An Angel Roof in Newport, Essex

At our local history group talk this week, we heard a fascinating account by Michael Rimmer of Angel Roofs in East Anglian churches. Michael has written the definitive book on the topic, in which he speculates as to how and why this distinctive architectural form came to be found mainly in the Eastern counties, in churches dating from between c.1400 and 1536.

Actually the first Angel Roof turns out to have been that of Westminster Hall, commissioned by Richard II in the 1390s. The architect was Hugh Herland, and the roof was a feat of engineering by the standards of any age, featuring as it does timbers that weigh 660 tons in total.

Thereafter, the hammer-beam style decorated with angels was adopted in churches starting with King’s Lynn, where Herland happened to be working after Westminster Hall was completed in 1398. Michael set out some of the reasons why Norfolk and Suffolk might account for more than 80 per cent of all the Angel Roofs found anywhere in the UK (or indeed the world). This was the most prosperous area of the country in the middle ages, with ample wealth as well as access to skilled craftsmen and timbers as a result of the extensive trade across the North Sea with northern European and Scandinavian economies. Angel roofs were a dramatic expression of piety and godliness, helping to create a clear spiritual geography within church layouts (with the angels on high hymning and praising the image of Christ depicted in the rood screen below).

 

Blythburgh, Suffolk. Picture: Ben Cowell

Angels were carved with great care and artistry, using skilled craftsmen who clearly moved between the different churches as they plied their trade. The loss of angel roofs as a consequence of the Reformation in the 1530s was an act of aesthetic vandalism: many of the angels had their faces removed or otherwise obliterated. Yet 170 survive today, their beauty preserved by being so high and distant from the hurley-burley of the ground level.

Michael largely excluded Essex from his analysis, though he acknowledged that North West Essex did indeed share many of the attributes of the East Anglian counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

 

St Mary's, Newport, Essex Picture: Ben Cowell

As it happens, St Mary’s church in Newport in Essex has an Angel roof, albeit perhaps not quite as impressive as others in East Anglia. Newport’s angel roof is not of the hammer beam type. Rather, the eight angels are a decorative addition located between the tie beams that hold the roof in place. The angels are unpainted, but are clearly angel-like, with wings and carved faces.

 

Newport Angel. Picture: Ben Cowell

The roof is not mentioned in Pevsner’s (or Bettley's) account of Newport’s church. This may be because the roof is not original, but a 19^th century restoration. It is said that an earlier vicar of Newport, Benjamin Hughes (vicar from 1780 to 1796) ‘disfigured the angels that supported the nave roof by cutting off their heads’. Michael hinted that it is possible the current angels were brought in from another church altogether.Yet there they still are, gazing down upon the congregation. 

 

Picture: 

http://www.essexviews.uk/photos/Essex%20Churches/Essex%20Churches%20M-R/Newport-Church-Angel-Essex.jpg
 

See Michael's excellent website for more on East Anglian Angel Roofs - and do get a copy of his book.