Popped into Garton on the Wolds last week. Two of my many-times-great-grandparents, Thomas and Elizabeth Carling, are buried in the churchyard there. I like to drop by and say hello when I'm passing.
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| Family misfortunes. |
Their church - St Michael & All Angels - is a robustly Norman beast. Apparently there was an Anglo-Saxon predecessor, but it was replaced in the 12th Century by the sturdy hilltop structure we see today. It has something of the elegance of a full-grown bull elephant seal, ready to do battle.
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| Or a dominant silverback, perhaps. |
But inside, oh, it's quite a different animal. I don't know if a southern elephant seal has ever swallowed a peacock, but this might be what it would look like. I'd not stepped inside the church before, and having seen how impressive the interior is, I feel a little ashamed.
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| Hidden treasures. |
As Rob Andrews describes in his Church Crawling video below, the colour, extravagance and artistry on display is gobsmacking!
That said, this is not the church interior my ancestors knew. Elizabeth died in 1840 and Thomas in 1852, and the biblical murals that adorn the walls were added in the 1870s. If I told the Carlings that the inside of St Michael's was a Tatton Sykes disco palace, they'd probably think I'd quaffed too much Yorkshire ale.
And they'd probably have known something about such things. For in the course of my genealogical investigations, I've learnt that Thomas came from Etton, about a dozen miles to the south, and had a namesake - his nephew, I think - who was pretty good at brewing. In fact, he made quite a name for himself, on the other side of the wo(r)ld...
You can read more about his hoppy transatlantic life on this Hull History Centre blogpost from a couple of years ago. So grab yourself a four-pack of lager and pull up a pew. I'm sure the vicar won't mind.
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| Probably the black-labelled sheep of the family. |
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