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The church of St Andrews
at
Bishopstone Sussex has Anglo
Saxon origins as can be seen in the sundial above the main door of the
church which bears the name Eadric.The church houses a number of Norman
and pre Norman features and is thought to date from the 8th century.
The church also bears on the corbel
table of the tower two very worn figures which may be male and female
exhibitionists. The female is the more convincing of the two with the
remains of a shallow oval on the underside. The legs are practically
worn away but it was likely that they were bent and the feet
faced towards the wall. You can also still faintly make out the arms
gesturing the groin possibly in a "hands in lap" pose. The face is
faint but can still be made out in the picture above. The jaw is fairly
square unlike its companion two corbels to the right who's head is much
rounder in comparison. The "male" figure, if male it be, is somewhat
less convincing than its female companion. It has a similar pose with
the legs arranged in the same way and what appears to be the remains of
a scrotal sack. This is however open to interpretation. There does
appears to be a large bulge between the legs and small worn
protruberance emantes from this bulge The arms of the figure seem to be
laid
across the chest rather than pointing to the groin.
It's hard to tell if both these figures were once exhibitionist due
to weathering, which has probably been accelerated by the
coastal
location of the church. The CRSBI site mentions both figures
as
a "sheilanagig" sic
but puts a question mark against both.
The context of these corbels i.e. on a Romanesque corbel table counts
in favour of these orginally being exhibitionist but while likely
it's impossible to be sure due to the weathering. (For an
example of a worn figure which has all the attributes, but is unlikely
to be exhibitionist, see the Gloucester
Annus Figure) |
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The church tower. The arrows indicate the two possible
exhibitionist figures. The rest of the corbels include many common
Romanesque motifs such as double heads and beasts. The main porch lies
to the right of the picture. |
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End view of the church. Notice that the decorated tower
corbels go right round the tower. |
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The
main door of the church bears a Romanesque archway.
The sundial abovethe door is thought be Saxon and bears the inscription
'Eadric' preceeded by an equal armed cross. |
