Church Post Two - Malew.

[curiouswombat]

I visited Malew church this week, too. This is a little different to most of the other parish churches, a walk around inside with explain why.

This is the outside of the church -



You can see that it was, originally, the same simple shape as most of the others, for example St Mark's in the pictures yesterday. But then someone has added a bit at the end - and another bit on the far side...

Which gives odd effects inside the church.



This is the view when you enter the door -



Dark wood box pews, a rather nice arched roof, and a better class of lighting than in some of the smaller churches.

Just inside the door, near the stairs up to the balcony, is the font - which is clearly filled with a rather nice jug -



As you walk up the aisle towards the chancel the church suddenly opens up at your left - the north side of the church.



Remember that odd extension you could see at the side of the church on the first picture? This is it. It is a north transept. But there is no matching south transept, which is a bit odd. And anyone sitting near the back of this area would not be able to see the priest at the altar, or even when he preaches. Opposite the North transept, instead, is the organ; beyond it is the chancel, which was also added to the original, and is a slightly different width and height to the original church.

Here is that north transept -



And yes - it does slope up away from the central aisle, a bit like a theatre!

There are some rather beautiful stained glass windows in the main body of Malew, again unlike most of the other parish churches which only have stained glass in the widow over the altar - almost all the windows are Victorian, but very high quality Victorian I think, although I am no expert.

Again they are all set in dark wood -







There are signs, here of more money than in the other country parish churches. Where it has come from is clear if you look at the memorials around the church (more, and fancier, than in the other churches, too). Here are a couple -



Governor John Wood.



And some Goldie-Taubmans - a name long associated with the Manx aristocracy, and money. For Malew was the parish church for Castletown - the ancient capital of the island. This is where 'the great and the good' worshipped...

Here is a Christian family memorial -



You can see she was a Taubman before her marriage. And she is a Christian whose main address is in Cumberland - the very same Christian family from whence came Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on The Bounty fame.

And here a more recent memorial to William Christian of Milntown and Ronaldsway (a large estate about 2 miles from the church) - known as Illiam Dhone and a well known figure in Manx History.




This one also caught my eye -



That young man lived quite a life when he left the island and became an officer in the Queen's Army.

And a last memorial - this one is to... well, read it and see -




Yes - it does say Julius Caesar. It was amongst some Christian Family memorials and so I would assume he was Julius Caesar Christian, as Caesar, in particular, is still not uncommon as a forename in some families on the island.

Enough of memorial stones.

This is the view back down the body of the church from the chancel steps, showing the small balcony at the back -



And a look at the roof, for I rather like it -



And here a list of the priests for the first 500 years of the parish from 1368 -



Richard Bydecrosse seems to have remained in place for a long time....

And finally a piece of twentieth century glass - the war memorial window.







So, that was Malew church - a little more ornate than some - but no matter what, we never really change the basic style!

Comments

[sulien.livejournal.com]

Wow, that really is a beautiful church! I can imagine it was fun to go in and read all of the memorial stones while you were photographing it. I agree that Dampnaldus Nigellus really does sound like a character from Harry Potter; I'm guessing JK Rowling didn't make up nearly as many of the names in her books as she may have read them from old memorial stones and church roles like this one.

As for the long gap between Richarch Bydcrosse and Harfelson (now that's an Anglo-Saxon name if ever there was one), there was either a gap in the use of the church or there were one or more priests who lost the favor of the local bishop. I'm more inclined to think it was the latter.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Dampnaldus Nigellus really is a name to conjure with, isn't it?

I would guess the gap between fifteen and sixteenth centuries may well have a lot to do with poorly kept or preserved diocesan records.

There were a lot of bishops of the period whose dates are unknown (although two of them were, rather satisfyingly, called Huan - I especially like the idea of Bishop Huan Blackleech!) - so if the records of the bishops is a bit vague I'm not really surprised the list of priests for the parishes is, too!

There is an almost identical gap in the Lezayre records (http://www.flickr.com/photos/voirreys_pics/4826815611/lightbox/) Perhaps there is a record of all the parish priest written in 1408, and then no further one until the 1560s.

It is fascinating that Harfelson seems totally Anglo-Saxon to you - whereas, with our mixed Celtic and Viking Heritage, I had assumed he was a local and the name was from our Scandinavian forefathers, rather than that he was an Anglo-Saxon incomer.

[sulien.livejournal.com]

You're right. The Angles, Saxons, Jutes, etc. were all German, whereas the Vikings were mostly Swedish and Norwegian. Unfortunately, to someone like me, their names all sound basically 'Germanic'.

Again, I didn't even think about the possibility of there just being a lack of records for a period of time. I could smack myself for that one, considering I know how information has been lost over the centuries since I frequently read up the history of various places and people just for fun. Geez, not only is my memory getting bad, but my thought processes are getting sloppy. :( Man, I really am getting to be like an old computer!

Huan Blackleech is definitely an interesting name! Besides the fact that it was used by Tolkien, that is. I wonder if Huan Blackleech was a physician of the time, or if he earned the moniker 'Blackleech' another way.... No, apparently that was the family name. Yes, I just had to go and look that up; that sort of thing is how I get started on a research binge. Pity I don't remember so much of it after I've read it. :-p And now I'm going to have to go and look up some Manx history, as well as some of the archaeology of the place.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I go off on that sort of wander through history quite often, too. It's fun.

We have a lot of history for such a small place - it is our strategic position, of course, as until fairly recent times the main thoroughfares were the water around and between places, rather than across the land.