2023, Art, History, Travel, Uncategorized

Higham Ferrers

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When I was a junior in college, I went on a month long seminar to England, France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland sponsored by the Religion and Philosophy Departments at Concordia College in Moorhead. We studied the transition from medieval to modern in thought, literature, art, and architecture. One of our stops was Higham Ferrers, a small town in Northamptonshire noted for its memorial brasses in the church.

The most famous brass is that of Laurence St. Maur, (pronounced Seymour), a parish priest who died in 1337. The brass dates from that time, and was originally on the floor. In 1633 it was placed on a tomb about four feet off the ground. . We were able to do rubbings of the brass on black paper and gold crayons. It is six feet long and two feet wide. I managed to get mine home rolled up in my backpack, had it framed, and managed to haul it to Winnipeg, Indiana, and North Dakota in one piece. He hangs on our hallway with framed Jim Brandenburg photos. You can see the top part of the rubbing below. It was hard to get a good photo without glare.

He doesn’t look too happy. There is an inscription farther down around his chest, ornately decorated robes, and two active dogs at his feet. He doesn’t have a head dress, but I gather that many brasses did, and the brasses were often used to show the decedent’s sense of style. Animals at the feet were often symbolic of how the person died. Flowers were also popular and symbolic. I read about a brass on someone named St. Margaret of Antioch who had a dragon at her feet. I gather that she was swallowed by the Devil in the form of a dragon, and emerged from his side unscathed.

What inscriptions or symbols would you want on your memorial brass?

18 thoughts on “Higham Ferrers”

  2. Maybe Laurence is unhappy because he has no shoulders.
    As someone who aspires to anonymity, why would I want a brass? And where would such a brass be? Certainly not a church.

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I suppose brass was the material that worked for the people wanting to be memorialized at that time, but it does not engage my interest a bit. I like the idea of the rubbing, though. What a fun item to have in your house. I can’t even decide what I want done with my remains when I am gone. I want to be cremated, but then what? Maybe I’ll have my son sneak my ashes into the Landscape Arboretum and toss them into the peonies. But no brass there!

    Phoebe has the zoomies at this moment. Time for her walk if we want to survive the day.

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  7. This is hard for me to answer. I think most people find me to be too serious and maybe I am. I prefer anonymity too.

    I plan to be cremated and have my ashes strewn on the shore of Lake Superior up near the Canadian border. I guess if I had to have something to memorialize me, I’d want it to say that I “sought love, peace, and understanding.”

    Pippin is directly under my feet every moment of every day. He’s older than me (in dog years) so I expect to outlive him. I don’t know about getting another dog. I know I will want one but they sure do make travel hard. So maybe if my image was done in brass relief, like Laurence’s, I’d have Pippin at my feet.

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  9. OT. I have a working HP color printer looking for a good home. Before I list it on Freecycle, I thought I’d offer it to any of the Twin Cities baboons. It works fine, but YA got me a new printer for Mother’s Day.

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