The eighteenth-century scriptural text boards of Romney Marsh Churches

1 THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES gillian m. metcalfe Fifty-three text boards survive in ten churches on Romney Marsh and its sur-rounding parishes (see Map 1), almost all dating from the late eighteenth century. Forty-seven are oval, four are rectangular and two are ovals painted onto rectangular backgrounds. Each is elegantly lettered with a scriptural text from the Old Testament, the Psalms, or the New Testament, several of which reoccur in different churches.1 The physical locations of the boards make close inspection in many churches challenging without the use of specialist safety equipment for working at height. However, with the specific permission of Church authorities at Brenzett and Burmarsh, archetypal examples were accessed and used as comparators with those hanging at other sites (Figs 1-4). The original purposes and meanings of the boards are unclear and for the most part they are ignored by visitors and worshippers alike, or simply viewed as part of the fabric of the buildings in which they hang. However, on closer inspection they no doubt reflect the overwhelming importance of spiritual beliefs and the conviction of an ever-watchful God felt at the time. This paper reports on an investigation into the provenance and origins of the boards, the criteria for the selection of the scriptural texts displayed, and their historical, geographical, social and political context. It also examines possible purposes of the boards through an appreciation of the liturgy and practices of parish churches in the late eighteenth century. In particular it describes how the Reformation saw the transformation from image to word, the supplanting of the Seven Deadly Sins by the Ten Commandments (Willis 2017) and its relevance to the history of the boards. The scriptures selected for the text boards not only signal adults and children to worship but also urge that the Word be accompanied by moral and virtuous everyday living. Construction, Framing and Calligraphy At first glance the text boards of the Marsh may appear as folk art but their sophistication becomes evident on closer inspection of their beautiful scripts glinting in gold, and promising something precious (Figs 1 and 2). Each bears a message in the form of a text selected from the New Testament, Old Testament, or Psalms and their simplicity and nutshell brevity seem in keeping with the uncluttered, post-Reformation interiors of the Marsh churches. In stark contrast to the elegant fronts with their carefully prepared surfaces and exquisite gold calligraphy, the reverses of the boards tell a different story. Here the boards clearly GILLIAN M. METCALFE 2 Fig. 1 Oval board at Brenzett. Fig. 2 Oval board at Burmarsh. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 3 Fig. 3 Oval board at Brenzett (Fig: 1 reverse). Fig. 4 Oval board at Burmarsh (Fig: 2 reverse). GILLIAN M. METCALFE 4 bear the marks of the hand tools used in the splitting and smoothing of the riven planks and are usually free of gesso or paint. The wood is generally Baltic pine, although some are of Baltic oak, perhaps due to this being both denser and closergrained than English oak due to steadier weather conditions (Odlin 2018). Each board is constructed from a varying number of wooden planks which are joined and archetypically cut to an oval shape. Most are painted black with texts in gold lettering and differ from those found in other English churches which are generally rectangular or painted directly onto plastered walls, many of which would have been obscured by later limewash. The construction of the text boards is similar in many ways to seventeenthcentury examples of supports for paintings and altar panels found in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. Uzelli (1998) details many elements of panel construction from the selection of wood species, braces, framing, grounds and pest-deterrent through to the finished board. He describes methods of joining planks, preparing with animal glue mixed with garlic against decay, adding up to fifteen coats of gesso and smoothing them with cuttlefish or sand before painting. By the eighteenth century however, the production of panels appears to have been less meticulous. Though the general construction is similar, in the case of the home-spun Marsh boards, there is no evidence of careful preliminary preparation and applications of gesso are lacking. In most cases only the simplest form of moulded or painted frame exists but the arrangement of the plank supports is clearly visible. There is little attempt at achieving a fine finish, at odds with the careful and elegant gold lettering they bear. The care lavished on the beautiful script is more consistent with values appertaining to reverence for God and the holy scriptures: The Word of God is highlighted in gold. Describing boards in the Marsh churches, Organ comments that ‘the mostly oval but sometimes rectangular or square painted boards were usually in oil, the scripts either painted or gilded’.2 He does not specify particular boards or churches, holding that in his experience their construction is varied and that some may have been repainted, but that this is difficult to verify without closer inspection. This investigation concludes that their general construction and calligraphy are similar, as are the oval templates used, and that in all likelihood many originated from the same workshop(s). However, there are exceptions which are described later in this article. It is also possible that the boards were made by the same craftsmen who painted the Royal Arms of George III, so many of which hang in the Romney Marsh churches. Two of these armorial boards are attributed to J. Marten, painter and sculptor of Tenterden, situated on the fringes of the Romney Marsh. He is known to have worked between 1760 and 1801, but there is no record of his workshop. Another painter of Royal Arms was E. Bishop, also of Tenterden, but again no record has been found to indicate the site of his premises (Young 2021).3 Due to their locations in each of the churches, access to many of the boards is difficult without specialist safety equipment for working at height. However, permission was obtained from the Dean and clergy to remove two sets of boards at Brenzett, St Eanswith, and at Burmarsh, All Saints, from the walls and have been closely examined for comparison (Figs 1-4). At Brenzett the boards are constructed from nine planks to form an oval measuring approximately 38 x 29 x 1in. (96 x 74 x 2cm). The only surviving board at Burmarsh has four planks, having two wide middle planks and a narrow plank above and below. This oval is smaller and EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 5 measures approximately 34.5 x 29 x 1in. (88 x 74 x 2cm) and it is possible that it was reduced in size due to decay or damage. This idea is further supported by the diminishing scroll decoration, which is unlikely to be contemporaneous, at both the upper and lower edges, the differing calligraphy of the scriptural source and the foreshortening of the original braces (Fig. 4). The backs of the boards are rustic in appearance with little at tention to finish, in stark contrast to the embellished fronts. At Brenzett, for example, three of the four backs are unpainted, strengthened against warping by two braces, with one board having three. The battening would also have held the boards away from the damp walls to help protect them from decay. They are unprofessionally hung, two on frayed string, one on a piece of plastic clothes-line and one on a length of orange baler-twine (Fig. 3), more usually employed to secure bales of hay! There are signs of repair to the frame of one, suggesting that it has, not surprisingly, suffered a fall in the past. The board at Burmarsh is strengthened against warp by two original braces and four later ones and is securely hung on a hook by a number of strands of wire (Fig. 4). At both churches the ovals are constructed with planks joined by the carvel method of alignment often found in eighteenth-century shipbuilding. This supports the notion that local carpenters may have made the boards, many of whom would have experience as shipwrights surrounded as they were by winding waterways worked by the Marsh barges, and by the sea on three sides. Off-cuts from Kentish weatherboarding and coffin carpentry may also have been used in shaping the ovals. In contrast, the calligraphy of the texts on the faces of the boards is of high order and generally painted meticulously in a uniform style. The boards examined Map 1 The text-board churches (shown unshaded); six are on Romney Marsh proper and four in parishes on higher ground overlooking it (Appledore, Kenardington, Warehorne and Bilsington). GILLIAN M. METCALFE 6 at Brenzett and Burmarsh are rendered in gold paint rather than gold leaf which corresponds with Organ’s assessment. It is likely that they were lettered either in local workshops or by itinerant craftsmen who more usually specialised in signwriting inns, shopfronts, tradesmen’s carts and fairground signs. In the eighteenth century these skilled calligraphers were considered elite vernacular craftsmen. The font appears to be descended from Humanist Minuscule, in turn developed from Carolingian script, and painted in a clear round hand. It resembles Geographica, a style invented by Thomas Jefferys for map-drawing in the sixteenth century. Notable exceptions are found at Bilsington and Kenardington where first sentences begin with Gothic capitals, suggesting they were painted by a different hand. However, all the boards retain the long Carolingian ‘S’ which by the late eighteenth century, had slipped out of fashion and been largely abandoned by printers. It did, however, remain popular for religious and domestic scripts. Geographica is the forerunner of the modern typeface, now known as ‘Geographica Bold’ – said to be easy on the eye (Willson 2016) and appearing to flow smoothly from nib or brush. It was essential that The Word of God was legible and accessible to all. Exceptions to the archetypal black ovals with gold script can be found at Warehorne, Bilsington and Kenardington, all on the marshland fringes, where black lettering on a white background is favoured. At Warehorne the white ovals are painted on black rectangular boards and their finish suggests an amateur hand or a later overpainting (Fig. 5). Each is assembled from four planks, clearly visible through the thin paint. Also at Old Romney are four white rectangles on canvas Fig. 5 White oval at Warehorne. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 7 with black lettering, each within a Rococo-style painted frame (Fig. 6). There are a good number of other examples of scriptural text boards in Kent churches. For example, Elham Church has a fine set of square boards set diamond-wise above the nave arches. Badlesmere Church has six rectangular boards with castellated frames identified by a London framing company as an expensive ‘Kent’or ‘Paladian’ style dating between 1685 and 1748. However, no such frames have come to light on the Marsh so far. The Marsh boards are framed either with an applied moulding or, more archetypically, with a simple narrow or repeated border motif painted in gold directly around the rim (Figs 1 and 2). Some show signs of having been underpainted red, which may suggest that at one time they were gilded rather than painted, but again there are exceptions. At Bilsington and Kenardington, the wider two-inch borders at first appear to be applied, but on closer examination are painted directly onto the surfaces with decorative, but not identical, repeated floral motifs. At Ivychurch, Kenardington and Burmarsh, and the four rectangular boards at Old Romney, the framing and borders are ornamented with Rococo-style scrolls and flourishes and were perhaps added later. The exact purpose of the applied mouldings is unknown, perhaps as a practical precaution to add strength to the Fig. 6 Canvas board at Old Romney. GILLIAN M. METCALFE 8 construction. However, framing the texts in general may also have been a means of focusing attention on The Word of God, to separate the mundane from the spiritual, the worldly from more cognitive perception and understanding. In addition to its rectangular boards, Old Romney also has two black ovals which more closely resemble the archetypal boards of Brenzett and Burmarsh. They are said to have been given to Old Romney in 1937 in exchange for two Chinesestyle gates by Ivychurch (Hendy 2018) which originally had a total of thirteen text boards (Hendy 2020).4 Certainly, there are two such gates in existence at Ivychurch today, both painted apple green and separating the north and south chapels from the chancel. However, the two ovals donated to Old Romney have plain narrow frames in comparison to the nine that currently reside at Ivychurch which have more decorated frames. Is it possible that the narrow-framed boards were passed to Old Romney because of this aesthetic difference and that Ivychurch similarly donated two other boards to a third, as yet unidentified, church? Or perhaps the boards had already originated from another site. It seems unlikely that this practice of exchanging boards was widespread because frames in other churches are similar to each other. Extensive research of churchwarden’s records, parish notes and inventories held at the Kent Archives have to date revealed nothing further to substantiate the practice of exchange. Liturgy, Literacy and the Political context The boards in the Marsh churches display biblical texts but little is known of their original purpose and how they may have contributed to the religious experiences to congregations. Today, there are still no simple or definitive understandings, but Rutherford (2015, np) holds that during the eighteenth century the Church of England ‘stood for the Establishment, for following the authorized forms of worship ... prescribed by law, and for a moderate-conservative form of politics that supported the monarchy, the state and the social order’. These would be the lenses through which contemporary worshippers interpreted meaning. The purpose of the boards may also be considered through the writings of Court (1997). He suggests that they aided meditation and served as summaries of fundamental Christian ideology in educational contexts. He also observes their use as contemporary slogans to aid missionary evangelism and political propaganda. Thus, the boards may be better understood by considering, firstly their liturgical and devotional aspects, secondly their function as teaching and preaching aids and finally, more dynamically, outside the church in terms of politics. In the context of church liturgy, it is probable that the boards had a role in the communal act of shared response by the congregation, reflecting praise, thanksgiving, and repentance – all active elements of the liturgy. The Word of God had become an important aspect of daily life for ordinary people whose culture of religious awareness through ornamentation and ceremony had been replaced by the austere post-Reformation church interiors, stripped of decoration and both Protestant and proletarian in outlook. From the mid sixteenth century onwards there had been a drive to increase literacy among the lower orders of society. A Royal injunction in 1559 required teachers to accustom scholars above yeoman class to ‘learn such sentences of EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 9 scripture as shall be most expedient to induce them to all godliness’ (Bolton 2019, 54). Lower classes were required to learn through ancient methods of repetition, but in the seventeenth century this began to change and labouring classes were also encouraged to read for themselves. Bolton cites John Brinsley (1619), who held that after a year at school, children should know their alphabet, the Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer, and be able to read any of the metrical psalms and the New Testament. Reading was also promoted by Archbishop Wake in 1721 who encouraged all the children of Romney Marsh to attend school (Hendy 2018). Thus, the driving force for reading continued to centre around religion and by the eighteenth century literacy was perhaps surprisingly widespread in Kent. The ability to read the holy scriptures at first hand brought about a new level of personal responsibility and spirituality. Cornwallis, Archbishop between 1768 and 1783, quietly Calvinistic and broad church with Latitudinarian leanings, intended to take the Church forward in a direction of tolerance (Ditchfield 2012). It is possible that it was he who favoured, or even commissioned, the boards with their simple texts to reinforce the Ten Commandments. This supposition may be supported by the number of boards allowed to remain on display despite subsequent changes to liturgical law. Perhaps the more conservative attitudes held by the ecclesiastical authority of Canterbury underlined their intrinsic ethos and value. Notwithstanding these speculations, if the boards were a typical part of church furnishing at the time their liturgical use would require levels of reading literacy to be widespread within the general population. Educational opportunities in remote agricultural areas like the Marsh were limited and attendance was necessarily irregular, due to the nature of the agricultural labour demands on children. Draper (2018, 77) explains that schools ‘came and went according to demand and the teaching on offer, and generally had no permanent building’ so lessons were often held in the church or the church porch. Homan (1984, 1) supports this view and quotes Clarke (1938) who reported that at the church at Cliffe-at-Hoo ‘the north aisle is used as a day school with all the accompanying juvenile nastiness’. Although some teachers were licensed, lay people including elderly women or ‘dames’, also educated children in their own homes or in redundant buildings (Gillard 2018). There are no specific figures available for Romney Marsh alone, but by the late eighteenth century Everitt (1969) reports that in Kent, sixty per cent of boys and thirty per cent of girls were able to read. According to Draper (2018, 77) this figure may have been influenced by the ‘very early culture of literacy among places that were members of the Cinque Port confederation’ which included the Romney Marsh area. In addition to growing literacy and wider access to broadsheet news, the geographical position of Kent, and in particular Romney Marsh, coloured the local politics of the eighteenth century. Children grew up haunted by the threat of war with France. Geographically Romney Marsh was vulnerable to invasion and by the turn of the century Napoleon’s forces offered a very immediate threat. The fear of war with France, and possible resurgence of Roman Catholicism was widespread, and infiltrated the remotest parts of England. Fear of Papacy reached a climax with the Gordon riots of 1780 following the 1778 Act of Relief for Papists. This allowed Catholics privileges including permission to join the militia and to buy their own land. Beginning in Scotland under Lord George Gordon, a crowd of his supporters GILLIAN M. METCALFE 10 marched on London. By the time they reached Parliament they numbered around forty thousand, many of whom were aligned with the Protestant Association. They presented a peaceful petition, but the next day angry mobs attacked Catholic homes and businesses, burning, looting and murdering. More than three hundred were killed. The Act marked a political turning point as the army, already stretched in Europe and America, needed more men, and regardless of the riots, the Act was not repealed until 1871 (Haywood and Seed 2012). In response, the Church of England became increasingly defensive, seeking ways to combat growing tensions, not only by the threat of war, and possible return to Roman Catholicism, but also because of the increasing popularity of Non- Conformism. John Wesley and the Methodist Church, of which there were many forms, were particularly popular and well organized.5 The dissenters movement was strong in Kent and demonstrated a leaning towards independence and individuality in a preponderantly agrarian society (Austen 1930). Here it flourished due not only to the loneliness and isolation of Marsh hamlets and dwellings, but to the charismatic itinerant preachers which included John Morley, one of Wesley’s many travelling followers on the Kent and Sussex circuit, who visited them (Lenton 2022).6 Everitt (1969) states that general religious allegiance in the 1851 census shows sixtyfive percent of all church attendances in Kent were Anglican and thirty-five per cent were Non-Conformist, holding that most dissenters lived in rural areas. The perceived threats to the established church were furthered by the teachings of the so-called Rational Dissenters who based their arguments on science believing that this would bring them nearer to God (Smith 2019). Though few in number, and disliked by both Anglicans and Orthodox Dissenters, they rejected notions of the Trinity, original sin and the established hierarchy of the Church. The proliferation of the text boards during this period of British history can be seen as a useful means of propaganda in spreading The Word of God. That the texts favoured the established order of Church and State is perhaps not surprising, but the tenor of the selected scriptures also advocates virtuous forms of social behaviour. For example, James 1 v.22 ‘be ye doers of the word and not hearers only’ recurs three times urging that the Word of God be accompanied by action. Although there is no known record of this on the Marsh, Needham (1881, 68- 69) recounts how the American evangelist Henry Moorhouse used text boards as a ‘weapon of warfare … we went forth with text-boards belted upon us and lifted above the heads of all’. The boards were carried in procession to spread The Word and advertise their bearer’s religiosity. In the Marsh churches the text boards hung alongside the Royal Arms which further intensified awareness of the monarchical laws and ecclesiastical allegiances. Earlier in the century, the fabric and furnishings of many parish churches had deteriorated as their growing, and largely poor congregations, were unable to pay for repairs. With the support of the archbishop, the 1818 Church Building Act provided the much needed funds, ostensibly to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic wars, but also to stem the tide of religious dissent and the ungodly behaviour of parishioners (White 1962). Thus, as Homan (1984, 1) points out, the Act also encompassed more political motives than ever, ‘since 1789 revolutionary ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity had been current within twenty-one miles of Dover beach’ and the Marsh. In this light, the text boards may be better understood as part of a much wider Calvinistic EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 11 propaganda campaign, as advertisements for the Church of England against the threat of dissent or a return to Roman Catholicism. The established church must have felt under siege from many quarters. Content and Interpretation Along with the text boards described thus far, many of the Marsh churches still retain their Commandment boards bearing the Decalogue, Lord’s Prayer and Creed. Some are in their original positions above the altar, but as the Oxford movement gathered pace in the mid-nineteenth century, most were relocated to other parts of the churches, often to the far end of the south aisle. Only Fairfield, Ivychurch and Old Romney retain their Commandment boards above the altar which may suggest Calvinistic sympathies by patrons or incumbents at these establishments. Like many of the text boards these also have fine gold lettering and formed an important part of the liturgy. In post-reformation England the Decalogue became ubiquitous in religious invocation, moral education, church aesthetics and theological dogma (Willis 2017) and the text boards praise, reflect and underline The Word of God found on the Commandment boards. Table 1 records the scriptural sources of each text board and analysis indicates that ten of these sources recur at different sites; four are shared across three churches and six more across two churches (Table 2). They are taken from a variety of bible versions and from the New and Old Testaments and the Psalms (Table 3). Their interpretations may be categorized as literal or plain meaning, moral and ethical, allegorical and foretelling of the life to come, but this is perhaps too general. As Court (1997, 135) points out, the choice of text reflects concerns for upright and ethical living and examines the possibilities inherent in ‘the pervasive effect of some biblical themes and traditions which recur so often over the centuries within the quotation and the iconography.’ Allegory would have been a familiar approach to understanding as would the hidden signs and symbols that suggested particular meanings and ideas – a foreshadowing of people, events and objects which relate to both the Old and New Testaments. To take the texts at face value, therefore, may be to misinterpret their original purpose. For example, a board at Fairfield begins ‘Watch thy foot when though goest to the house of God’ (Fig. 7). Nicolson (2021, np) describes Fairfield as a ‘watery, Noahish, house on rock, house on sand,’ and contends that all the texts at Fairfield were specifically chosen to reflect the marshy surroundings of the church.7 It has even been suggested that whoever was responsible for selecting them had a sense of humour because in the eighteenth century the church could only be approached by boat or across waterlogged, muddy fields abounding in sheep droppings (Homan 2021).8 But considering this particular board as an allegorical rather than literal example, the foot may symbolize taking the path of past, present and future when entering the House of God, or simply a warning to take care to apply wisdom to whatever situation life offers. Court (1997) suggests that for today’s viewers ways of handling these texts and interacting with them is increasingly difficult. He states that ‘possibilities for explorations seem almost infinite, not only beyond the present frontiers, but also in efforts to understand how earlier generations related to their chosen texts’ (Court 1997, 135). The hermeneutics of the texts is demanding and GILLIAN M. METCALFE 12 TABLE 1. SCRIPTURAL SOURCES AND TEXTS BY CHURCH (King James version unless specified in notes) Text Scriptural source Notes APPLEDORE, St Peter & St Paul Six black ovals with narrow gold borders and scripts. Now my God let I beseech thee thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. II Chron. 6 v.40 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Gal. 6 v.10 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matt. 5 v.16 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Micah 6 v.8 Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. Psalms 3 v.1 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I Timothy 1 v.15 BILSINGTON, St Peter & St Paul Seven white ovals with black script. Wide frames with painted floral border. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Collos. 3 v.16 Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. Mark 10 v.14 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Matt. 7 v.12 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 13 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. Matt. 22 v.37 This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matt. 22 v.38-39 Blessed be he that considereth the poor and needy: the Lord shall deliver him in time of trouble. Psalms 41 v.1 Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. II Timothy 4 v.2 BRENZETT, St Eanswith Four black ovals with narrow gold borders and scripts. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers; let him not leave us nor forsake us. I Kings 8 v.57 I will come into thine house, ever upon in the multitude of thy mercy; and in thy fear of you will I worship toward thy holy temple. Psalms 5 v.7 attributed to King James v.7 but reads as Coverdale v.6: thus thine/ cf. thy; ‘ever upon’ and ‘of you’ omitted; ‘in’ the multitude added Praise the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within me, praise his holy name. Psalms 103 v.1 New English Translation, ‘praise’ substituted for ‘bless’ (twice) in KJV Praise the Lord, O my Soul, and forget not all his benefits. Psalms 103 v.2 New International Version, ‘Praise’ substituted for ‘Bless’ BURMARSH, All Saints One black oval with gold script. Decorative border with gold scroll. Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Gal. 5 v.9 FAIRFIELD, St Thomas Becket Eight black ovals with narrow gold borders and scripts. Now my God, let I beseech thee, thine eyes to open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. II Chron. 6&40 sic, &40 read as v.40 GILLIAN M. METCALFE 14 Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Eccl. 5 v.1 v.1 wrongly ascribed as v.22 Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1 v.22 v.22 wrongly ascribed as v.12 The LORD our GOD be with us, as he was with our fathers: Let him not leave us nor forsake us. I Kings 8 v.57 Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Mark 10 v.14 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy GOD. Micah 6 v.8 Serve the Lord in fear: and rejoice unto him with reverence. Psalms 2 v.11 ‘reverence’ substituted for ‘trembling’ We wait for thy loving kindness O GOD, in the midst of thy temple. Psalms 48 v.8 Geneva Bible IVYCHURCH, St George Nine black ovals with narrow gold borders and scripts. Later ornate decoration added. Be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners. I Cor. 15 v.33 Let all bitterness & wrath, and anger and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Ephe. 4 v.31 Let us not be weary in welldoing for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Gal. 6. v.9 He was afraid & said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of GOD and this is the gate of heaven. Gen. 28 v.17 Let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works. Heb. 10 v.24 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the LORD. Heb. 12 v.14 Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1 v.22 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 15 Jesus said, Suffer little Children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 19 v.14 O come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Psalms 95 v.6 KENARDINGTON, St Mary Four white ovals with black script. Wide frames with painted border, possibly of flower & bee. (Boards similar to Bilsington. Bees are said to represent ‘the sweet rewards to be earned from industriousness’ (Hall 1983, 333)) All go unto one place, all are of the dust and all turn to dust again. Eccles. 3 v.20 The voice said Cry, and he said What shall I cry, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flowers of the field. Isaiah 40 v.6 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58 v.1 Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. Mark 10 v.15 OLD ROMNEY, St Clement Two black ovals with narrow gold borders and scripts. Four rectangles on white canvas with black script and ornate painted borders. The two oval boards were given in 1937 by Ivychurch in exchange for two Chinese style gates. Both are from the King James Bible Now my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. II Chron. 6 v.40 Oval board The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: Let him not leave us, nor forsake us. I Kings 8 v.57 Ditto O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. Deut. 32 v.29 Rectangular canvas board Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh. Matt. 24 v.42 & 44 Ditto Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily as at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. Prov. 8 v.34 Ditto GILLIAN M. METCALFE 16 Do well, O Lord: unto those that are good and true of heart. As for such as turn back unto their own wickedness the Lord shall lead them forth with the evil doers, but peace shall be upon Israel. Psalms 125 v.4 & 5 Rectangular canvas board with script from the Episcopal version of the Book of Common Prayer SNARGATE, St Dunstan Six black ovals with narrow gold borders and scripts. O that they were wise, that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end. Deut. 32 v.29 All go unto one place, all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Eccles. 3 v.20 Wrongly ascribed on text board as v.25 The voice said Cry and he said what shall I cry, all flesh is grass and all goodliness thereof is as the flower of the fields. Isaiah 40 v.6 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Isaiah 58 v.1 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. James 1 v.22 But when Lord Jesus saw it he was much displeased, and said unto them Suffer ye little children to come unto me & forbid them not, for of such is ye kingdom of God. Mark 10 v.14 WAREHORNE, St Matthew Two white ovals painted on black rectangular boards with black script. FOR he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. I Peter 3 v.10 THIS is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. I Timothy 1 v.15 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 17 TABLE 2. SCRIPTURAL SOURCE BY CHURCH SOURCE CHURCH(ES) SOURCE CHURCH(ES) II Chron. 6 v.40 Appl/ Fair/ Old R Matt. 7 v.12 Bils Collos. 3 v.16 Bils Matt. 19 v.14 Ivyc I Cor. 15 v.33 Ivyc Matt. 22 v.37 Bils Deut. 32 v.29 Old R/ Snar Matt. 22 v.38-39 Bils Eccl. 3 v.20 Kena/ Snar Matt. 24 v.42 & 44 Old R Eccl. 5 v.1 Fair Micah 6 v.8 Appl/ Fair Ephe. v.31 Ivyc I Peter 3 v.10 Ware Gal. 5 v.9 Burm Prov. 8 v.34 Old R Gal. 6 v.9 Ivyc Psalms 2 v.11 Fair Gal. 6 v.10 Appl Psalms 3 v.1 Appl Gen. 28 v.17 Ivyc Psalms 5 v.7 Bren Heb. 10 v.24 Ivyc Psalms 41 v.1 Bils Heb. 12 v.14 Ivch Psalms 48 v.8 Fair Isaiah 40 v.6 Kena/ Snar Psalms 95 v.6 Ivyc Isaiah 58 v.1 Kena/ Snar Psalms 103 v.1 Bren James 1 v.22 Fair/ Ivyc/ Snar Psalms 103 v.2 Bren I Kings 8 v.57 Bren/ Fair/ Old R Psalms 125 v.4 & 5 Old R Mark 10 v.14 Bils/ Fair/ Snar I Timothy 1 v.15 Appl/ Ware Mark 10 v.15 Kena II Timothy 4 v.2 Bils Matt. 5 v.16 Appl A total of 39 different sources, 29 specific to a particular church, 10 repeated across two (6) or three (4) churches. All texts at Snargate appear elsewhere. TABLE 3. SOURCE GROUP, BOARD SHAPE TYPES AND GENERAL CHARACTER BY CHURCH Church Old Test. New Test. Psalms Commandmants Gen. prayers Oval boards Rect. boards Dedicatory Appledore 2 3 1 4 2 6 - - Bilsington - 6 1 5 1 7 - - Brenzett 1 - 3 - 1 4 - - Burmarsh - 1 - - 1 1 - - Fairfield 4 2 2 5 2 8 - 1 Ivychurch 3 1 - 8 1 9 - - Kenardington 1 7 1 2 2 4 - - Old Romney 4 1 1 3 2 2 4 - Snargate 4 2 - 5 1 6 - 2 Warehorne - 2 - 1 1 2 - - Total 19 25 9 33 14 49 4 3 GILLIAN M. METCALFE 18 to interrogate each in depth would demand greater research and comment than is possible here. In most of the churches the text boards are hung above the nave arches, so high as to be indistinct or even unreadable from the ground. At Snargate many are positioned on the south wall between pillars and against the light rendering them indecipherable particularly on a sunny day. At Ivychurch they are so exceptionally high as to be unreadable at almost any time of day without the aid of binoculars! If these were their original locations, did they serve another purpose, perhaps as symbols of The Word as well as a message? Were they so placed as to be nearer to God and out of reach of any superstitious touching? This may well have been an issue in the smaller churches at Brenzett, Burmarsh and Fairfield where wall space is at a premium. At Fairfield the nine boards are crowded onto the four walls, north, south, east and west. At Brenzett the boards are hung low on the north wall, and the board at Burmarsh is also low down but on the south wall. In these positions it would have been very tempting to run a finger over the slightly raised golden letters to be ‘in touch’ with The Word of God! This view may be unacceptable to ecclesiologists who consider that magic and superstition is gnostic and heretical, but touching the illuminated boards may have been believed to ward off evil, something that the superstitious Marsh communities clung to perhaps more than their urban counterparts (Robertson 2021). At Warehorne some claim to have found ‘witch marks’ incised into the stone window sills inside the building, suggesting that it was not unusual for ‘witches’ to practise in and around churches (Fig. 8). If these are authentic, they may reveal a leaning towards magic and superstition amongst members of the congregation and it is possible that the boards held talismanic significance as well as their biblical messages. Fig. 7 Oval board at Fairfield. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 19 Perhaps of more mundane significance is that neither of the two largest Marsh churches at Lydd and New Romney have any surviving boards, while Ivychurch has nine and the diminutive and remote Fairfield has eight, suggesting that in all probability that churches which now lack boards once had them. Many would have been lost, not only through decay but also through successive changes in liturgy and fashion. It was, and still is, quite usual for unwanted church furnishings to be discarded and remain languishing in cupboards, chests, vestries and other dark corners. At the time of writing Ruckinge church tower houses a number of discarded furnishings and for some years the seven boards at Snargate were also squirrelled away under the tower. Here they were stacked, topped by a nineteenthcentury naïve painting of a challis and water-jug and used to support the tea-kettle! Furnishings go in and out of fashion and become irrelevant to the modern life of the church. Their fate seems to hang mostly in the hands of churchwardens and their survival bears witness to their continuing value at least as decorative objects if not as the spiritual objects they once were. Churchwarden records and parish notes for the eighteenth century are particularly scarce for the Romney Marsh parishes, but it does seem likely that churchwardens played an important role both in their care and at their inception. The Snargate churchwarden, William Bourne Junior, commissioned an oval board to commemorate his own input by which he claimed all responsibility for their Fig. 8 ‘Witch mark’ at Warehorne. GILLIAN M. METCALFE 20 provision. The dedication now hangs in the north aisle (Fig. 9). At Elham, near Canterbury, Court (1997) describes a plaque dedicated to two churchwardens who were responsible for the erection and payment of the text boards there. Further evidence uncovered during this research suggests that churchwardens paid for repairs to church structures and fittings at Snargate, Fairfield and Old Romney but apart from these references little direct evidence for the provenance of the boards has been found despite extensive research of the Kent Archives. Conclusion Although as Court (1997, 121) states, ‘the hidden meaning [of the texts] is of primary importance’ it is almost impossible to unravel the exact context and interpretation for each of the scriptural texts. So little is known about who commissioned the boards and when, the original meaning and subtle contextual interpretations are unlikely to be ever fully revealed. Yet what this research does provide is a basis for further research and debate. First it documents the existence of the remaining text boards of Romney Marsh and records their scriptural sources, invaluable for future reference and comparison. Second, it hypothesises the date and age of the boards based on their methods of construction and other corroborating evidence, including the Royal Arms and dedication boards. Third it provides possible insights as to their intended purpose and contemporaneous interpretation and finally, it emphasises how fragile their continued existence is, given that so little scholarly attention seems to have been paid to them. In the 1990s the Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust restored many of the Fig. 9 Dedication at Snargate. EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SCRIPTURAL TEXT BOARDS OF ROMNEY MARSH CHURCHES 21 boards, but there appears to be no record of which were restored and no reports as to their condition by the architects who supervised their cleaning and restoration. Despite this timely intervention their existence is still precarious. For those of us who stand and read them today they provide an intriguing enigma that epitomises an earlier, now secret, formula for living, but which even now may still provide unexpected moments of revelation. It is unknown how many boards have been lost over time and it is imperative that those remaining are carefully preserved, appreciated and cherished for future generations. Whatever their original purpose and meaning, they deserve to be viewed as jewels amongst the relics of church furnishings and they certainly deserve better than to be treated as casually as a bale of hay. acknowledgements The author is most grateful to Dr Jane Evershed for unfailing practical help and enthusiasm, and to Professor Roger Homan for encouragement, support and guidance, and for his extensive ecclesiastical knowledge. Thank you also to members of The Romney Marsh Historic Churches Trust including Joan Campbell, David Carder, John Hendy, and to Izzy Skinner for her valuable assistance with the photographic illustrations, and many others who were so generous with time and expertise. bibliography Austen, E., 1930, ‘‘The Affair at Rolvenden’, John Wesley and the Magistrate at Rolvenden, The Conventicle Act’, Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society, vols 17- 18, pp. 113-136. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/AJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved= 2ahUKEwif1o3qksv4AhXEQEEAHTY1ALUQre8FegQIIhA6 Bolton, M., 2019, ‘Elizabethan and Early Stuart Thanet: The expansion of education provision and its impact on literacy levels’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxl, pp. 53-67. Court, J., 1997, Reading the New Testament, Routledge. Ditchfield, G., 2012, ‘A Neglected Archbishop of Canterbury: Frederick Cornwallis’, Archaeologia Cantiana, cxxxii, pp. 228-229. 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Willson, B., 2016, Geographica, Three Islands Press. endnotes 1 In addition, Commandment boards display the Decalogue, Lord’s Prayer and Creed, though only three Marsh churches retain them in their original positions above the altar, others having been relocated to less prominent positions. 2 Organ, T., pers. comm. to the author dated 21 July 2021. Art Conservation Ltd of Faversham, Kent, specialist art conservation consultants and conservators. 3 Young, C., pers. comm. to the author dated 8 July 2021. Curator at Tenterden Museum. 4 Hendy, J., pers. comm. to the author dated 20 May 2020. 5 Although Methodists cannot really be regarded as Dissenters before c.1800. 6 Lenton, J., pers. comm. to author dated 15 February 2022. Wesleyan Historical Society. 7 Nicolson, A., pers. comm. to the author dated 21 June 2021 on his lecture to the Romney Marsh Historical Society. 8 Homan, R, pers. comm. to the author 12 July 2021. Professor of Religious Education, Brighton University.