Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday 17 April 2014

The restoration of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane



The New Liturgical Movement has a post about the restoration of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane in London. It can be viewed at The restoration of a hidden gem.

The one occasion on which I visited the church was Easter Monday in 2010 and I attended the early evening EF Mass there with friends. My post about the day can be read at Easter Monday in London.
At that time the church had tentatively begun the process of restoration by cleaning the modern paint off the brickwork in the entrance porch, and that suggested what will be revealed by the main scheme. The church had recently suffered from a vandal's attack on a statue, but otherwise was clearly cared for and loved, but in need of the renovation which has now commenced. I posted at the time that, although built in brick and dating from 1873-4, it has the feel of what a late medieval English parish church might be imagined to have had on the eve of the disasters of the sixteenth century - small shrines and sidealtars crowded in achurch designed for local congregation - rather what a medieval London or York city church would have been like.

This is a project I wish well, and I must go and look and see what has been done already.





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