The wall paintings at Sutton Bingham

A few days ago I wrote about the conservation of the little known medieval wall paintings at Ickleton in Cambridgeshire in Conserving the twelfth century wall paintings at Ickleton church

I have now come across a video about another little known series - well to me at least - dating from the beginning of the fourteenth century. They are in the church of All Saints at Sutton Bingham on the boundary of Somerset and Dorset. They were rediscovered in the 1860s.

The church itself is just a nave and chancel dating to the twelfth and thirteenth century, but with a fine Norman chancel arch. This was clearly not a wealthy parish but one which did commission a fine set of paintings in the years around or after 1300. One, which the presenter of the video pays particular attention to, is of the Dormition of the Virgin. This rarely survives as an image in this country, and may indeed have been unusual before the defacing and obliteration of such worths by mid-sixteenth century fanatics. The apparent rarity of the subject suggests that a small and remote village could still be connected to a much wider spiritual and cultural milieu.

The video can be viewed at The Reformation Tried to Erase These: A Glimpse of One of England's Rarest Wall Paintings!