Narnia carvings are latest chapter for church
WHEN THE scaffolding comes down at St Mary’s Church in Beverley next month, people looking up will be able to spot their favourite characters from CS Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia.
The Narnia stone carvings, whose function is to direct water away from the walls of the north nave clerestory, are part of the 2020 Curious Carvings project, the first phase of a ten- year programme to restore the whole church.
Taking centre stage is the talking lion Aslan by the side of his nemesis, the White Witch.
Small details like the quill that Glimfeather the owl carries or the snowflakes that adorn the White Witch will only be appreciated by a passing pigeon.
But Roland Deller, the church’s director of development, says the intricate detailing in the stonework, which won’t necessarily be seen 15 metres up, is one of the “poetic elements”
We have 900 years of exquisite architecture. Roland Deller, St Mary’s director of development.
of such carvings which adorn medieval churches and cathedrals round Europe.
“We have 900 years of exquisite architecture and this is just the latest chapter,” he added.
Work is about to start repairing stonework on the walls of the south nave clerestory. The ornate tracery that keeps the glass in the windows in place is also badly eroded.
“The really good news is that we are going to carry straight on with the other side. Water is coming into the building itself. It is pretty urgent,” Mr Deller said.
Founded 900 years ago, and built over the following four centuries, St Mary’s possesses some of the finest architecture of any parish church in England and famously houses a 14th century carved stone rabbit, said to have inspired the White Rabbit illustrations in Alice in Wonderland. The great 19th church restorer, Sir Tatton Sykes, exclaimed: “Lovely St Mary’s, unequalled in England and almost without rival on the continent of Europe!”