Tympanum - St Peter - Parwich, Derbyshire - Stone Church Artefacts on Waymarking.com

"The church lies to the S of [Parwich] village and dates back to the 12thc when it was a chapelry of St Oswald’s Ashbourne: it only became a parish in 1650. The church was demolished and reconstructed on the same site in Coxbench stone between 1872-4 by Henry Isaac Stevens and Frederick Josias Robinson, thanks to the generosity of Sir Thomas William Evans. The church incorporates some of the original elements of the Romanesque period, such as the W doorway, the chancel arch, a respond capital and two fragments of a capital.

The tympanum is incised with creatures symbolising the Redemption. On the left side there is a lamb bearing a circular-headed cross (Agnus Dei); above its head a dove is carved as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. At the centre a stag is depicted, which typifies the worshipper; above the stag a swine is found. On the right side there is a wolf devouring his tail, which terminates in a trefoil, possibly a symbol of the Holy Trinity. Two serpents entwining their heads are found in the lower part of the tympanum and typify the Devil."

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"The oldest recognisable relic from Parwich’s past is without doubt the tympanum that now stands above the west door. Originally it was inside the church until it was rebuilt in Victorian times. However it seems likely that this was not the first time it was moved as it could well come from a church that predated even the older St Peter’s church. Unfortunately it is only possible to speculate on the origins but there are interesting hints and clues.

The nature of the carving seems to indicate a time somewhere between 700 and 1100CE , four hundred years that spans the later Saxon era and early Norman conquest. It seems likely that the original St Peters was established in the Norman era and the arch, that now surrounds the tympanum, is usually identified as having features broadly in line with Norman arches elsewhere. For this reason it seems that the tympanum has often been dated with the arch.

The tympanum itself consists of a number of fairly primitive animals that are allegorical. The creature to the left is a lamb bearing the banner of the cross. Above this there is the dove, symbolising the Holy Spirit; in the centre the hart probably signifies the Christian convert who is trampling on the wicked serpents. Other animals to the right are believed to be a boar and a wolf. A possible key to dating this is the lamb bearing the cross. The early Christian church often represented Jesus in this way until the council of Constantinople in 692 decreed that Christ should be represented as a person. Obviously in those days such news and decrees did not travel fast and it may have taken a hundred or two hundred years for such changes to take effect but this would still put the tympanum firmly in the Saxon era.

It is also interesting to note that this tympanum is one of a number of local church carvings. Tissington church has a tympanum with two human figures and a font that has some features that are very similar, most notably the lamb carrying the cross. Hognaston Church also has a similar tympanum and Wirksworth Church has some of the finest Saxon carvings in the country – most famously the stone coffin lid. Bradbourne has a fine Celtic cross that was rediscovered and re-erected two centuries ago. It may be that these churches are roughly contemporary and that a mason was responsible for at least some of them. Certainly there was an important school for carving at Breedon-on-the-Hill, not too far away.

Many churches in outlying communities during the Saxon era were small and crudely built and it was not until the Norman rebuilding programme that village churches became more permanent structures. Often aspects of the older building were incorporated in the new church. Could it be that a church stood on the same site before this? When the Trent and Peak Archaeological Trust carried out a survey of the area in 1988 they noted two concentric banks partially ringing the church inside the enclosure named Yate Croft. The survey went on to suggest that there could have been a circular earth enclosure round the north side of the church, with the stream acting as a natural boundary to the south. (Other possible boundary banks could have been obliterated either by the graveyard or house building.) Such enclosures were a feature of the early church and holy sites associated with water are particularly linked with the Celtic Church. It is possible, conjectures the survey, that St Peter’s overlies the site of an 8th or 9th century church associated with the ring banks. Perhaps the tympanum has its origins with that church. If that is the case (and its animal symbolism does suggest pre-Norman origins) then it is a echo of an earlier and largely uncharted Parwich."

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Relevant Website: [Web Link] Approximate Age of Artefact: Not listed

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