So, having finished a walk around Chaucer’s London for a mother and her two very bright home educated children. I had to walk back over London Bridge and through the City to Aldgate where Chaucer used to live (and where I had parked my bike).
I took a couple of short cuts which I don’t usually take although often in and around this area. St Mary in Lovat Lane was open so I went in to find this amazing relief.
The panel beside it suggests its a sculpture of hope. Well yes, of sorts, if by hope you mean, facing your maker. It represents scenes from the end of days from the Book of Revelation. Jesus stands on a skull, trampling upon Satan, and below the heavenly clouds the Archangels, direct the newly risen from the coffins and graveyards to the Day of Judgement.
I then went past St Margaret Pattens, another Wren Church and was delighted to see a little display on pattens – overshoes worn to keep shoes clean. My ancestor was a beadle for the Patten makers.
My 3xgt-grandparents were married in St Mary at Hill. He was a shoemaker, John Cole from Corton in Suffolk. I went to see it and out of curiosity popped into St Margaret Patten church too and saw the pattens you mention. It made me wonder, was this a shoemaking area, and perhaps that was why John Cole came here?
the pattern makers have been Augusta with the address since the 15th Century. One of my ancestors worked for the pattern makers who made wooden overshoes. The traditional place for shoemakers was around Cornhill in Cordwainers ward. A cordwainer used Cordovan leather from Spain hence their name.
Welcome to the Almanac!