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The
small village of Oaksey lies in Wiltshire some 8 miles from Cirencester
to the North East. It is called Wochesie in the Domesday
book but is also called Occhesei and Wokesey ,Woxy and Wrockeseye
This sheela can be found on
the north wall of the Parish Church of Oaksey Wiltshire. On my first
visit to the church my camera decided to lose most of the pictures (The curse
of the sheelas strikes again?). The sheela can been seen just
to right of the window about half way up.
This sheela is quite
shocking in the explicit and exaggerated carving of the vagina even
including the clitoral hood. The vagina as you can see from the
photograph is incredibly exaggerated. Half of the head has broken off
yet the rest of the carving is in pretty good condition. Inside the
church there are a number of medieval wall paintings .There is an Irish
story, "Da Derga's Hostel" where a hag's pudenda hangs to her knees.
This could almost be a description of this carving. The figures right
hand rests on the the thigh and it looks like a finger points to the
exposed vulva. This pointing motif can be found in other figures
including Lower
Swell and the now destroyed Buncton figure.
I recently revisited the
church to find that some efforts have been made to conserve the carving
by placing a lead roof above it (left). It looks like some effort has
been made to clean the carving and the surrounding masonry has been
re-pointed. It's interesting to note that the carving is being looked
after even in our modern times and is obviously held in some respect or
at least is considered to be worth saving.
A
Romanesque connection
No mention is made of a church in the Domesday book and the current
church, dedicated to all saints, is thought to
go back to the middle of the 13th century. Its architecture contains
elements of the early
English and Perpendicular styles. The sheela na gig motif however
seems to originate from the 12th century especially those with
exaggerated genitals like the Oaksey example. So does this make the
sheela a later example of the motif? There is some tantalising
evidence
that suggests an earlier Norman or Romanesque phase of the church
which is
now less evident, John
Britton in his "Topographical
Sketches of North Wiltshire" in 1826, wrote that the nave and chancel
were
separated by a massive
semi-circular
arch.
Given
that the Early English period (the period directly following the
Romanesque) is distinguished by its pointed rather than
round arches, the existence of the round arch would seem to indicate an
earlier
Romanesque incarnation of the church. It would be interesting to see if
any other evidence of this incarnation is still present in the church.
Further evidence for
Norman activity in the village lies in the remains of Norwood Castle, a
motte and bailey construction to the North West
of the church. In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and
Wales wrote the following "The church is
partly Norman; was recently restored; has some stained windows, and an embattled
tower". This seems indicate
that the round arch fell victim to Victorian "improvement" and was
possibly replaced some time before 1872 with the current Victorian
Gothic arch
that we see
today.
Given
that the round arch points to an older
Romanesque phase of the church, then it would make more sense to
attribute the sheela to that period rather than the later ones. If this
is the case then it seems that the figure was regarded as worth saving
and including in the modifications made to the church down the years.
Gallipot
Eyes
The figure is briefly mentioned in the book Gallipot Eyes by The Flame
Trees of Thika author Elspeth Huxley who lived in the village for a
number of years. Bizarrely the figure is referred to as male!
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