There’s such a good line in Eva Ibbotson’s The Star of Kazan: ‘It was a lovely church - one of those places which look as though God might be about to give a marvellous party’. It leapt to mind when I first saw the inside of St Mary The Virgin in Huntingfield, Suffolk. (There has been a church here since the 11th century; St Mary’s as it is now dates to the 15th, with some earlier bits).
In 1848 the church got a new rector called William Holland, who arrived with his wife, Mildred. In 1859, Mildred decided that the inside of the church was looking dreary. She decided to repaint not only the wooden harmmerbeam roof but eventually absolutely every single thing that could be painted. Her palette was bold to the point of Fauvism.
She did this work entirely by herself, mostly on her back (probably suspended in a hammock), clambering up rudimentary scaffolding in a Victorian corset and petticoats, for seven years. I imagine her looking determined as she climbs up with a paintbrush clamped between her teeth, with the creatures depicted in the 15th century windows looking up at her admiringly:
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The trippy, Technicolor results of Mildred’s work can still be seen today and apparently come close to what the interior of the church would have looked like in medieval times, before the paint faded. Here’s the roof, taken by me one grey winter afternoon in artificial light (you have to put £1 coins in the slot). Just imagine what that blue is like with the sun shining on it:
Was Mildred Holland bored to death of being a vicar’s wife, and longing to do something satisfying and creative? Was the whole thing an act of devotion? Was she just eccentric? We’ll never know. I like to imagine that she was an outwardly very correct Victorian woman who had done her time having parishioners to tea and making smalltalk and was ready for beauty, brilliance and something (im)proper to do with her time.
She died relatively young, in 1878, presumably satisfied with a job well done, and William carried on being rector, eventually totting up an impressive 40 years. They are both buried in the churchyard. I mentally salute her from the car whenever we pass by.
PS more about the church here. Mildred is also the subject of a novel, The Huntingfield Paintress by Pamela Holmes.
PPS My favourite eccentric vicar is Robert Hawker, who dressed as a mermaid and sang (the sound was reportedly ‘unlike the singing of mortal throats’) on the rocks in Bude, Cornwall.
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Late to the party here, but as an annual visitor to Hawker's church in Morwenstow, you should know that the rev gent also smoked opium...
What an amazing woman and so talented. I've downloaded the book. Thank you to those who have recommended Eva Ibbotson's work. Madensky Square is free to listen to if you have an Audible membership, if that's your thing.