Wednesday, 29 October 2025

CARVED IN COWLS... (My poem about the carvings in All Saints Church, Weybourne, Norfolk...)

 Carved In Cowls…



Carvings on bench ends.

A bird, but slightly damaged

And a human head, female,

Two-faced, if slightly ravaged.

Cowled, features keen.

Nuns, surely? 

Skilfully turned, smooth edged

By spinster sisters.

Poppy-heads unique,

To witness, I was privileged…   



Pete Ray…

Weybourne, 2016…



Carved in 1900 by a family of wood turners and carvers, who were sisters.


The six of them: Hannah Beatrice, Mary Esther, Rose Cecily, Martha Grace, Maude Marguerita and Eleanor Bolding, are pictured below.



‘Poppy-heads’ were carved on bench-ends but many were removed during the Reformation. 


The name apparently derives from the Latin word ‘puppis’, meaning a figurehead on the poop deck of a ship.





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