This section features images from churches and graveyards. I really enjoy crawling old places of worship, accretions of stories inside and out – in wood, stone, and glass – and troves of extraordinary and sometimes blood-curdling curiosities spanning the medieval period to the eighteenth century; from inscrutable, often grotesque, and always charming pew carvings (or bench ends, to use the terminus technicus), to the memento mori skulls that leer toothily from headstones, monuments, and panels.
Wardsend Cemetery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
The fifteenth-century Sheringham mermaid. All Saints, Upper Sheringham, Norfolk.
Here lyeth the body of Mary Crowe. St Gregory, Heckingham, Norfolk.
Rosary Cemetery, Norwich, Norfolk.
Sheffield General Cemetery, South Yorkshire.
St John the Evangelist, Skipton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire.
Here lyeth the body of Oliver Munley. St Clement, Burnham Overy, Norfolk.
Bird man. St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk.
St Gregory, Heckingham, Norfolk.
A demon despatching a sinner through the jaws of hell. St Andrew, Freckenham, Suffolk.
St Mary, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire.
St John, Buxton, Derbyshire.
Cadaver brass. St Mary, Wiveton, Norfolk.
Wax effigy of Sarah Hare, made in accordance with her wishes following her death in 1744. Holy Trinity, Stow Bardolph, Norfolk.
Thomas Smith Millwright. St Mary, Wiveton, Norfolk.
Diminutive skull. St Andrew, Kilverstone, Norfolk.
Guardian angel. St Giles, Matlock, Derbyshire.
Rosary Cemetery, Norwich, Norfolk.
In memory of John Gamble. St Edmund, Southwood, Norfolk.
St Peter, Thorpe Salvin, South Yorkshire.
Holy Trinity, Loddon, Norfolk.
Sparham corpse panels. St Mary, Sparham, Norfolk.
Here lieth the body of Bence Dowsing. St Edmund, Southwold, Suffolk.
St Margaret, Thrandeston, Suffolk.
Bench end burial. St Mary, Feltwell, Norfolk.
Another demonic close-up from the Wenhaston Doom. St Peter, Wenhaston, Suffolk.
Skeletal detail from the Sparham corpse panels. St Mary, Sparham, Norfolk.
Netley Military Cemetery, Hampshire.
Chapel of Our Lady of the Crag, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire.
Wardsend Cemetery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
All Saints, South Elmham, Suffolk.
St Mary, Bungay, Norfolk.
St Margaret, Cley next the Sea, Norfolk.
Stowlangtoft, Suffolk.
St Benedict, Horning, Norfolk.
Horse man. St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk.
My turn today, yours tomorrow. St John, Ilketshall St John, Suffolk.
Walpurgis Night at St Peter, Westleton, Suffolk.
King Death. St Margaret, Cley next the Sea, Norfolk.
Holy Cross, Whorlton, North Yorkshire.
St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk.
Tiny cadaver brass. St Andrew, Frenze, Norfolk.
An unusual memorial crant or garland for Mary Boyce, who died in 1685. St Mary, Walsham le Willows, Suffolk.
St Mary, Worsbrough, South Yorkshire.
A devilish detail from the Wenhaston Doom. St Peter, Wenhaston, Suffolk.
Sarcophagi. All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
St Nicholas, Blakeney, Norfolk.
Doomstone, York Minster, North Yorkshire.
Cadaver brass. St Mary and St Walston, Bawburgh, Norfolk.
Ann the widow of Nathanael Rix. St Nicholas, Wrentham, Suffolk.
Holy Cross, Whorlton, North Yorkshire.
All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
Walpurgis Night at St Peter, Westleton, Suffolk.
St Mary, Sutton Scarsdale, Derbyshire.
St Peter and St Paul, Eckington, Derbyshire.
The remains of John Noller Senior and Mary his wife, with recessed sundial. St John, Saxmundham, Suffolk.
St Margaret, King's Lynn, Norfolk.
Norwich Cathedral, Norfolk.
Frankengrave. Holy Cross, Whorlton, North Yorkshire.
St Andrew, Aldborough, North Yorkshire.
A demon's embrace. St Mary, Wilby, Suffolk.
St Catherine, Ludham, Norfolk.
All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
St Mary, Whitby, North Yorkshire.
St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk.
Holy Cross, Whorlton, North Yorkshire.
Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire.
Lychgate skulls, rumoured to belong to three sheep rustlers. St Wilfrid, Hickleton, South Yorkshire.
All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
St Lawrence, Eyam, Derbyshire.
Seraph defaced. St Michael, Barton Turf, Norfolk.
Medieval rock cut tombs. St Patrick, Heysham, Lancashire.
All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
St Mary and All Saints, Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
St Edmund, Castleton, Derbyshire.
Devil plucking a goose. St Andrew, Holme Hale, Norfolk.
St Margaret, South Elmham, Suffolk.
Fionnphort, Isle of Mull.
All Saints, Bakewell, Derbyshire.
St Mary, Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
St Edmund, Castleton, Derbyshire.
St Mary, Whitby, North Yorkshire.
St Mary, Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
All Saints, Youlgrave, Derbyshire.
Another church mermaid. St Peter and St Wilfrid, Ripon, North Yorkshire.
City Road Cemetery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
St Mary, Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
Rosary Cemetery, Norwich, Norfolk.
St Mary, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire.
Reilig Òdhrain, Isle of Iona.
St Mary, Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
Pennygown, Isle of Mull.
St Mary and All Saints, Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Thomas Crake 1761. Bolton Priory, Wharfedale, North Yorkshire.
St Mary, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire.
St Peter, Thorpe Salvin, South Yorkshire.
St Michael, Oulton Broad, Suffolk.
Holy Trinity, Edale, Derbyshire.
St Mary, Wirksworth, Derbyshire.
The Rudston Monolith, the UK’s tallest standing stone in the somewhat unlikely setting of a parish churchyard. Rudston, East Riding of Yorkshire.