The Porch at St Annes Syston

ST ANNES PORCH

Although there are obvious Elizabethan and Stuart alterations and extensions to the Church, including Jacobean Pulpit, the Norman porch with its inner leaning arch, is the architectural gem of St Annes.

The holy water stoop was severed at the Reformation when all wall paintings were also obliterated.  ( There is a slight suspicion of colouring over the inside of the doorway ).  The Cromwellian bullet holes in the heavy door are permanent reminders of the Puritan era.

It is, however the huge notched Norman arch with its semi-circular tympanum which impresses the visitor and worshipper.  This stone carving reminds us of the illiterate days when the priest taught and preached from paintings and carving in wood and stone.  The three sprigs and ‘fruit ‘  are usually interpreted as The Tree of Life ( or good and evil in the Garden of Eden).  The three sprigs also represent the Holy Trinity.

The first pre-conquest Saxon building would have been of wood, but it is possible to narrow-down the age of its Norman stone replacement.  Believing that the world would end 100 years after the birth or crucifixion of Our Lord, no new building took place until about 1070.  The pointed arch only came into use between AD 1120 and 1140 in very interesting circumstances.  So St. Annes  porch was evidently rebuilt within that 50/100 year interval.  This coincides with the acquisition of the William Rufus lead font from Winchester.

The innovation of a Norman pointed arch between 1120/40 is attributed to new building ideas brought back from the Holy Land by returning Crusaders who had never previously seen Arabic domes or pointed arches.

The alternative or coincidental explanation is that Athelyard ( Adelard ), a studious monk from Bath Abbey discovered at Cordova University in Spain, a copy of a book of Euclid, dealing with interesting circles which was thought to have perished when the Turks burned the Great Library of Alexandria.  The enclosed intersection portion (“ The Versica”) of the two circles formed a pointed arch – as at Wells Cathedral. This revolutionised Church architecture and inspired the Perpendicular style of Nave.

 As written by  Mr Hubert Dearnley of Warmley and published in St Annes Syston magazine in October 1986.

 MJW April 2023