Out and about this afternoon; stopped at the beautiful little church of St. Nicholas in Lower Oddington near Stow-on-the-Wold. This tiny little church has the wonderful medieval wall paintings, possibly the most complete in England; see here http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/glouces/churches/Oddington.htm for more info.

The photo here is of the Doom - it's 32ft long, 15ft high and stretches right across the north wall of the nave. It has been dated to around 1340. One can't help but wonder what the ordinary church-goer entering through the south porch (behind me) would have thought when confronted with this huge painting of the damned going to Hell as they came into the church to worship! Fear of god, perhaps? A picture paints a thousand words and all that, and this was probably much more effective that the priest's fire and brimstone.

And here's the many-doored south porch: