Kelmscott Shadows
02 Monday May 2022
Posted Nostalgia, Photography, Spring
in02 Monday May 2022
Posted Nostalgia, Photography, Spring
in22 Tuesday Feb 2022
Posted Environment, History, Nostalgia, Photography, winter
in23 Friday Apr 2021
Posted Architecture, Crime, Environment, History, Nostalgia, Photography, Social Comment
in11 Thursday Feb 2021
Posted Architecture, Bible, History, Nostalgia, Photography, Poetry, Religion, Social Comment, Writing
inTags
Cistercian, Cotswolds, Great Coxwell, Joseph, monastic wealth, National Trust, Oxfordshire, Pre-Raphaelites, tithe barn, Vale of the White Horse, William Morris
Photo by Candia Dixon-Stuart. Poem published in October 2017 on this site.
Great Coxwell’s Barn
Off Hollow Way stands this vast, vacant barn:
huge receptacle for Cistercian tithes,
garnered from tenant farmers – a dry store,
where the granger checked accounts; did not trust
his hired servants. Here Cotswold riches
were protected from thieves and from decay.
Christ had warned disciples about decay
and storing up of surplus in a barn.
Christians were always meant to share riches
and not to extract profit from fat tithes.
The parable’s ‘fool’ was he whose whole trust
was in possessions. He had wrath in store.
Henry VIII would plunder a marked store
and most abbeys were subject to decay.
Monastic wealth was held in deep distrust.
Though Morris praised this cathedral-like barn,
Pre-Raphaelites would not restore tithes;
they venerated aesthetic riches.
We coveted colonial riches
and viewed the whole world as potential store,
compelling other countries to pay tithes;
forgetting moth and rust would cause decay.
What were the treasures we stored in our barn?
We’ll reap what we sowed: we abused faith, trust.
Joseph, in whom Pharoah had put his trust,
managed underground silos of riches
and, when his brothers came – not to a barn-
but to the pits where corn was kept in store,
did they recall they’d left him to decay
in such a space? (He who asked no tithes.)
This massive hulk, once packed with peasant tithes,
now supported by The National Trust,
mouldered with neglect; died of decay,
until ‘heritage’ was seen as riches.
What are the values we would like to store?
Should we maintain the past? Convert the barn?
Some build barns with their family riches,
but tithes benefited community,
as long as mutual trust did not decay.
14 Monday Sep 2020
Posted Animals, Environment, History, Nature, Nostalgia, Photography
inPhotos by Candia Dixon-Stuart
25 Tuesday Jun 2019
Posted Architecture, Arts, gardens, History, Horticulture, Nostalgia, Personal, Photography, Summer
in09 Thursday May 2019
Acylic painting by Candia Dixon-Stuart
21 Thursday Feb 2019
Posted art, Environment, Nature, Nostalgia, Photography
inTags
Photos by Candia 2018
21 Thursday Feb 2019
06 Wednesday Feb 2019
Posted art, Environment, Nature, Nostalgia, Personal, Photography
in