English Curiosities

John Burke's Church Curiosities

St Patrick's Chapel, Heysham
There is a legend that says that when St Patrick left Ireland to travel to England and Scotland, he landed here at Heysham in Lancashire.

Followers built this small oratory chapel in the 6th or 7th century only for the Vikings to destroy it a few hundred years later. By then it was probably too small for the congregation anyway and rather than repair it, they built the church of St Peter, a little way further inland.

Consecrated in 976 A.D. it remains in use today.

Giant's Gravestone, Formby
In the church porch of Formby, near to Southport in Merseyside, is the memorial slab of Richard Formby, a 7-feet tall giant who was armour-bearer to the King.

He died 22 September 1407 and the stone was moved to the village that bore his family name from York Minster in 1829 following a fire which had caused the memorial to crack.

Saxon Cross Shafts at Whalley
In the churchyard at Whalley are a few stones that would have been old even to the Normans, as they were carved and erected by the Saxons before 1066.

The crosses that these shafts bore were wheel crosses, where the arms of the cross broadened from the centre, as can be seen from the remains of the bottom arm and "hub". The cross shafts are richly decorated with carvings.

The Zennor Mermaid
This carving can be found on a bench end in the church at Zennor, near Lands End.

Legend tells that the mermaid fell in love with the beautiful voice of a choristor and dragged him beneath the waves.

The Puritans destroyed the face in the 17th century - but left the bared breasts intact!

Bench Carving, Norfolk
There are many grotesque carvings both inside and outside churches.

This figure of a beaked and winged animal with breasts dates from the 13th Century and comes from Norfolk.

The Giant's Grave, Penrith
The second of our giants for this page - England must have been fairly crawling with them, another can be found on the miscellaeneous curiosities page!

Though by legend this is supposed to be the grave of a giant, what we have here are two Saxon cross shafts and four hogsback grave covers probably Viking in origin.