St.Christopher

Now, move down the centre aisle in the nave until you are opposite the pulpit, – near to the brass lectern. On the opposite wall is a magnificent painting of’ St. Christopher carrying the Christ-child. It was painted around 1380 and belongs to the second layer. It has several unusual features.
If you look carefully at St. Christopher’s left hand you’ll see that he has six fingers, a biblical symbol of men of great strength, – though its possible of course that recent cleaning has uncovered a mistake by the artist!
Look too at the bottom of his staff. It has been made to form two fish prongs. The fish themselves have been identified as burbot, perch, roach and eel, all very common in the undrained fen which surrounded Willingham then.
Immediately to the left of St. Christopher is a much later 17th century painting of St. Simon, part of the fourth layer showing a series of Apostles. St. Simon was often associated with a saw, and you can just see the zig-zag teeth of a cross-cut saw rising from Simon’s right foot to a point behind the wooden angel above. The draughtsmanship of these later paintings was not as good as the earlier ones. Perhaps its because there just weren’t as many paintings being commissioned by then. Look at his club-like foot, for instance, his small head, and his rather grotesque hand.
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