Wonderful news!
Some months back, I posted about the evocative early Christian remains of the Vale of Glamorgan, in South Wales, around such very early centers as Llantwit Major and Llancarfan, which date back to the fifth and sixth centuries. Little did I know that, even as I wrote, archaeologists were making astonishing finds at Llancarfan itself, and these are now being widely publicized.
Briefly, the church in the Late Middle Ages – say around the 1480s – was the setting for some astonishing wall paintings, which were duly covered over as idolatrous at the Reformation:
After the discovery of a thin red line of paint on the wall, a team of experts was brought in to investigate what else was lurking behind the 20 layers of limewash added over five centuries. Now, after five years of restoration work, the church is revealing its treasures: startlingly bold images of the seven deadly sins, a royal family, a ghoulish death figure – and what has been described as one of the largest and most spectacular tableaux of St George and the Dragon ever seen in a British church.
Do read the story, and watch the news video clip there.
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