UNIQUE WALL PAINTINGS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27990, 9 June 1956, Page 11

UNIQUE WALL PAINTINGS

Norman Frescoes In Remote Church

ORIGINAL BRIGHTNESS RESTORED

LONDON. Britain is very rich in beautiful old churches of varied material and design, but one in particular, the twelfthcentury church at Kempley, in West Gloucestershire, is probably unique in Britain, if not in Western Europe, by virture of its wonderful wall paintings. Canon Gothyn Jones, the Vicar of Kempley, recently told something of his church’s history in a talk in the 8.8.C.’s Midland service.

The small squat building of grey sandstone has a porch dating from the fourteenth century and a fine Norman arch over the door with a tympanum depicting the Tree of Life. Fragments of colouring can be seen on the walls of the nave, but Kempley’s real distinction lies in the chancel, for here the paintings form a complete scheme, filling the walls and the entire vaulting. They were covered with whitewash at some unknown date and remained hidden until 1872. when vicar and architect met to discuss plans for repairing the church. The vicar’s private diary describes the finding of the precious paintings. Excitement mounted as these appeared, and an authority wrote at the time that it was hoped they would prove to be the most perfect and brilliant specimens of colouring remaining from the period. In the chancel the artist took as his subject the Majesty of Christ, and at the centre of the vaulting Christ could be seen seated on a throne, His feet resting on the world and His right hand raised in blessing. He was surrounded by a host of figures, including the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Peter, and the sun, moon, and stars also came into the picture. On the walls were the 12 Apostles with their heads raised in adoration to the Master, and there were other paintings that were not so simple or easy to describe.

“It is strange to find such a wonderful scheme of paintings in this small and remote church, and many have why are they here? Well, we just don’t know. One authority has suggested that soon after the church was built it have served as the temporary shrine or resting place of some saint or other important person. We have no record of such a happening, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the theory must be wrong,” said Canon Gethyn Jones. When the paintings were first discovered, experts said that they had been put on either at the time the church was built or soon afterwards. They also thought that they were not true frescoes painted on the wet stucco with purely earth pigments and a lime medium but that they must be in some form of distemper, probably with a medium of egg and vinegar or perhaps size. Some time after the paintings were discovered they were treated with transparent protective varnish, but when Canon Gethyn Jones went to Kemplev in 1921 he soon began to worry as the rare and lovely paintings were fading year by year. They Could Not Fade Last May, Konservator Lind, Keeper of Wall Paintings in Denmark, was in England and, in a last despairing effort, Canon Gethyn Jdnes, invited him to come to Kempley to advise them. He was unable to go himself, but sent a Mrs Balder, who had worked with him. She had visited Kempley some 20 years earlier when she had been convinced that the paintings were true frescoes, which therefore could not fade. She said she was certain that without damaging the paintings she could remove the darkened varnish and the film of dirt that had stuck to it which was causing the paintings to appear faded. “It seemed too good to be true, but later that afternoon, Mrs Baker proved her points. The results were amazing; figures, colours and details that we had hardly seen before now stood out clearly, and the truth began to dawn that at last, at long last, there was real hope,” said . Canon Gethyn Jones. Four days of further trial followed, and everyone who saw the results delighted. Mrs Baker later made an official report to the Central Council for the Care of Churches, and in it said that when the work was completed she hoped it would reveal the finest series of Norman frescoes in Europe. “Thanks to a generous grant from the Dulverton Trust,” said Canon Gethyn Jones in his broadcast, “the work is to start very shortly.”