St Alfege church, which is marking the 1000th anniversary of the martyrdom of Alfege this year, has taken off the covers to reveal the latest stage of its restoration. The restoration of the tower was completed last year and the next phase, according to St Alfege’s website, was to include “the restoration of the ‘cherubs’ on the drums at ground level, the railings and the repaving of the north east corner.”
But with the work revealed, local historian Horatio Blood has offered a withering assessment of what’s been done. He says:
The once beautifully weathered cherubs on the drums have been subjected to the most hideously brutal and insensitive cleaning imaginable. Previously, the beauty of these much-eroded sculptures lay entirely in the fact that the dirt gave a definition to the carving, and the resulting chiaroscuro possessed them with a mysterious romantic and spiritual aspect that can never be replaced.
All of the qualities bestowed by the passage of time and the onslaught of the elements have been entirely eradicated and consequently these sculptures have lost not just their weathered patina but also their historic integrity and aesthetic value.
Today, they rather sadly resemble ornaments from a garden centre. One friend remarked that they now seem to be sculpted from lard. What makes a bad situation worse, is that the rest of the portico has not been cleaned so the drums and cherubs now resemble newly fitted gleaming false teeth grinning from a battered old face.
What do you think of the newly restored cherubs?
