St Andrew's Church, Stogursey

St Andrew's Church in Stogursey is a particularly interesting church and is a grade 1 listed building.  It was built c1090-1100 by William de Falaise.  He and his wife Geva gave it to the Benedictine Abbey of Sainte Marie de Lonlay, which is near Falaise in Normandy, c1100-1107.  Monks from Lonlay arrived in Stoke Courcy in 1120.  The village was called Stoche (Stoke) at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086.  The Courcy was added when Emma, the only child of William de Falaise married William de Courcy.

The priory church was enlarged c1180 when the apses were demolished and a choir and two side aisles were built. The Priory of Stoke Courcy was considered to be an alien house, as it was staffed by a prior and monks from the mother house in Normandy and its profits were sent there.  It was never a large or rich priory.

After war broke out between England and France in 1295, alien priories were taken over by the Crown, but the monks were allowed to continue living there. They were sequestered and dissolved by Henry V in 1414. The revenues of the estates of Stoke Courcy Priory were used by Henry VI in 1440 to endow Eton College. The Priory church became the parish church. The rest of the priory was demolished.  In 1921 Eton College sold off most of the Stoke Courcy estates but they kept the Priory Farm, the tithes and the patronage of the church.

The church was restored and altered in the 15th century and the south aisle became the chapel for the Verney family.  In around 1500 the nave and the choir aisles were rebuilt and a north porch was added.  The Fairfield chapel was built in the angle between the nave and the south transept.

The nave was extensively rebuilt and the roof was replaced in 1824 by an architect called Richard Carver. The sanctuary and chancel were rebuilt 1863-65 by the architect John Norton. The Fairfield chapel was demolished at this time.

The floor of the church was excavated 1939-40 by the Reverend Basil Tucker, who was vicar from 1925-53.  He was looking for the remains of the medieval church. He changed the layout of the church and the levels of some of the floors. He also set a fossil of an ichthyosaurus in a piece of blue lias stone into the floor of the north transept.  It was probably discovered in the Street area and was moved into the church from the burnt-out ruins of Corner House in Shurton.

The church contains two Norman fonts, one of which came from St Andrew's Church in Lilstock.  The other font has four heads carved around the top.

There are a number of 16th century carved wooden bench ends, one of which depicts a spoonbill with an eel in its mouth: this is thought to be an image unique to Stogursey. The bench ends were probably carved by a man called Glosse c1524-9

A very ornate chandelier was given to the church by John Bayley of Bridgwater in 1732.  It was restored in 1906 and again in 1963.

The church's Elizabethan wooden pulpit was sold c1863 and replaced by a stone pulpit. The original pulpit is now at West Huntspill Church.  The stone pulpit was replaced by the present one, which was built by Reverend Tucker in the 1940s from a Jacobean reading desk, which came from an unknown church in Essex.

The wooden funeral bier was presented to the church by the Rev Clement Malet when he retired in 1919.

The east capital of the north transept arch has a creature carved on it, which has the body of a horse but the head of a lion.

The Verney Chapel contains tombs of the Verney family and their descendants, the Palmers, Wroths and Aclands. These people all lived at Fairfield, which is a manor house a mile to the west of Stogursey.

Low down on the south eastern pier of the crossing there is a sanctuary ring.  In the Middle Ages people accused of crimes could seek sanctuary in a church or cathedral if they touched the ring.  They could then swear an oath agreeing to stand trial or confess to the crime and to leave the country and never return.  After 40 days if they still hadn't agreed to confess or stand trial, they couldn't be removed from the church, but they could be starved into submission. If they agreed to leave the country but arrived at the port and there was no ship ready to set sail, they had to wade into the sea up to their knees or neck to show their inability to leave.  Sanctuary was abolished by an Act of Parliament in 1623.

Due to various alterations and the 1940 excavations different parts of the church are on different levels.  The floor of the crossing slopes, there are steps up in the chancel and more steps up to the sanctuary.

Further reading: 

The Priory Church of St Andrew, Stogursey by Richard Ballard.  Published by Stogursey PCC, 1992

Funeral bier

Chandelier

Sanctuary Ring

Pulpit

Stogursey's Norman font

One of the heads on the Norman font

Font from Lilstock Church

Capital with the horse/lion carving

Tomb of John de Verney, who died in 1447 

The tomb of William de Verney, 1333

He is depicted holding his heart 

Elaborate memorial in the Verney Chapel

Another elaborate memorial in the Verney Chapel

Bench end with a dragon on it?

Not sure what this chap in a loin cloth is doing

Spoonbill with an eel in its beak on a bench end

Bird in a tree bench end

Fossil of an ichthyosaurus

Statue of Mary and Jesus

Crossing and chancel

St Andrew's Church

St Andrew's Church, Stogursey

The Green Man

The best definition I have found for the Green Man is the following by Clive Hicks in his book The Green Man: A Field Guide (published 2001): 

"The Green Man is an image and an idea.  It is the image of a human face associated with foliage and it is the idea that makes real the connection between humanity and nature. The image personifies the idea."

The earliest Green Men in Britain, probably arrived with the Normans but the majority of Green Man images are found carved in wood or stone in medieval churches and cathedrals. They are also found in some European countries, especially France and Germany.  

The Green Man is also used as a name for a public house in England, although there are none in Somerset (the closest are in Barnstaple, Kings Stag (Dorset) and Bristol).

The term Green Man was first used by Lady Raglan in 1939.  Before this time they were usually described as "foliate heads".

No medieval written records have been found about Green Men, so their original meaning is shrouded in mystery.  They may have their origins in ancient mythology, which lives on today in folk customs, for example May Day celebrations, which sometimes include a character known as Jack-in-the-Green and have the theme of regeneration/rebirth.  Alternatively their origins may lie with "wild-men" who lived in the woods on the fringes of society in the Middle Ages, for example Robin Hood. Or they could come from an innate part of the human psyche where the Green Man symbolises the realisation and acceptance that humanity and the world are inseparable.

There are three main types of Green Men:

1.  Have faces formed of leaves
2.  Have faces where foliage comes out of the face, usually the mouth but occasionally the nose, ears or eyes.  This is the most common type in medieval carvings in England
3. The face is set amongst the foliage.

There are very few Green Women and only a few animals: usually cats, lions, dragons or birds.

There are a few theories as to why so many Green Men are found in British churches:

1. They are a customary decoration
2. They are a witness to the events of the Christian story: Nativity, Crucifixion, Last Judgment etc and the cycle of life
3. They are there to teach us to behave better and to deter us from sinning

Post medieval Green Men are mostly decorative, rather than having a symbolic meaning.  In the Victorian period they were often used as decorations on churches, houses, municipal and commercial buildings, monuments and fountains.

Somerset has more than its fair share of Green Men.  Here are a few I have spotted:  

Bench end, Monksilver Church

Roof boss, Raddington Church

Bench end, Clayhanger Church

Bench end, Crowcombe Church

Bench end, Crowcombe Church

Bench end, Crowcombe Church

Roof boss, St Cuthbert's Church, Wells

Bench end in Churchstanton Church

Bench end in Cothelstone Church

Corbel in St Andrew's Church, Banwell

Capital, St Andrew's Church, Banwell

Capital, St Andrew's Church, Banwell

Capital, St Andrew's Church, Banwell

St Andrew's Church, Clevedon

St Nicholas's Church, Withycombe

St Nicholas's Church, Withycombe

St Nicholas's Church, Withycombe

St Nicholas's Church, Withycombe

This is an animal, rather than a man

St Nicholas's Church, Withycombe

This is an animal, rather than a man

St Nicholas's Church, Withycombe

Gate of Lydeard St Lawrence Church

Green man carved into the stonework of the side wall of the Boston Tea Party in Corporation Street, Taunton

Is this a green man?  

He is on the wall of a cottage opposite Aisholt Church

Bench end in St George's Church, Dunster

Green Man  next to the 'Welcome to Wiveliscombe' sign

Green man carved on the 16th century font in Brompton Ralph Church

Green man on a bench end in Cheddon Fitzpaine Church

Further reading: The Green Man: A Field Guide by Clive Hicks, published by Compassbooks, 2000

Nailsea Glassworks

John Robert Lucas was born in 1754. After his father Robert Lucas died in 1774, he took over his beer and cider works in Bristol and his shares in a glass making business in Limekiln Lane, Bristol.  In 1781 John Robert married Anna Adams and they had a son and two daughters.   In 1787 he leased a glassworks at Stanton Wick. 

John Robert Lucas established a glass works at Nailsea in 1788.  He chose Nailsea as the site for his new glassworks because of the abundance of coal produced by the mines around the town and local supplies of sand and limestone.  He may also have been influenced by plans for the Grand Western Canal, which would have linked the English and Bristol Channels with a branch to Nailsea.  However only the section from Tiverton to Taunton was ever built.   

Lucas’s company was called Nailsea Crown Glass and Glass Bottle Manufacturers.  Initially one cone shaped kiln and a furnace were built at Nailsea.  A second glass furnace was built there in 1790.  In 1793 John Robert Lucas went into partnership with William Chance, Edward Homer and William Coathupe.  In 1788 William Chance had married John Robert’s sister Sarah and Edward Homer had married John Robert’s sister Mary.

In addition to window glass and bottles, the Nailsea Glassworks also produced domestic ware and novelty items such as flasks, rolling pins, pipes, jugs and walking sticks, which were sometimes decorated with flecks, loops or bands of white or coloured enamel.  Most of these items were produced by workers at the end of their shifts using leftover pieces of glass.

In 1811 William and Sarah Chance’s son, Robert Lucas Chance, took over the management of the Nailsea works and married his cousin Louisa, the daughter of Mary and Edward Homer.  In 1812 he persuaded John Hartley, the leading crown glass expert in the country, to come and work at Nailsea.

The partnership of Lucas, Chance, Homer and Coathupe lasted until 1821 when William Chance sold all of his shares and Edward Homer sold part of his to William Coathupe.  Edward Homer’s son James Edward Homer was taken into the partnership at this time and the company traded as Lucas, Coathupe and Homer. 

John Robert Lucas died in 1828 and was buried at Backwell. Most of his estate passed to his grandsons John Rodbard Bean and Henry Lucas Bean.

The New House Cone was built at Nailsea c1828.  Experienced sheet glass blowers were recruited from France and Belgium from the 1830s, due a shortage of skilled British glass blowers. By 1835 Nailsea was the fourth largest glassworks in Britain.  Bottle making ceased at Nailsea in the 1830s in favour of plate, crown and sheet window glass.

In 1835 a partnership called Lucas, Coathupes, Homer and Cliffe was formed to run the business. In 1844 the company became Coathupes & Co with Charles and Oliver Coathupe, John and Henry Bean and James Edward Homer as shareholders. In the 1840s a new cone known as the Lilly or Lily Cone was built.

In 1848 Charles Coathupe retired and Oliver Coathupe became manager at the Nailsea works.  Over the next 25 years there were various changes in the partnership and shareholdings.  In 1861 the Nailsea works were closed for a while and the following year they were leased to Samuel Bowen, a glass merchant from West Bromwich, and John Powis of London.  They traded as Nailsea Glass Company and made patented ventilating glass, cut glass and coloured glass for stained glass windows.  Samuel Bowen became bankrupt in 1869 and he and Powis surrendered their lease.  In 1870 the Nailsea works were sold to Chance Bros of Smethwick, together with a coal mine on the same site.

Glass production ceased at Nailsea in 1873, due to competition from cheap Belgian imports and the decline in production from the Nailsea Coalfield, and the works were closed in 1874.  The New House Cone was demolished in 1905.  Some of the rubble from it was supposedly used to build the extension to the runway at Filton in the late 1940s.

Extensive archaeological excavations began on the glassworks site in 1983 and continued for several years.  In 2002 a supermarket was built on part of the site.  The only surviving building is one which housed the French kilns, and gas-fired furnaces.  This was later converted into the Royal Oak Garage. 

A collection of Nailsea Glass items can be seen at the National Trust’s Clevedon Court.  However much of what is today described as Nailsea Glass was not made at Nailsea but was made in the same style elsewhere in England e.g. Stourbridge.

Glassworks Cauldron, High Street, Nailsea

This would have been filled with cold water into which surplus molten glass would have been ladled.  Once the glass had cooled and solidified it was broken up and used to speed up the melt of the next batch of sand, limestone and soda.

The Glassblower Sculpture, High Street, Nailsea

This was sculpted by Vanessa Marston and unveiled in 2008

Former Glassworks building, later the Royal Oak Garage, High Street, Nailsea

Two glazed ceramic tile panels illustrating the glassworks and its various manufacturing processes. The panels were designed and produced by Ned Heywood of the Workshop Gallery in Chepstow.  They incorporate fragments of glass excavated from the site.  They are on display on the outside wall of Tesco’s Supermarket.

Drawing showing the layout of Nailsea Glassworks c1873