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Finchingfield (Essex)

East Haddon (Northants)

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Ixworth Thorpe (Suffolk)

Tutbury (Staffordshire)

Nantwich (Cheshire)

Penmon Priory (Anglesey)

Llaneilian (Anglesey)

Llanbadrig (Anglesey)

Lower Peover (Cheshire)

Leverton (Lincolnshire)

This is a gallery of all of the Cartmel Misericords. To make it complete I have included those shown on the main page. If you wish to skip those and go straight to the others then click here.

And so to the misericords! Let’s start with two old favourites of the carpentry world. Left: The Elephant and Castle. This is a particularly fine one. Of course elephants were used in warfare in ancient times, Hannibal of Carthage (in modern Tunisia) being the most famous user. Alexander the Great was said to have possibly used them as well as having been beset by them in Persia and in India. To the insular English an elephant must have been the most exotic of creatures, notwithstanding the fact that Henry III received one as a gift from France’s Louis IX. The unfortunate animal died quickly, having been fed on a diet of meat! The castle is a very elaborate one. The elephant depiction is bizarre. Right: The mermaid, complete with comb and mirror the personification of vanity and unfulfillable lust. Note the heavily scaled fish writhing on the right supporter. The Church Guide suggests it is a dolphin.

Left: According to the Church Guide this could reflect the tradition that Alexander the Great was carried to the gates of Heaven before being told to go away for his presumption. Or that he is at the extremity of his Alexandrian empire. I don’t really understand this allusion and prefer the alternative that it is Satan enthroned. I can’t understand why Alexander would have been represented in this way. The feet and hands are clearly beastly. And he pre-dated Christ by some three hundred years so he could not have been persecuting Christians. As Satan, though, he is perfect. Just look at those beautiful dragon-like wings and that ape-like face. It does beg a question in my naturally sceptical mind. If Satan is represented so graphically in the holiest part of a monastic church, how seriously did the monks take Satan as a serious embodied anti-Christ? Right: A deer is chased into a thicket by three dogs. Christ is sometimes likened to a deer. What animal is he not likened to, you might ask? Well, how about the hedgehog pictured on one of the supporters here? The comedian Mark Harding who wrote a little book about misericords reckons it is the only one in England other than at New College Oxford/ Have you ever thought how dumb the name “New College” is? Six hundred years on?

Left: Another of Cartmel’s stand-out misericords. An ape clutches a bottle of urine, a barely-veiled satirical allusion to the uselessness of the mediaeval medical profession. The ape was a symbol of deceit. Right: An interesting carving. If you look closely he has noses protruding from left and right of his face. It is sometimes called the “Trinity Face”, possibly reflecting the notion of God in three forms. This form has appeared in many cultures, however.

Left: This close-up perspective gives better appreciation of the Satan Enthroned misericord. Note he dragons hiding under his wings. Right: A closer look at the ape with his urine flask. Now here’s the thing. Is that...could it be... a misericord he is sitting on? Could it really be a satire on the monks’ own curative skills?

Left: Close up of the elephant. It is a fanciful depiction, to say the least. The creature has a mane and carthorse-like legs on massive hooves. His ears are ribbed like a dragon’s wings, The trunk is trumpet-like. Right: This photograph, kindly supplied by Bonnie Killingback, is of a misericord at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. It has apes with urine flasks on its supporters similar to the one at Cartmel. Indeed, the right hand supporters leaves nothing to the imagination as the ape happily fills the flask with fresh “medicine”! The central motif shows two bears at a ragged staff, recalling the ceremonial badge of Warwickshire, the county of my birth. I am glad they chose the bear, rather than the apes!

The Following Misericords are not shown on my main Cartmel Priory Page

Left: A dragon. The Church Guide says that the dragon represented Satan but this was not invariably so and this one looks much too smiley for me. On his left the supporter is an odd stylised flower with a face in the centre. Right: A peacock. It was believed that a peacock’s body did not rot so it was used as a symbol of the resurrection. To the left is a flower but on the right is a very peculiar figure that may be a bat.

Left: An eagle with two bunches of grapes in its beak. Right: Two geese eating from a bowl of corn.

Left: An indeterminate grotesque face akin to a Green Man.  Right: A foliage design.

Left: The Pelican in her Piety without which no misericord range was complete! Right: An angel clutching a shield.

Left: The Prior’s stall. It is hard to discern what it is meant to be. A number of bunches of grapes seem to sprout from a large clump of overlapping leaves, possibly with a hand reaching out at the bottom. The “W” designs of the supporters are reckoned to denote Prior William. Right: The sub-Prior’s stall. This one looks innocuous until you notice that on the right hand side a unicorn is piercing a tree with its horn. Nobody really knows what it means.

Left: A rose. The Church Guide postulates either a symbol of the Virgin Mary or the Rose of Lancaster. The latter for my money. The supporter on the left is an ox’s head. Right: A gryphon with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. Both supporters are lion heads.

Left: A rather unusual head of a man. Perhaps of eastern origin? Right: A floral design

Left: A peculiar face with cow-like ears and stems sprouting from his mouth. Right: A ferocious demon. Definitely not friendly. The lion to his right is a pussycat by comparison.

Finally. three more foliage designs. There is a total of twenty-six - two banks of thirteen. So why have I shown you only twenty-five? The twenty-sixth is blank!

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