Worth a thousand words: Examining medieval wall-paintings at Goodrich Castle

Of the more-than 400 sites and monuments that are currently cared for by English Heritage, around a fifth are known to have surviving wall paintings. These vary greatly in date and design (and condition), ranging from later 2nd-century images of nymphs adorning painted wall plaster at Lullingstone Roman Villa in Kent to much more recent decorations like those seen at Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s holiday home on the Isle of Wight. The vast majority of these sites, though, date to the medieval period – among them, Goodrich Castle near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, which forms the focus of this article.

It was already known that the castle’s chapel (which is housed in one of the towers of its gatehouse) contained the remains of a very simple paint scheme, with a white, lime-washed background applied directly to its stonework, over which regularly spaced red lines run both horizontally and vertically in imitation of neatly cut masonry blocks. This was a common, convenient, and quick way to cover large areas of wall space, and variations on this theme, some very plain, some incorporating more ornate elements, have been recorded in both sacred and secular settings at medieval sites across the country. Now, though, a recent survey of the version at Goodrich Castle (which survives only as poorly preserved fragments) has revealed that the chapel’s interior was once much more elaborate, including detailed figurative scenes.

This new discovery emerged during a long-running audit that English Heritage has been undertaking since 2019, systematically inspecting all of the sites in its care that have documented wall-paintings in order to assess their condition and conservation needs. During this work, external conservation consultants Stephen Rickerby and Lisa Shekede were commissioned to examine all of the areas of Goodrich Castle chapel where patches of the ‘masonry’ design were known to exist. The pair were in the process of recording two window embrasures (internal recesses) when – ‘to their astonishment’, English Heritage Wall Paintings Conservator Sophie Stewart said – they spotted something strikingly different and completely unexpected.