A wheelwright holds a cart-wheel spoke to his eye to test its straightness. Medieval wall painting in Parish Church of St Mary, at Ampney St Mary in the Cotswolds, Gloucestershire, England.
Ampney St. Mary, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom: remains of 13th and 14th century wall paintings to have survived inside the Cotswolds ‘Ivy Church’, the 12th century Parish Church of St. Mary, include this medieval wheelwright testing whether the spoke of a cart wheel is straight and true by holding it to his eye. The church acquired its informal name centuries after it had lost its congregation in about 1350, at the height of the Black Death plague pandemic that swept through Western Europe. The villagers seem to have left their homes around the church and to have rebuilt Ampney St Mary on higher ground more than a mile away. The last few houses on the old site began to decay when the nearby road fell out of use in the 18th century, and in 1877, when the parish was united with Ampney St. Peter, the isolated church was abandoned to fast-climbing ivy. The ivy was finally cleared from the church in 1913. It has since been restored and is now once again open to visitors.
Size: 6871px × 4586px
Location: Ampney St. Mary, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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