Pugin's 'godly texts' in St Mary's, Wymeswold Bob Trubshaw For at least a century most people in Britain could read. But that wasn't always the case. Before the Reformation few people other than the clergy were taught to read and write. But from the mid-sixteenth century onwards changes in religous attitudes meant that translations of the bible into English were not just accepted but welcomed. Hence the King James Version of the bible being first printed in 1611. And lay people were encouraged to read the bible for themselves. Initially only the upper classes could afford to learn to read. But in the late eighteenth century Methodist chapels began Sunday schools. Not to teach bible stories but instead to teach the 'Three 'Rs'' – reading, writing and arithmetic – to all children. At the time Methodists and other Nonconformists were mostly the 'middling sort', including shopkeepers and tradesmen. This had an unexpected knock-on effect. There were so many of the 'middling sort' who could read that trade directories became financially viable. Which in turn has provided local historians with increadibly rich primary sources for recent centuries. A succession of Education Acts in the nineteenth century shifted primary education from Nonconformists to the Establishment, the Church of England. Indeed the name of many state schools, such as Wymeswold, retain this faith school origin. The wall painting of the Martyrdom of St Edmund in St Andrew’s Church, Stoke Dry, Rutland. Before widespread literacy the interiors of churches contained wall paintings depicting the Day of Judgement, apostles, the matrydom of saints, and such like. Much of the imagery was explicitly Catholic so was painted over in the middle of the fifteenth century. From then onwards the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and quotations from the bible began to be painted on the walls. They were referred to as 'godly texts', especially by more Puritanical protestants, who called themselves the 'godly sort'. And this tradition was revived in the early nineteenth century, including at St Mary's, Wymeswold. As part of a 'Pugin Day' conference organised by Liz Tingle on 11th April 2026 I looked anew at photographs taken by Philip Brown of the interior of St Mary's around 1900. These show three quotations from the bible painted on the walls as part of A.W.N. Pugin's restoration of the church 1844 to 1846. Because of ingress of damp the plaster was stripped from these walls in the 1950s. The plaster was replaced but not the texts. So far as I am aware Philip's photographs are the only evidence we have for Pugin's texts. On the east wall of the chancel, to the right of the altar, was the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. To the left of the altar was Exodus 20, which includes two key passages: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery' and 'You shall have no other gods before me.' Over the chancel arch is 'We are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.' This is from St Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians 2:20. A third photograph shows the arch around the purpose-built recess in the north wall of the chancel for the organ. As an aside, the church historian Geoffrey Brandwood thinks this is oldest such purpose-built organ chamber in the country. Philip Brown's negative is damaged and the shot lined up so only the last two words of the inscription can be read: '… the Lord'. Rev Geoff Hopewell, at one time the vicar of St Mary's, suggested to me this may have been ‘Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord’ (Psalm 150:6) which wittily evokes the 'breath' of a pipe organ. And a week later Richard Bimson, the current churchwarden of St Mary's, drew my attention to the final pages of Alford's book about the Pugin restoration. This confirms Geoff was correct. And also lists several other, now lost, texts above windows. See babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101075431716&seq=44. Alford also states that all the texts were painted by 'Mr Ferriman of Wymeswold'. Who is otherwise best remembered as one of the best carvers of slate gravestones. Inscriptions which have survived are on both sides of the wooden bier, probably designed by Pugin. One side has the key eschatological words: 'It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power' from St Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians 15:42. The other side has 'It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body' from verse 44 of the same chapter. The 'it' of these quotations is a person. In the context of a funeral, the deceased person. However the bier is not mentioned in Alford's book so must have been commissioned a little later. Grateful thanks to Geoff Hopewell and Richard Bimson for their much-needed assistance.

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