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If this is so, then he is very likely to be St. Walstan of Bawburgh, a saint whose cult was once thought to be confined almost exclusively to Norfolk, not Suffolk¹, although according to his legend, Walstan was born in Suffolk, the son of a prince at Blythburgh. Walstan embraced poverty, and sought work as a farm labourer, becoming in due course renowned for his prayers for sick people and cattle alike. Two calves are said to have drawn his body on a cart to burial, passing through a solid wall in the process. Despite his acquired humble station, East Anglian screens² show him crowned and with a sceptre, and the painter here seems to have taken the same line, giving Walstan aristocratic robes as well as his scythe... [original version of this page]

It is impossible to be sure, and likely to remain so. A (wingless) St. Michael Weighing Souls can be ruled out, I think, but this could of course be another male saint entirely.

The painting below at the right, further east on the north wall and therefore nearer the altar, is probably the Annunciation. In this case, the figure in the clouds is the Archangel Gabriel, crowned as a saint. He holds a broad scroll, the inscription on it unfortunately no longer decipherable. Below, the Virgin wears a flower-wreath on her head (the dark flowers were almost certainly once red or blue) and the object to the right of her is probably a lectern with a book, thus showing her in the act of reading as at nearby Barnby. Again, there is no certainty here, but the attention-demanding breadth of the angels scroll is testimony to the importance of the message on it.

The paintings - the only ones now remaining at Gisleham - are of high quality, and the very striking rays of light are comparable on this site only with those marking the ascent of St. Erasmuss soul to heaven at Chippenham. They also have an un-English look about them that is hard to define but detectable. It seems to me very likely that French or Flemish painters were working in this corner of East Anglia, and nearby Beltons Three Living & Three Dead, unfortunately now represented only by a modern copy, is also a strong candidate for ascription to a Continental painter.

¹The only known wall painting of Walstan is at Cavenham in West Suffolk, and he appears on a screen at Foxearth in Essex. As far afield as Clwyd (formerly Denbighshire) in Wales a stone figure with a scythe at All Saints, Gresford, is said to be the saint. The likelihood is that other representations of him will be found elsewhere. [Carol Twinch, In Search of St. Walstan : East Anglias Enduring Legend, Media Associates, Norwich, 1995. (New edition in preparation).
²e.g. Barnham Broom, Ludham, Sparham (all Norfolk)

Original page created 20/2/01
Page revised 11/3/03

© Anne Marshall 2001