Historic Churches 2021

BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON HISTORIC CHURCHES 28 TH ANNUAL EDITION 29 red and yellow, formed the backdrop to sculptures set atop the capitals. Today there are wooden posts in that location. The third component of the conservation programme was removing layers of plain overpaint from the colourful roof timbers in bay two of the nave. It also involved removing surface dirt and dust from the polychromed timbers in bay one, which had been treated by Herbert Read in 1993. These timbers had been decorated in the late 15th century. In 1769 they were repainted, in most areas decoratively as originally, but in other areas with plain paint. Subsequent to this, three layers of oil-based paint were applied, the first of these is likely to date from the 19th century. Most of the revealed polychromy that we can see dates from 1769, and lies over original medieval polychromy; but some original medieval painting was revealed. Plain overpaint was removed from two of the carved and painted angels in bay two, one of which incorporates a fascinating tricephalous (three heads in one) image. This revealed decoration dating to the 1769 repainting, with occasional traces of original polychromy. Although eye catching today, the original scheme would have been even more striking, glistening with gilding. Removal of overpaint from the tie beam revealed lively medieval decoration, which had not been repainted in 1769. LOOKING BACK In spite of what happened to it in the 19th century, The Last Judgement remains very valuable both nationally and internationally. This depiction, although repainted, provides us with an excellent example of what a complete medieval last judgement wall painting looked like. The work described here was undertaken by a team of conservators. I was the lead conservator and main contractor. My team included three principal conservators – Joanna Pucci, Jason Battle and Alvar Mailan; with Robert Read, Roger Stephens and Howard Chivers. Without the determined effort of the Parish of St Thomas’s, Salisbury, this challenging and ultimately rewarding project would not have come to fruition. I am very grateful to the parish for commissioning this work, and I especially thank Meryl Brown, Nick Beard, Peter Heier, John Bruce-Ball and the Reverend Kelvin Inglis. The parish team were welcoming and highly interested in the work; something we appreciated very much. In particular we enjoyed the wonderful selection of cakes every Tuesday morning!. Recommended reading For more information about the conservation work, a talk given by Peter Martindale to the Traditional Paint Forum in 2020 is available here: http://bc-url. com/st-thomas-salisbury. For more information on the history of Doom paintings, see: ‘The Doom in Holy Trinity Church and wall-painting in medieval Coventry’, Coventry: Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in the City and its Vicinity , L Monckton and RK Morris (eds), BAA 2011, 206–222. ‘Medieval wall painting of the Doom, Holy Trinity Church, Coventry’, The History of British Art , 600–1600, T Ayers (ed), Tate 2008, 200–2. ‘Significance of the site and historical setting for the “Doom” painting’, Conservation of the ‘Doom’ Wall Painting, Holy Trinity, Coventry , abstract of papers presented at the Symposium in memory of Anna C Hulbert, 2005, 11–13. PETER MARTINDALE is an Icon-accredited conservator. His company, Peter Martindale Conservation (see page 24) undertakes the conservation and cleaning of works of art including wall paintings, paintings on canvas, stone sculpture and gilding. A carved and polychromed angel holding a tricephalous head: the polychromy is 18th century, with some traces of underlying medieval paint. A detail of the revealed medieval painted decoration on a wooden tie beam One of the four shields bearing merchant’s marks, this one a variation on the capital letter ‘W’ from the walls of bays one and two. The process of medieval paint being revealed under later overpainted layers on a wooden tie beam