Simon Knott
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simoninsuffolk.bsky.social
Simon Knott
@simoninsuffolk.bsky.social
'dust in the air suspended,
marks the place where a story ended'

Find me at http://www.simonknott.co.uk
Also available on X/Twitter. All photos mine.
2/2 And here's the 50% off Pevsners sale at Yale University Press, in case you missed it: yalebooks.co.uk/pevsner-arch...
Pevsner Architectural Guides - Yale University Press London
Discover the Pevsner Architectural Guides Series and the Buildings of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
yalebooks.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 4:13 PM
If you haven't spent all your money on Pevsners in the Yale 50% off sale, Boydell have a 60% off hardbacks sale running until 2 December! For example, Trevor Cooper's brilliant 'The Journal of WIlliam Dowsing' is reduced from £60 to just £24. more here: boydellandbrewer.com
Boydell & Brewer
Publishing excellence, independently delivered A trusted independent scholarly publisher specialising in the humanities and social sciences. Browse books University of Rochester Press Focuses on the u...
boydellandbrewer.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:11 PM
One last St Catherine on her feast day, a 16C Flemish roundel now in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow. At her feet is the Emperor Maxentius, who ordered his pagan philosophers to convince her out of her Christianity. Unfortunately for him she converted them all, and so he put 200 of them to death.
November 25, 2025 at 9:05 AM
3/3 St Catherine's wheel and the cross of St Andrew, by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens, 1958, in St Catherine's chapel at the church of St Andrew, Plymouth. Today's the feast of St Catherine.
November 25, 2025 at 8:43 AM
2/3 St Catherine with her wheel and a martyr's palm in the lovely little church at Corringham, Essex, by Faith Craft, 1958. Likely to be to the design of Francis Stephens or Laurence King.
November 25, 2025 at 8:37 AM
On her feast day, St Catherine of Alexandria with her spiked wheel and sword in glass by Harry Stammers, 1965, in the lady chapel of St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. 1/3
November 25, 2025 at 8:31 AM
3/3 St Catherine holds a sword and a broken wheel on the Battle Hall Retable, made for Dartford Priory c1410 and now in Leeds Castle, Kent. Her legend was probably conflated with other early virgin martyrs, but she was one of the fourteen medieval Holy Helpers invoked against diseases.
November 25, 2025 at 8:10 AM
2/3 St Catherine holds her wheel and a sword in an early 16th Century Flemish devotional statue now in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow. She's recorded as a martyr in Alexandria during the Maxentius Persecution c305, aged about 17. She's the patron saint of single women.
November 25, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Today's the feast of St Catherine, one of the most popular of all saints in English medieval church art. Here she is, leaning on her wheel, on the war-damaged 15th Century font at Nettlestead, one of Suffolk's loveliest little churches.

Nettlestead: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/nettlestead....
November 25, 2025 at 7:50 AM
It's a month today until the first day of Christmas! It'll soon be time to think of John the Baptist pointing the way. Here he is by Ninian Comper, c1930, at St James Episcopal church, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, a few miles from Comper's home city of Aberdeen (Douglas Strachan's home city too).
November 25, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Yes, appropriately they're on the steps to the song school.
November 25, 2025 at 6:45 AM
The Pelican in her Piety, plucking her breast to feed her chicks on her own blood, in the east window at Debden, Essex, by Gibbs & Howard, 1882. This metaphoric symbol for eucharistic sacrifice was popular in the late medieval period, and it was popular in the 19th Century too.
November 24, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Some unusual souvenir hunter, perhaps! Or maybe high winds...
November 24, 2025 at 2:56 PM
3/3 Daniel and St John the Baptist in 1850s tiling by William Butterfield at his All Saints, Margaret Street, London. John the Baptist points to the Lamb of God, the beginning of Advent now only a few days away.
November 24, 2025 at 9:57 AM
2/3 Samuel and Daniel, two figures from a good collection of 15th Century Norwich glass at Bale, Norfolk. Most of it was installed here in 1938, and probably came from elsewhere originally.

Bale: www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/bale/bale.htm
November 24, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Daniel the prophet. One of several panels from a 14th Century Tree of Jesse, reset in the north aisle at Lowick, Northamptonshire. They predate the late medieval rebuilding of the church, and may even have been brought here from elsewhere.
November 24, 2025 at 9:48 AM
3/3 The intervention of angels. The lions are warded off from the kneeling Daniel in glass by Hardman & Co, 1872 in St Michael, Trinity Street, Cambridge, redundant since the 1980s and now the Michaelhouse café/restaurant, though a small chapel is also maintained.
November 24, 2025 at 9:35 AM
2/3 a detail of Daniel in the Lions' Den, by Alfred Lusson of Paris, 1860, in the north nave aisle of Ely Cathedral. The lions cosy up to his feet like large cats, though there's clear evidence that they aren't always so friendly to their guests.
November 24, 2025 at 9:29 AM
This is the final week of the liturgical year, and appropriately the first readings at Mass are from the Book of Daniel, that great OT drama that prefigures the Apocalypse. Alfred Lusson's 1860 glass in Ely Cathedral, Daniel brought before Darius and imprisoned in the lions' den.
November 24, 2025 at 9:23 AM
I realise I forgot to give the CCT website address if you want to check for opening times! It's currently showing as open daily except Mondays, 11 till 3, though there's a phone number too just to make sure: www.visitchurches.org.uk/visit/our-ch...

Barham church is open every day (see photo)
November 24, 2025 at 8:22 AM
2/2: 'In memory of the men of Claydon who died in the war of 1939-1945'

A detail of Henry Moore's Claydon war memorial, now in Barham church.

Barham: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/barham.htm

Claydon: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/claydon.htm

#MemorialsMonday
November 24, 2025 at 8:13 AM
A detail of Henry Moore's Claydon war memorial, now in Barham church.

Barham: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/barham.htm

Claydon: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/claydon.htm
November 24, 2025 at 8:11 AM
A detail of Henry Moore's Claydon war memorial, now in Barham church.

Barham: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/barham.htm

Claydon: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/claydon.htm
November 24, 2025 at 8:11 AM
2/2 Barham and Claydon churches, Suffolk. Both usually open every day, though check the CCT website for Claydon, just to make sure.

Barham: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/barham.htm

Claydon: www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/claydon.htm
November 24, 2025 at 7:51 AM
The Claydon war memorial by Henry Moore, 1948, now at Barham, Suffolk, at the other end of the large joint village. Moore himself oversaw its transfer when Claydon church was closed in the 1970s. Barham church now serves both village, Claydon church is in the care of @TheCCT. #MemorialsMonday
November 24, 2025 at 7:48 AM