‘leaded lights’ were made by W Smith of London from ‘old’ Dutch glass. Note the use of the Arts & Crafts design concepts of squares, rectangles and triangles for the glass panes and the diamond‐shaped frames. The second row of windows includes opening panes that swivel around a vertical axis with specially designed window latches.
Other Windows
The other windows in the church include a pair of triangular headed windows in the South wall that gives light to the Chancel and a row of 1, 2 or 3‐light flat‐headed mullioned windows with leaded lights in the Lady Chapel and vestry. Similar mullioned windows are built into the storeroom that was a later addition to the church. Once again, note the symbolism of shapes used in these windows.
