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| Back Again in its Place : The Repaired Finial (foreground, right) 5.9.2016 |
Many parishioners were unaware of it, maybe, while others were, though saying nothing about it. What are we talking about? A small piece of unfinished business from the great work done on the exterior of St Mary's from late autumn 2014 to Easter 2015. Once you became aware of it, it just would not go away, and remained there to detract somewhat from the magnificent overall effect left by the rest of the work. We have a lovely church tower capped by a fine crenellated parapet with four pinnacles rising high at each corner. On top of each pinnacle there is what is called a 'finial' which, in our case, is in the form of a stone ball (click on above photo to enlarge it). Now one of these finials must not have been attached securely enough into the top of its pinnacle and had to be taken down for repair sometime in April of last year. Months went by, those who had noticed its going waiting patiently for its reappearance. Summer came and went. 2016 came and was going swiftly by. Still no sign. The knowledgeable Christy Keane assured those who inquired that the matter was being dealt with and to just hold on a bit longer. Every day as one drove through the village, a glance up at the church tower revealed whether there was any news. Was there ever going to be any great news at all, one wondered ever more sceptically. So then, what great joy it was when yet another weary glance up at the sky on Thursday, 25th August showed that, yes, yes, it had come back!
Now we can show off the finally completed work with great fanfare. For photos of the entire work of external renovation see here. For the story of the 'missing' finial, see here. (To change slide at your own pace, click on the screen for a desktop or touch it for a tablet.)
