The wagon type roof of the refectory in Cleeve Abbey, in Somerset, brought the biggest smile to my face, wonderful roof angels. The refectory was remodelled in the 15th century and the angels date from this time.
July 2016
Exploration of the Past
Echoes of the Past 
How beautiful! I have visited many, many churches in England to get a glimpse of the magnificent angels roofs and I love them all.:-)
Wishing you a wonderful Sunday!
Thank you Dina, I am the same, I love to visit them. Wishing you a wonderful day too, the sunny is shining here in the Fens, so hopefully it will be 🙂
I do so love the variety shown, so much originality compared, say, to Victorian funereal imagery too often limited to the angelic finger pointing upwards indicating “he’s gone up to heaven”.
Yes…it does make you wonder, where they got their ideas from 🙂
According to http://www.angelroofs.com/first_angel_roof and http://www.angelroofs.com/258855-why-angels-at-westminster angel roofs became popular in the 14th century after they were featured on the ceiling of London’s Westminster Hall. If you’ve seen the Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery you’ll know that Richard II favoured angelic imagery; and it’s possible his patronage was the direct inspiration for this decorative fashion which appears to have been popular from the 14th to the 16th centuries until the Reformation put an end to it. (You may well know of this angel roof website but if you don’t it’s a fascinating pictorial record of East Anglian roof angels.)
Yes I do know it, it is a fascinating record. But I was thinking how did each carver come to make their roofs so different to other churches. I suppose they saw roofs in other great churches and just changed them slightly for their own churches. A few churches had the same carver, and you can recognise his work straight away. But the rest are so different to each other……intersting 🙂
I suppose it must have been a similar system as that with masons, with a master mason in charge of a workshop or guild and lots of ordinary masons and apprentices below them. Whether ecclesiastical or secular there were likely master carpenters (who’d learnt the trade over their lifetime) who’d then do the designing for their team to rough out and then complete, I’m guessing.
I think that is a very good guess, some of the angels are similar, but not as good as others in a church. Its just a shame so many were destroyed, as with the rood screens and stained glass.
Wow! That is old!:) How lovely. 🙂
It is a lovely Abbey and I really ought to find the time to post about it, so peaceful and calming 🙂
I find these old places often are. 🙂
🙂
They almost remind me of ships’ figureheads. I think it’s something about their shapes and serene expressions.
Yes they do, never really noticed, before you mentioned it lol 🙂