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Two more Derbyshire churches |
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| St Nicholas,
Haddon Hall Haddon Hall is a grand house dating from Medieval times, and this is its chapel. It was once also used as a local parish church. |
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| Special features here are the stained glass, the wall paintings and the altarpiece. The wall paintings, inevitably, were whitewashed over for centuries and have lost their colour. Nevertheless, they are splendid. especially the cheery skeletons. | |
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altarpiece is not original to the chapel; it was purchased in 1933, but
it works well here. It is dated to the fifteenth century as is of
English workmanship in Alabaster. It consists of a series of passion
images, from the entry in Jerusalem to the 'Noli Mi Tangere'. There are
nine panels; apparently there were originally eleven. The noli mi Tangere is a splendid image. We are looking over a fence at the action, but the fence rather resembles a set of teeth! |
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| On
to Eyam and the church of St Lawrence.
And another wonderful Saxon cross from the
eighth century. It is now in the churchyard, but this was not its
original location. |
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| Eyam is known as the 'plague village'. Ironically, the outbreak of plague which almost wiped out the village in 1665 is now an important source of local income; school parties arrive by the bus load, and the church was full of children when we arrived. There is an excellent museum with information on the plague and much else. | |
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