![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2024/01/IMG_1094-1.jpeg)
8 June 2022
Oxfordshire
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/revue/items/images/016/790/430/original/img_5098.jpg)
Whispers within the walls.
I start my day at the medieval bridge over the river Windrush at Burford.
It’s an idyllic scene of golden cotswold stone over a meandering river. From there I visit St. John the Baptist in Burford. I’ve photographed this church on numerous occasions. It’s a church that sits besides the Windrush at the bottom of the village. As soon as I enter, I see the graffiti. The marks are barely visible - masked by the washing of time, or hidden within the shadow of a hood-mould.
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/revue/items/images/016/790/429/original/img_5099.jpg)
I’m fascinated by the stuff. Etched within and without the officious walls of our churches are the whispers of ordinary people that found a way of making their mark without others seeing. For me, these marks say “We are here, we matter, our feelings and beliefs matter.”
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2023/12/IMG_5013.jpeg)
Take away the massing, the stones, the roof slates and the lead at St. John’s and imagine only the marks left behind. There would be, in front of us, a vast matrix - a scatter pattern of words and deeds and symbols that articulated a belief or admonished a fear. There’s so many here in Burford that they soften the liturgical straight jacket cast in rood and quire.
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2023/12/IMG_5071.jpeg)
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2023/12/IMG_5005.jpeg)
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2023/12/IMG_5009.jpeg)
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2023/12/IMG_5010.jpeg)
Many of these marks remain hidden - unseen for centuries.
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2023/12/IMG_5036.jpeg)
Photographing them seems like an act of releasing the memory.
![](https://www.digest.andymarshall.co/content/images/2023/12/IMG_5008-1.jpeg)
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