Find Lathbury, Milton Keynes on a map

[Photo:T.Marshall]

Lathbury once had a very fully painted scheme in the nave, including a Doom over the chancel arch and extending on to the north and south walls. Little is left of the paintings now, apart from a scene of Burying the Dead, part of a Seven Works of Mercy sequence.

I have however managed to isolate another fragment, the very fine Virgin intervening at the Weighing of Souls, shown at the right. In the early 1930s the Rev. H. Bull, then Rector of Lathbury, said this:

...By him stands the Virgin Mary, with her crown of glory; in her left hand extended over her shoulder she holds a lily, her right apparently is placed on the beam, as if she were inclining the scale to mercys side The drawing is excellent, and nothing can be more graceful than the Virgin's attitude, the expression of the countenance, and the action, both imply reverent, but prevailing, intercession¹

I think the Virgin at Lathbury may once have been sheltering souls under her cloak - there are hints of faces on the held-out lining, particularly on the right. I have seen a few such details in medieval manuscript painting, so investigation continues on this point.

¹ Rev. H. Bull, Church of All Saints, Lathbury, in Records of Buckinghamshire, Vol. iv, pp.36-42