SVCA Graffiti Log

Mendlesham - St Mary the Virgin

photo Graham Brundell

Hitcham - St Mary

photo Graham Brundell

Little Wenham - All Saints

photo Graham Brundell

Photo Graham Brundell

Photo - Graham Brundell

Photo Graham Brundell

photo Graham Brundell

Netley abbey after the dissolution of the monasteries was converted into a house and in the 18^th century became abandoned. Netley is a small village on the outskirts of Southampton and sits on the banks of the estuary of Southampton Water. The abbey ruins are covered in graffiti but most of it, if not all of it is post medieval. This does not however make it dull. One of the images tells of someone’s job as a painter; where they are from (London) and the date.

The abbey is open to the public and owned by English Heritage.

photo Aldous Rees

Nayland St James

photo Tim Dennis

Exterior only - interior to follow!

St Andrew's - Shalford

Photograph: Frances Barker

Winchester cathedral

Winchester Cathedral: Graffiti everywhere

Winchester Cathedral has a long history and is associated with many Saxon kings of Wessex and England. The most famous of them being Alfred the Great. The cathedral has quite large amounts of graffiti on the pillars and tombs.

Living in Southampton which can only be described as an urban jungle apart from the few old buildings, is hard when you’re used to the rural villages of Suffolk and Essex. This means that I go on many trips to the neighbouring towns and villages just to escape. Winchester being a small town with nice old streets and buildings is a nice way of escaping from the urban jungle of Southampton. Winchester is dominated by its magnificent cathedral.

The cathedral gets many visitors each year, many of which thought I was mad on the day of my visit. This one guy asked what I was doing so I said looking at medieval graffiti. He looked at what I was looking at which had a date of the 1500s and said load of rubbish probably written yesterday. I said who would write something with a date of 1500 and he said humans for you. I suppose you cannot convince everyone, but anyone in the Southampton area who finds fresh looking graffiti with an old date I think I could have found your man!!

The images below show some of the examples found.

photo - Aldous Rees