Among the many things of interest to be found on the walls of our parish churches up and down the country are those fairly large lozenge shaped Heraldic Paintings known as hatchment, usually painted on canvas within a wooden frame about 4 feet deep.
The hatchment was originally displayed over the front door of the house of a dead person, whose arms it portrayed, and remained there until the deceased person was buried in the local church, whence it was then conveyed and hung on the wall of the nave aisle until a tomb or monument was erected. Fortunately for us, many of these hatchments were not removed after the tomb was made. 
The custom of painting hatchments started at the end of the seventeenth century and has continued until our time, although new hatchments are very rare indeed.

St Mary’s has several dating back as far as the 17th century, and at the moment, there is a restoration programme under way.
The first two went off to the conservators in November 2012.
(Follow November 2012 for more)

The next one for restoration was in a delicate state and the only way to deal with it was to work in situ. This took place at the beginning of March 2014.