Slapton, Northamptonshire (†Peterborough) C.15
St Christopher
Recently conserved by experts, but restored (rather heavily for some tastes) at some earlier date. A very fine example, though, full of the incidental detail beloved of the later medieval period. Many fish of a recognisable(?) species and even a mermaid, complete with mirror and shown in the separate photograph below.
Another mermaid in a St Christopher at Oaksey in Wiltshire is now on the site, but I could not find the one said to be at Grundisburgh in Suffolk – it might simply have disappeared into the faded background. Others are recorded at Ditteridge in Wiltshire and Breage in Cornwall, and the one at Bramley in Hampshire might also still be visible.
There are many other paintings at Slapton, including a Weighing of Souls and a Warning Against Idle Gossip, St Francis Receiving the Stigmata, the Annunciation, the Suicide of Judas, St Eloi shoeing the possessed horse, a rare example of St Anne teaching the Virgin to read and an even rarer Mass of St Gregory/Image of Pity.
† in page heading = Diocese
Photo (mermaid): Copyright © 2000 Doctor Digi /Digital Atlas of England