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The All Saints Haynford Chest

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The Chest

For those of you not familiar with " Frontals" they are pieces of cloth which go over of and then hang down in front of a church altar.  There are usually several in church, changed seasonally and many of the frontals are quite fragile, old, precious or all three.  At All Saints Haynford (sometimes spelled Hainford, by the way) just North of Norwich in Norfolk (UK) they have seven such frontals which were unfortunately being stored folded up in a cupboard which meant they tended to be damaged by creasing.

The Frontals Chest shown opposite allows the frontals to hang vertically from a series of rails.  This is quite a structural challenge as the rails are 10ft long (as is the chest) but it is made from solid oak panelling which does the job and looks stunning.  It should also last for a few hundred years!

The dashing fellows in the picture are Neil Collins (on the left) and John Rush (on the right).  John made the chest while Neil did the carvings (see below)

Carving

On top of the chest is a carving of the church name and the church's crest.  This was done by hand by Neil Collins with mallet and chisel (with a little help from a router to lower the wood around the crest).

For those of a woodcarving disposition, the lettering is done with a 1/4" V chisel.  The font is of a "Gothic" type which actually lends itself very well to carving.

The crest was roughed out with a router and then finished by hand using a selection of gouges and a V chisel to get the sharper edges.

Facts and Figures

  • The chest is around 10ft long, 3ft deep and 4 ft high.
  • The chest is made of French Oak and weighs "a heck of a lot" (probably around 150kg if you're being all scientific!).
  • There are a total of 60 raised panels in the chest.
  • It is finished in Danish Oil which allows the wood to breath and move a bit.
  • It was all made by hand and took many many hours of careful work.

Chests of this type are all custom made and tend to be in the £2000 - £2500 range - depending on size, shape and what sort of carving you want.  If you are interested please contact us at sales@moltenwood.co.uk.