Kirsty Hartsiotis

Stained glass of St Michael holding a spear. He has red, very upright, wings, a green halo and is dressed in silver armour wearing red underneath. His wearing a silver helmet under which his golden hair peeks out.

Was lucky enough to have access into the newly conserved
@friendlesschurches.bsky.social church of St Mary and All Angels, Brownshill, #Gloucestershire, a couple of weeks ago. I was v. pleased with this detail shot of the tricky to photograph west window by Douglas Strachan! #StainedGlassSunday

C15th font with angels and evangelist symbols around bowl, lions support it on the stem. C20th wooden cover. In church on tiled floor, wooden screen with blue central curtain behind. Gravestone to side, almost out of view propped up on a bookshelf.

Apologies for absence - got logged out and forgot password! Hadn't spotted the cradle to grave motif in this photo till now ... why is there a gravestone muscling in on my #FontsOnFriday at Haddiscoe, #Norfolk. Typical East Anglian smug #tinylion font either in very good order or rather recut!

Every household should have a carnyx. Very helpful for calling one's partner to supper, for example. Seriously, the dad of a friend of mine has a Mongolian temple horn, and sounds it every New Year's Eve, so this kind of thing is definitely useful.

stained glass window detail showing the full frontal face of a female saint dressed a blue robe that covers her head and a wimple. She carries a sprig of oak and a lamp, and there's Celtic knotwork beneath her.

It's #February! Endless January is done, and Spring is, maybe, just around the corner! It's also #StBrigidsday, and here she is by the Irish master, Harry Clarke, in Castletownsend, #Ireland, with St Brigid's fire and an oak sprig from the tree where she founded her church in Kildare.

Get set! Ready! Scratch!

A subtle weathering of stone and flint at Haddiscoe, #Norfolk, for #AdoorableThursday - the south door is more showy, of course, but I love this self-effacing little external north door, quietly weathering away on its exposed hilltop.

Painted woodcarving of the Virgin and Child, the Virgin in a blue robe, mounted on the stone wall of a church.

Unexpected #ArtsandCrafts in the altar area! Was giving a talk in Leckhampton last night, thinking there was no A&C here, but lo! This carving by Alec Miller came to the church after WW2 from a London church damaged in the war #Woodensday #WoodCarvingsOnWednesday #Gloucestershire

Puts me in mind of this last verse from Richard Lovelace's To Althea, from Prison:
'Stone Walls do not a Prison make,
Nor Iron bars a Cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an Hermitage.
If I have freedom in my Love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above,
Enjoy such Liberty.'

For #TraceryTuesday, the imposing Perp east end of Beccles, #Suffolk - though the tracery in the chancel east window is 'renewed', presumably during Hakewill's 1858-9 restoration. Renewed or not, it's an impressive street frontage, with some good flushwork, too.

Great - thank you. I need to go to Coventry cathedral at some point fairly soon, so I'll email and see if I manage both.

Hang on, I have a photo of the Sheffield one! Never went into the town hall in Cov - how does one go about getting access?

Ooh, Henry Wilson!

Wood carving of an owl facing forwards.

An excellent #OwlishMonday from North Cove, #Suffolk, part of a memorial to 'Rosemary', 1996, carved with many critters of air, land and sea...

Hurrah, a #winter10 at last for #wildflowerhour gathered on a wet and muddy walk near the #Suffolk coast! Plus a (very) few others...

Stained glass window by M E Aldrich Rope, 1963, three lights, simple tracery above, centre light shows Christ in a white robe and yellow cloak, holding an orb; left light showing John the Baptist with his staff, dressed in a skin with a aquamarine cloak; right light shows St John the Evangelist in white, holding a cup, and behind I assume St Andrew with loaves and fishes in his hands. Heavenly city above in tracery lights, crucifixion below Christ.

Possibly M E Aldrich Rope's last window - a year after one near me in Lydiard Millicent, which I *still* haven't seen - this is the east window at Barnby, #Suffolk, now tricky to reach by foot or vehicle off the A146, separated from its village - but worth it for this! #StainedGlassSunday

All of the information in the image is available via the web link.

New free online research training course 5 May 2026. Engaging Histories: Working with/in the Media as an Historian.

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

View from west end of church looking east over hexagonal font towards east window.

A tricky to reach church in #Suffolk is Barnby - sailed past it first, stepdad hovered in the car below second time, while I raced in and snapped - here's a #FontsOnFriday snap, prob C13th bowl with blind-arcading, below rather more modern - and rather zany!

But on the other hand, it was good to see all those churches being used!

Me and my trundling suitcase had a series of disappointments! First St Helen's, then St Andrew nearby (meetings), then the Guild Chapel (actually closed, but tantalisingly having a service, so a quick peek...) but finally St Botolph, Aldgate, and St Mary Moorfields RC were open!

Doorway into St Helen's Bishopsgate, #London, although the church itself wasn't open to visitors, as it was busy with some kind of meeting or course. This door clearly dates from 1633 ... and is where they stash the bins! #AdoorableThursday #NoContextDoors

For #WallPaintingsOnWednesday these lovely c. 1900-20 paintings in St Mary Moorfields RC, #London that @simoninsuffolk.bsky.social has kindly informed me are by George Hyde Pownall, who also decorated St Patrick in Soho.

Hello! So nice to connect, albeit briefly, with you today!

View of a C17th male tomb effigy seen through bars of tomb framework. He has curly hair, a beard and curling moustache, and an enormous ruff!

Peekin' in for #MonumentsMonday to the tomb of Richard de la Bere, d. 1636, at Bishop's Cleeve, #Gloucestershire. Possibly made by Samuel Baldwin of Stroud, it cost £400, although it's more ornate than the tombs here: stroudlocalhistorysociety.org.uk/people-places/…

Hello! Great to see you, too. I've been lurking for a while, but trying to get going again.

I've had had Annual Mercury in my Dec and Jan counts for a few years now - growing in pavement cracks in town.

A horrific example in Chipping Campden!

Yes, the baby is ghastly, though maybe not as bad Paul Woodroffe's!

Gotta get a reel of this up on Insta... 😂

Bishop's Cleeve, Gloucestershire Schoolroom above south porch - with paintings said to be by Sperry, the schoolmaster here in 1818 : tiger

It's a great church - and I didn't see everything - check of Rex Harris's photos of the porch room: www.flickr.com/photos/sheep...

stained glass window by James Eadie Reid, c. 1899 showing the shepherds adoring the Virgin and Child, with a host of angels behind, and cherubs in the tracery lights. All in rich colours, predominantly red, blue and mauve. Strange almost grisaille faces.

As always, James Eadie Reid is rather weird! For #StainedGlassSunday, glass by him of c. 1899, when he was first in the area, teaching at #Cheltenham Ladies College, at Bishop's Cleeve, #Gloucestershire. Eadie Reid was a superb colourist, but the rendering of his design is rather odd...