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Thursday 10 February 2011

PUGIN'S GEM

Today saw two friends and I heading into darkest Staffordshire to visit St GILES  Roman Catholic church in CHEADLE.
 Why would we go there? Well it was designed and built by AUGUSTUS WELBY NORTHMORE PUGIN (isn't that some name!!) on behalf of the EARL OF SHRWSBURY who lived at nearby ALTON ABBEY......now Alton Towers theme park!

 and it is VERY BEAUTIFUL........as you can see.

 One strange thing......well I found it strange........when you go into the church there are no lights on and it is quite dark (fair enough, I am all for not wasting electricity)......all the gorgeous rich colours are not that evident, the dark takes them away...............there is no light switch, you have to put a pound coin in a slot and the lights come on for 15 minutes!

 Some of the BEAUTIFUL patterns on columns........

 .....walls.....
 ......lettering......
 ....floor and step risers.....

 ......sculptures above the ROOD SCREEN........the whole place was gob-smacking!.......go if you get chance!


And finally talking of gems here is another from my garden, after photo'ing the cyclamen the other day I wandered around to see what else was coming up.............this little beauty is just poking its way through the leaves.........it is a HEPATICA......can you just see the snowdrops coming up next to it?

7 comments:

Sheilagh said...

what a clever way of raising funds.
It looks amazing.

Artyjen said...

Thanks for sharing another gorgeous piece of architecture...I'll certainly go if I'm ever that way.
xoxo Sioux

Bernice Hopper said...

Have you been to St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham? That's a Pugin masterpiece as well

Netty said...

Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures. Such craftmanship and love have gone into the designing of these beautiful examples. Annette x

Kate said...

My sister and I went to an abbey that had a Pugin cross. all the time we were there we hunted for it and couldn't see anything that looked right. In the end we discovered it in the cafe garden, a very plain stone cross, not exactly exciting, gob smacking stuff. Any mention of Pugin now brings back memories of a very happy afternoon.

** Kate **

JoZart Designs said...

That's another gem from you to add to my "must visit" list. Thanks so much.
JoZarty x

Anonymous said...

Amazing place, beautiful beautiful architecture etc, must have been awesome in the flesh. thanks for shareing.