HAILES CHURCH: A POEM ABOUT THE PLACE...

Hailes Stone Cold...

Out of the chilling Cotswold breeze

Into a silent chapel bleak, bare, cold as stone;

Unpolished pews warped, worn, acutely angled,

As crown of unlit candles dangled

And a myriad coloured ceramic tiles gleamed,

Set amongst stone...

Stout amongst the chilling memorial slabs,

Stood a potent, coarsely hewn font of jaundiced stone;

Wall painted disciples and horrors dully appeared,

Hunting hounds’ bare teeth at hiding harried hare sneered:

And the oblique St Catherine’s beauty blessed and becalmed,

Cold as stone... 

Pete Ray

Hailes church, virtually a chapel, cold as stone...

St Catherine, patron of teachers was remarkable and the wall paintings visible were stunning...