Painted Churches
(St Leonards, Flamstead)
Here the Passion Cycle is mainly on the North Aisle wall, but part of the Scourging or perhaps the Crowning with Thorns is visible on the return of the North Aisle wall (i.e. at a right angle to this wall, facing down the aisle towards the west). The remaining subjects in the cycle are arranged as tiered scenes on the North Aisle wall proper. There is a fairly clear scene of the Arrest in Gethsemane, which has Peter with drawn sword in the act of cutting off the High Priest’s servant’s (Malchus’s) ear, which Christ replaces. Two soldiers stand to the right. Below is the Entombment, not complete but with Christ’s body and figures of some of the women visible. The remaining scenes (Last Supper, Before Pilate, Mocking and Resurrection are all recorded as identifiable once) are now obscured and hard to identify apart from the Crucifixion, a very dramatically-realised scene in which Christ’s body is thrust forward towards the onlooker . Faint traces of figures of Mary and John are visible on either side. Flamstead had an extensive painted scheme once, including bands of decorative abstract pattern where no subject painting was possible, for example on the underside of the nave arches. Parishioners added their own decoration too - there is a very competent incised ‘scratching’ of a medieval ship on a pillar in the South Aisle.
[This is the only page showing information on Hertfordshire Churches (in May 2001) but the site is being developed.]