Andrew Ziminski

Easter is the most important festival of the Christian calendar, and so it is unsuprising that most of England's Pre-Reformation churches were adorned with artworks commemorating Christ’s passion and resurrection. Sadly, such was the zeal of the reformation that virtually none of these depictions remain, apart from fragments, mutilated, burnt or eaten away by rot and woodworm. But it is still possible to see some remains of the pre-Reformation Easter in England’s oldest churches today. The most common pre-Reformation Easter depiction in every church would have been an image of the Crucifixion over the Chancel arch, between the sacred space of the Chancel and the people’s part of the church, the Nave.

For hundreds of years, the 12 days of Christmas have been a significant highlight of the English religious year. In the medieval period, churches in Britain and Ireland were vividly adorned with paintings, stained glass, and sculptures that depicted the Christmas story. Many of these images were destroyed in the Taliban-like wave of destruction that accompanied the English Reformation. But ancient depictions of the Nativity still exist in our churches – as long as you know where to look.  Nativity scenes were uncommon during the early medieval period but they began to be carved into our baptismal fonts from around the 12th century. One of the earliest surviving examples in the UK is the font at Fincham in Norfolk, made up of four panels beneath an arcade of rounded arches.