As a Salisbury City Guide, St Thomas' Church is definitely my favoured stop when doing the city tour, as well as my favourite church within the city. I am not the only one to favour it; Nikolaus Pevsner, the acclaimed Art and Architecture historian (The Buildings of England - 1951/74), described the interiors as "sumptuous".
The nave, with its new pews and altar, is bathed in a wonderful light through large windows, and the nave roof is "ornate and dainty". It is warm (heated), welcoming with guides and volunteers serving coffee to faithful parishioners, and both the structure of the building and its precious historical collection have been restored very thoughtfully, all supervised by Reverend Canon Kelvin Inglis, Rector of St Thomas' Church and Canon of Salisbury Cathedral.
Salisbury Cathedral was built for the glory of God from 1220, as the crown of the wealthy parish of Old Sarum created in 1075 by Bishop Herman when he united the dioceses of Sherborne and Ramsbury; today it is made up of 582 churches.
From the mid-thirteenth century, a few decades after the birth of New Sarum (Salisbury's official name until 2009), the city itself was divided into three parishes: St Edmund's, St Martin's and St Thomas'. St Thomas' Church (named after Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury) was originally the site of a small wooden chapel built in 1219 by Bishop Poore as a place of worship for those working on the site of the new cathedral. As the parish grew it was soon replaced by a stone building with a mix of flint and limestone in the early Gothic style, flint being the 'poor' material found aplenty around chalky Salisbury Plain.
In the mid-fifteenth century the chancel collapsed. The church was therefore rebuilt and enlarged in the style of the time called Gothic Perpendicular (what the rest of the world now call the English Gothic). The sixteenth century saw a major event in the history of the church in England with the Reformation initiated by Henry VIII. During the Dissolution of the Monasteries the King sent his men to destroy the catholic imagery in all the churches of England, including St Thomas'. The church was ransacked, the statues of the Saints were destroyed and the brightly decorated walls whitewashed (apart from a small section at the south east of the church).
It was only in 1819 that a treasure was rediscovered above the chancel arch... what we now called The Doom Painting; basically a representation of purgatory, sinners being judged before entering the Kingdom of Heaven... Judgement Day! SUCH a treasure that they whitewashed it again! Fortunately, a sketch had been done that prompted its rediscovery for good in 1876 and its final restoration in 2019.
It is now the pride of St Thomas', attracting many visitors. So, let's explore why.
First of all it is the largest, most complete and best preserved Doom Painting in England (there are around 60 left in England), being a catholic concept most representations were destroyed during the Reformation. It's also a very good depiction of the medieval psyche; indeed, most people could not read, so pictures told you what would happen if you were not a good Christian. But mostly, it is an 'awesome' painting, full of bright colours and vivid illustrations.
Let's interpret the iconography of the painting:
We are not sure who painted it, but it is thought that it was a pilgrim monk around 1470. One of the clues for this is at the bottom of the spandrel on the left-hand side: St James, the Patron Saint of Pilgrims.
At the centre of the picture is Jesus, seated on a rainbow. Several references to the Bible can be seen here: his hands and feet show blood and the nail marks of the crucifixion, on his right is the pillar on which he was whipped before being crucified and to the left of him is the cross with a crown of thorns on it which was placed on his head as a mocking gesture by the Roman soldiers. Beneath Jesus are the 12 apostles, the judging panel, to the left of Jesus is the Virgin Mary in a traditional blue gown and to the right is John the Baptist who predicted the imminence of the final judgement.
Behind Jesus is an artist's impression of the Kingdom of Heaven painted as the audience would imagine it, with medieval architecture. In the sky above you see the sun and the moon, it is said that on the day of Jesus' death there was an eclipse.
On the bottom left of the painting 'the walking dead' rise from their grave to travel to their final destination led by various angels. They are all naked apart from the shrouds that they are taking off, it is also a way to show that everyone will be treated equally. There are still a few symbols of who they might have been: crowns for kings or queens and a bishops mitre (ceremonial headdress).
BUT, on the right hand side is the gruesome "Highway to Hell" with the Prince of Darkness beckoning souls to come forward, his bird like foot encroaches onto the arch. On his right is a lady all dressed up carrying a jug of beer being pulled down by one of the demons. I thought for a long time she was presenting beer to the poor souls who were going to be very hot or maybe a symbol of temptation; I have since discovered that she might have been depicting a real woman of Salisbury called Agnes Bottenham the landlady of a brothel, The Rai d'Or, which is still in existence as a public house. She later repented by opening the Trinity Hospital of the Poor in 1390, now known as the Salisbury Almshouses... was it enough to save her though?
Another interesting figure, at the bottom right, is the miser holding two bags of coins being seized by a demon with black marks on his arms where he has been held tightly.
The dead are dragged towards Hell by demons who hold them bundled in chains and contorted by pain with flames rising from the ground. Amongst them is a king, a queen and a bishop; there is an expression in England "never judge a book by its cover", the French equivalent is "the cloak does not make the monk". Well it seems the sinners have been discoved whatever their attire and they will be munched at any time by a huge dragon's head whose top jaw is held by one of the demons. The message in Latin, on a scroll at the bottom, summarises all: 'Nella est redemption' - 'no escape for the wicked'!
The painting is placed so that it can be seen by all the parishioners in the nave, which would hopefully deter them from commiting sins that would condemn them to Hell forever... but... I heard... somewhere... we are all sinners!
There are many more artefacts to discover in St Thomas', join one of our walks for more.
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