Newly Conserved Wall Painting in St Edmund’s Church
The collapse of some plaster from the south wall of the nave in 2012 revealed a small fragment of wall painting. This painting and some text revealed sometime later were conserved by wall painting conservators Stephen Rickerby & Lisa Shekede during April 2024.
The text is in English, probably from the early 1600s, and the visible fragments of surviving text are from the Book of Common Prayer. Stephen and Lisa have worked out the puzzle of the passage and its arrangement on the wall from relatively few decipherable words. From this they now know that the text includes the Ten Commandments, and it once covered most of the space between the two windows. It was surrounded by an elaborate border.
Other fragments of wall painting and text can be seen on the west wall of the nave near the prayer boards. It is likely that the walls of the church have all been covered with successive layers of paintings and scripture for many hundreds of years.
In the 1600s, when the people of Castleton sat in these pews, St Edmund’s Church would have looked very different.
The project was funded by ChurchCare, the Society of Antiquaries of London, The Leche Trust, The Churches Conservation Trust, and the Friends of St Edmund’s.
Conservation Report:
St Edmund’s Church 2024
Click on the links below for the following documents:
Castleton Historical Society 