Wilton

[puddleshark]

Wilton has two Church of England churches. One right in the centre of the town, beside the market place.

Comments

[poliphilo]

Campaniles may be all very well in Venice and places like that but English parish churches ought to have great solid towers like castle keeps and/or spires.

Bloody aristocrats, bringing all that foreign muck back with them from their grand tours...

[puddleshark]

Well, it certainly makes a change from the usual Victorian Gothic! But yes, it looks highly unnatural in an English setting.

And it's not just the campanile, it's the scale of the building... It is far, far too grand for a village. One of those churches that was built to the glory of the local landowner.

[poliphilo]

I served as curate in a church like that. The mill owner built it in the Venetian style and dedicated it to his wife's name saint. It was very handsome but cold (in both senses) and unloved. Architectural historians admire it, the local people don't.

[thoughtsbykat]

I love your photo through the arches of old St.Mary's.

Whoa, that teapot is huge.

[puddleshark]

For all it's size, it didn't actually hold much tea. And it dribbled. Not a very functional teapot...

[lnhammer]

That teapot is ... something. It inspires similar feelings as that Tennyson rhyme I posted.

[puddleshark]

heh!

I am not a fan of novelty teapots. Particularly so when they are entirely non-functional.

[puddleshark]

A campanile is a surreal sight in an English village. And I'm sure it's not built straight, which adds to the strangeness.

A monstrous teapot... It was a shame it did not hold monstrous amounts of tea.

[changeling72]

There’s a campanile at Kew, but it’s the old chimney for the Palm House.

I guess many of the medieval churches were built by rich benefactors showing off?

[puddleshark]

I like the idea of a chimney being concealed in a baroque bell-tower. It must have looked a bit strange though when it had smoke coming out of it!

Yes, expressions of power through church-building are nothing new... But often with the medieval churches you get the impression the builders wanted to impress God as much as the locals. This seems more of a "We Want You All To Know We Are Immensely Wealthy" thing.