A list of the most impactful monuments in my career as a photographer for your delectation and delight - and perhaps for you to visit one day this year?
You can see all the places on a map via this link.
The Foord Bowes Monument, Beverley Minster, Yorkshire
This is, perhaps, the most impactful of all the monuments I've photographed. It is made of an artificial stone called Coade Stone and is quite rare.
Early on in my career, I was always taken by this monument - not for what it represents - but for the aesthetics behind it.
I sketched it in 2006.
Notice the shiny section of the cannon where people have touched it over the decades?
I lost my dad in 2008, but before that, we travelled to Beverley regularly, and I remember him stood next to the monument with his hands on the cannon chatting away. I always regret that I didn't take a photograph of him there - but this monument is just as much a memorial to him than anything else.
Since then I have photographed generations of Marshall's next to it as an act of Remembrance.
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Andy Marshall
St. Mary's Warwick - The Beauchamp Chapel - Tomb of Richard Beauchamp, Warwickshire.
On a cold January day I found myself photographing this remarkable place encapsulated like a fly in amber. This place transports you into another world.
The chapel was built in the C15th to house the tomb of Richard Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick. It also houses the tombs of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, his brother Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and Robert’s son, the “Noble Impe”.
The tomb is made of gilt-bronze from a model by John Massingham. The stiffness of the repose is brought to life by a remarkably accurate depiction of the anatomy of a body including muscles and veins. Each strand of hair is beautifully depicted.
The weepers that encircle the tomb are also remarkably life like - but in miniature. Each detail is precious - they are the letters that form the sentences to the narrative at play.
The Monuments of All Saints', Harewood, Yorkshire
When I walked into All Saints', Harewood I felt as though I was imposing upon the deep slumber of its alabaster occupants.
The south aisle on a sunny day compounded my imposter syndrome by creating an enclave of diaphanous light. As soon as I stepped into it I felt as though the recumbent incumbents might rise in admonition.
They didn’t, of course, but what they did do was present an astonishing parade of fashion as it was in the 15th and 16th centuries: resplendent with the pattern and decoration of the period, adorned with angelic hosts to protect, bedesmen to mourn, and tearful lions to rest upon.
As time ticks by and the sun alters its position, Medusa’s gaze is swept away as each effigy has its moment of light and warmth - deep cut rosaries are emblazoned, profiles enlivened, and a vague epoch (near forgotten) dipped into a mellow luminescence.
Monument to Alice Chaucer, St. Mary the Virgin, Ewelme, Oxfordshire
At first glance you might think that this alabaster tomb might be from Westminster Abbey but this remarkable monument to Alice Chaucer is at St. Mary, Ewelme in Oxfordshire.
She was the grandaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote the Canterbury Tales. Note the stone cadaver behind the tracery at the bottom.
She wears the crown of a Duchess and became a Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
Early C17th Tomb of Lord Cecil, St. Etheldreda, Hatfield, Hertfordshire.
A radical departure from previous cadaver monuments in terms of its style.
Simon Jenkins says: 'If the Brocket's Chapel is the roast beef of old England, Cecil's is European haute cuisine.'
This monument is not too distant in date from the Garrard's in Wheathampstead - comparing the two just shows how radical a departure this one is in terms of style.
On top lies the body prostrate in hope of eternal salvation and on the bottom lies the cadaver anchored in this world.
Cecil is held up by the four Cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance.
Whilst photographing the Cecil monument, I felt as though I was being watched.
Tomb to a Roman Standard Bearer, Hexham Abbey, Hexham, Northumberland
This tomb to a Roman standard bearer is around 2000 years old and shows the mounted Flavinus riding over a barbarian.
It reads:
Here Lies Flavinus
A Horse Rider of the Cavalry Regiment of Petriana
Standard Bearer of the Troop of Candidus
Aged 25, of 7 Years’ Service
The Fettiplace Monument at St. Mary's, Swinbrook, Oxfordshire
Remarkable in its depiction: a triple decker monument colloquially known as the TV Watchers. Simon Jenkins calls them 'the most eccentric in England.' This is a hidden gem in a beautiful location.
The Latch at St. Oswald, Kirkoswald, Cumbria - a monument to every day people.
I place my thumb upon the latch and press. It makes a delicious ‘click and clump.’ I think of the person I’ve just seen walk in through the door before me. They pressed it too.
And then I think of the person before them and the person before them. Soon I’m struck by a remarkable burgeoning of perspective - that, through the orchestration of the latch, I’m connected to every person that has entered this door for the last five hundred years.
Every thumb press shaves microns from the surface of the metal.
Its shape reveals a collective thumbprint.
✨ Parlour, Piano Nobile and Palazzo Members can see a new visual Comperandum on church monuments here:
Andy Marshall
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Andy Marshall
I think my monument would have Woody on it. Inside Woody are petit-monuminutiae that hold memories of places that I've been to.
Readers of the Genius Loci Digest
What stays with readers
That aura, those echoes - the muted light is transporting. What a space to feel rooted in history. I'd love to make that journey myself; you've stirred the opera lover and architectural dreamer in me.
From the heritage portfolio
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