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The allegedly Iron Age 'pagan goddess' at Braunston. Who is more probably a fourteenth century 'queen'. Rutland's medieval carvings There's over fifty churches in Rutland and many of them have carvings from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. This page makes no attempt to go into details. Instead I will just draw your attention to some of the ones that intrigue me most. Braunston Although church carvings are a generally neglected aspect of our heritage, one of Rutland's grotesques is comparatively well known. This is the enigmatic, although most certainly female, figure which for many years was used face-down as a doorstep to All Saints' church, Braunston in Rutland before being rediscovered about 1920. Since then she has stood in various places outside the church, and is currently at the west end by the base of the tower. The otherwise well-informed authors of the Reader's Digest Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain, published in 1973, included a drawing of her and called her both a 'sheela-na-gig' (even though no genitals or hands are depicted) and an 'Earth goddess'. This 'paganisation' of the carving is part of a broader misunderstanding about 'pagan survivals' in British folklore. See chapter four of my Explore Folklore if you want to know more about this misunderstanding. Undoubtedly the carving is a curious piece with few, in any, near-equivalents. The manner in which the body and face are depicted is seemingly unique. Despite the vigour of the carving it does not share any obvious features with Romanesque or Gothic grotesques. Early medievalists say 'She's not one of ours.' Back in 1994 a highly-respected place-name scholar stated she is Iron Age, without offering any parallels or supporting evidence. Frankly, I find his suggestion implausible. The main clue to understanding – and perhaps dating – this carving is the massive stone base. This is uncarved so almost certainly never intended to be seen. It would allow the carving to be inserted into a wall with the figure stretching out horizontally in the manner of a gargoyle. The bold and unfussy carving suggests she was intended to be seen from a distance – so most likely high on the church tower. Although she is not a functional gargoyle there are plenty of precedents for such large decorative carvings on church towers. As the tower at Braunston originally dates to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries then it seems most likely this carving is from this time. The tower was restored in the 1720s, a time when such ‘Gothick’ carvings would be disparaged, so it is probable – although far from proven – that she entered her period of ‘hibernation’ in the porch floor at this time. Possibly a queen? Near to Braunston church is Quaintree House, a building of considerable historic interest (see Galitzine 1980).   Quaintree House, Braunston. Still with a landmark tree in the grounds. I think it's a cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) rather than a yew (Taxus baccata). The name is seemingly from the Old English quain treow 'queen tree'. But… And it's a very big 'but' – we must also be aware that Geoffrey Chaucer uses the spelling queynt for a monosyllabic word now spelt with a 'c' and without the 'ey'. The phrases 'queen tree' and 'queynt tree' sound identical. While 'queen' is now a respectable word, in Old English it meant both the wife of the king and a whore. Perhaps we should think of Mercian queens as somewhat like modern-day 'golddiggers'? So there is the possibility that the notable tree had a natural fissure which resembled a queynt rather than a ‘queen’ – although the overlapping meanings of the words would mean the tree could have been known formally as the ‘queen tree’. The word play may be even more apposite if this fissure was in a yew tree which naturally bled red sap from time to time (and the yews in the churchyard at Nevern in Pembrokeshire famously ‘bleed’ – although the phenomenon has long since been given a Christian exegesis). Whether this putative original quain treow was intentionally carved or merely a natural simulacra I will leave as an open question. And there's an alternative possibility. Given that the county of Rutland formed the dowry of late Anglo-Saxon queens and that Braunston church is close to the boundary then this medieval stone carving might just possibly emulate a long-since lost wooden Anglo-Saxon boundary marker (or stapol) which parodied the Mercian queens who owned Rutland during the late ninth to eleventh centuries. Such a wooden carving could easily have been dubbed a quain treow. But neither of these suggestions mean that the stone carving is Anglo-Saxon. It could simply be a thirteenth or fourteenth century 'recreation' in stone of a local landmark, bowdlerised by only showing the 'queen' from the waist up. Lyddington Inside the nave of Lyddington church is a set of corbels carved with grotesque and monstrous heads. The photograph above is the one I consider the most imaginative. When I'm giving talks about medieval carvings I make the aside that if the very accomplished stonemason were alive now he probably wouldn't be a stonemason. Instead he would be making special effects for horror movies. Imagine the monster above garishly painted (as it would have been originally) appearing out of a cloud of mist at some unexpected moment in, say, Eraserhead… As you need to visit Lyddington for the Bede House and medieval fishponds then you can also visit the church – it's always open during the day – and meet this set of monsters personally. Also look out for a pair of corbels in the nave next to the chancel arch. They're not medieval as they were carved in 1991 by Simon Todd. One is a portrait of the then-Bishop of Peterborough, Rev 'Bill' Westwood and the other is Simon's version of a foliate head or 'green man'. Ryhall Around the top of the walls of the church at Ryhall is a corbel table decorated with dozens of humans, monsters and foliage. It runs around both aisles, the nave and the base of the tower. We know it was carved between about 1380 and 1410, or soon after, as some of the female heads are wearing square headdresses which were only fashionable at that time. This chap is playing a shawm, the rowdy precursor to the orchestral oboe. There's also someone playing a framedrum near to him. This simple but effective foliate face is on the east end of the chancel, facing the rising sun. Most likely this is a self-portait of the master mason who carved some, but almost certainly not all, the figures on the corbel table. He spots unusual and rather 'dapper' facial hair. The eyes have been drilled and filled with lead. And when this photograph was taken in the 1990s the lead had recently been replaced during restoration work. In his left hand he is holding a miniature millwheel and stonemason's hammer; in his right hand is a mill bill, used to dress millstones. A corbel inside the church at Church Langton, Leicestershire, has a male head with similar facial hair, but no tools. I wonder if the Church Langton corbel was an earlier self-portrait by the same mason. Do visit Ryhall if you get the chance and look at this wealth of medieval sculpture. if you own binoculars remember to take them as some of the carvings are quite high up. Whissendine Usually between about 1425 and 1460 many parish churches were modified with an extra storey of windows in the nave. This is known as a 'clerestory'. Putting in new windows meant the roof had to be replaced. So before nineteenth century restorations then most nave roofs are from the mid-fifteenth century. Typically they were decorated with dramatic roof bosses. Sometimes, but not always, when roofs have been restored the medieval roof bosses have been retained. This mouth-pulling carving captures a real sense of vitality. Even the foliage seems to be at least as alive as the heads. It would have originally been painted or partially gilded. Unusually the roof at Whissendine is supported on wooden corbels and wall-plates which have been elaborately carved. While there may be a biblical precedent for this pair of figures, to me it is a secular parody of a rich man (holding his money bags) standing on the back of a poor man with empty food bowls. Back to top of this page     Back to home page   This website does not gather or store any visitor information. Copyright Bob Trubshaw 2026 No unauthorised copying or reproduction except if all following conditions apply a: Copy is complete (including this copyright statement). b: No changes are made. c: No charge is made. www.hoap.co.uk/rutland

Rutland's history home page what's new? glossary bibliography Rutland's geology Rutland's boundaries Rutland's rivers long, long ago prehistoric Rutland Roman Rutland long ago Anglo-Saxon Rutland Rutland's place-names waterborne transport around the sixth century Rutland's early churches Anglo-Saxon sculpture in Rutland The Matter of Rutland what the Normans did for Rutland Romanesque sculpture in Rutland Rutland's royal forests Rutland in medieval times Rutland's scratch dials Rutland's medieval carvings Rutland's sepulchral effigies Rutland's saltways Rutland in Tudor times Dissolution in Rutland not that long ago Rutland in the 17th century pinfolds and pounds in Rutland dovecotes in Rutland Rutland in the 18th century turnpiking Rutland Rutland's springs and wells changes in Rutland's agriculture since 1800 seems like yesterday Rutland's dialect Rutland's folk customs travellers in Rutland watermills and windmills in Rutland breweries in Rutland gasworks in Rutland ironstone quarrying in Rutland Zeppelins over Rutland redundant telephone exchanges in Rutland Second World War in Rutland WWII airfields and pillboxes in Rutland the making of Rutland Water Rutland Weekend Television free online history resources Victoria County History: Rutland volume one Victoria County History: Rutland volume two free PDFs of Rutland Record issues 1 to 50 old OS maps Historic England Listed buildings database Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland Open Domesday English Place-Name Society database Wikipedia list of places in Rutland (with links to village entries) Wikipedia list of people from Rutland researching and writing local history getting started free advice from 2005 asking curious questions (YouTube video) local history groups in and around Rutland Belton-in-Rutland History Society Cottesmore History and Archaeology Group Langham Village History Group Lyddington Manor History Society Rutland Local History and Record Society with free PDFs of over forty issues of the Rutland Record Uppingham Local History Study Group you may also be interested in free PDFs written by Bob Trubshaw Earliest Churches in Nottinghamshire How Anglo-Saxons Found Their Way Anglo-Saxon Leicestershire Conversations in Churchyards Little-known Leicestershire and Rutland Bob Trubshaw's YouTube channel Introduction to medieval carvings Anglo-Saxon and Romanesque carvings How Anglo-Saxons found their way Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords Meetings at triangles Rota's Land and Franni's Land Reading Romanesque fonts Church and manor The significances of square headdresses Early churches and waterborne trade Charnwood slate gravestones and C18th trade routes Ironstone quarries of Leicestershire Roman roads in north-east Leicestershire Salt ways in Leicestershire Why Melton Mowbray needed to called 'middle town' Evolving Anglo-Saxon agriculture Nottinghamshire's earliest churches Ploughs not piety? Economic regeneration in the C7th Were Anglo-Saxon weaving huts women-only places? Vale of Belvoir Chronicle Barrowby Until Now website