Misericord

The word misericord doesn’t sound a bit like the thing it is… it sounds horrid and sad and maybe a little threatening… in fact it is only a little ledge under a folding seat in a church. If you can imagine a row of individual seats which fold up against the back of the row so people could stand to pray, and if you looked at the underneath of the seat which is now folded up, you might see a little ledge which you could lean on as you stood,well, that’s a misericord.

Often found  in old churches (and copied in some newer ones) this hidden item is often beautifully and intriguingly decorated. There might be Biblical or religious scenes, or there might be pagan figures, satyrs, wild men, Jack in the Green, or there might be characters from the local village, the man with the big nose, the mighty woman stronger than her husband, players in the band… or it might be something from myths and legends like the curious half deer half fish in my featured image.

The name is supposed to come from the Latin for mercy, it was a mercy-seat, to help the old and infirm in particular as they stood to pray, and dates from about the thirteenth century in English churches, so some of the carvings you can still see today are very old indeed.

We were in Rippon Cathedral last year and saw some lovely examples, I’d love to go and see them again, they were fascinating!