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Drudgery made divine
Listen to Bishop Stephen reflecting on his walk around Cookham and his love of the work of the artist Stanley Spencer with the Revd Sally Welch
ARRIVING IN Cookham, you can park free of charge at the National Trust Car Park on Cookham Moor, just to the west of the village.
Cookham is a Thameside village made famous by the great English painter Sir Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) who was born here and spent most of his life in the village. He described Cookham as “a village in heaven”, and when he was a student at the Slade School of Art, earned himself the nickname “Cookham” because he talked so much about the place and returned home form London every evening.
Much of Spencer’s work depicts Biblical scenes re-imagined in Cookham. There is a Stanley Spencer walk around the village, based around some of the landmarks in his paintings, available from the Stanley Spencer Gallery (see below).
From the car park, you have choices of routes. For a shorter walk, follow the straight path due north, signed to the Thames Path National Trail. For a longer route, bear left and follow signs for the footpath to Terrys Lane. (You can loop round and rejoin the Thames Path and walk back towards Cookham later.)
Ahead lies the mighty Thames. The author Kenneth Grahame is said to have been inspired by the river at Cookham to write The Wind in the Willows, as he lived in the parish as a child. In the accompanying podcast, Bishop Stephen reflects on his love of the Thames, which runs right through his Episcopal Area. As you walk along the river, you may like to consider the verse: “There is a river that makes glad the city of God” (Psalm 46:4). The river can bring a sense of replenishment and solace, of comfort and strength.
Turn right along the river by the sailing club. You may be able to see the Monarch, which was one of the thousands of small ships that made possible the evacuation of 300,000 men from Dunkirk in the early days of the Second World War. You may like to pause and pray for those in need of rescue in places of conflict today.
At the willow tree, turn right, away from the river and follow the route through the churchyard to the 11th century church of Holy Trinity. The churchyard – where the artist is buried – was a source of fascination for Spencer. He set one of his most important paintings here, The Resurrection, Cookham. The painting was apparently inspired by John Donne's description of a churchyard as "the holy suburb in heaven".
In Spencer’s work, the newly resurrected emerge from their graves in leisurely fashion to experience the joy of their new paradise. The painting is notable for the unrushed pace of the resurrected. As Spencer himself wrote, “No one is in any hurry in this painting.” You might like to ponder the question of hurry: do we need to wait until the day of resurrection before we stop rushing? How do we rebalance our lives so that we find stillness now? Can we regain a sense of Sabbath in our lives?
Inside the church, pause to enjoy the stillness and quiet. You can see a copy of one of Spencer’s most famous religious paintings, The Last Supper. (The original which once hung here is now in the gallery.) The setting is a former malthouse in the village: you can see the red wall of the grain bin in the background. Christ is shown breaking the bread; St John sleeps on his shoulder. The newly washed feet of the disciples are particularly striking. By resetting the Last Supper in Cookham, Spencer has made the story of Christ contemporary.
Inspired by the Spencer heritage, you can see Holy Trinity’s own Stations of the Cross, the work of local artists, on display between Passion Sunday and Low Sunday. The images are positioned throughout the village from Cookham Dean to Holy Trinity, with a service following the route on Good Friday.
As you leave the church, you will see an angel by the church gate. Spencer painted The Angel in 1953, inspired by this sculpture. The Angel also appears in a corner of Parents Resurrecting 1933. The painting shows the stone angel with the church tower in the background. You may also like to look out for the memorial stone to the artist, with a Judas tree planted by the Friends of the Stanley Spencer Gallery to commemorate the centenary of his birth.
Leave the churchyard through the church gate and bear right into the village High Street. The tiny Stanley Spencer Gallery, housed in what was once a Methodist chapel, is on your left. The Gallery opened in 1962, three years after the artist's deat, and is entirely run by volunteers. Bishop Stephen, who is writing a book on Spencer, chose to pause by a single painting, At the Chest of Drawers, 1936, which is an example of his ability to raise ordinary things to a higher plane.
You may like to reflect on the George Herbert poem ‘The Elixir’, a well known hymn, which begins: “Teach me, my God and King/ In all things Thee to see/ And what I do in anything /To do it as for Thee.” Much of Spencer’s work is about “drudgery made divine”, a later line in the poem. You might like to think about how to see God in everything, even in the most ordinary things that we do.
When you leave the Gallery, you can return to the car park by walking left along the High Street, past the Village Memorial.
The Stanley Spencer Gallery is in the Kings Hall, Cookham High Street SL6 9SJ. The Gallery is open daily in the summer (1 April-31 October 2010) from 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Entry costs £3 for adults (£2 concessions, free for under 16s). For more information phone 01628-471885 or see http://stanleyspencer.org.uk. There is a small car park near the Gallery and other car parking around the village. The Gallery is a ten-minute walk from Cookham station. Holy Trinity Church is open during daylight hours.
Do you have a favourite walk where you pray that you’d like to share? Contact us on 01865 208225 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it