The Best Guitarist in the World & Other Tales of the Unexpected by Peter Howard

Author:Peter Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peter Howard
Published: 2025-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

Oddington Odyssey

In 1970, when I was a boarder in the sixth form at St John’s College in Southsea, I was asked to do the publicity and programme for the upcoming school production of Macbeth. I needed to produce small posters to put up in various locations around the school, fliers to send to the homes of day boys, and of course programmes to give to the audience. For some reason I can no longer recall I decided that an illustration of the head and shoulders of a knight in armour would be a striking image and I hit upon the idea of using a brass rubbing for this. The effect, in black ink on creamy yellow paper, would be rather like that of a woodcut – stark and arresting. I borrowed a public library copy of Brass Rubbings but all the images of knights had sickly smiles rather than the bold grimace I had in mind. Brother Benedict, the boarding house master, told me that the father of one of the day boys was a keen brass rubber, and he asked him if he could suggest a suitable brass. The man made one suggestion, convinced that the brass at St Andrew’s Church in Oddington village near Oxford would be just what I was looking for.

I wrote a letter addressed to The Vicar of Oddington, asking if he happened to have a postcard or other image of the brass. A short while later I received a reply from the Reverend Edwin Crusha, saying that while they did not have postcards he could do even better: a brass rubber had left a rubbing behind and that I could expect to receive it within days! He explained that the brass was commissioned by Ralph Hamsterley, who was rector between 1499 and 1507. I replied immediately, thanking him for his generosity. Sure enough, within days, a metre-long cardboard tube was delivered to the school and I eagerly opened it.

The image was of a shrouded body – about 1 metre high – but in this case the shroud was split open revealing a skeleton with worms threaded through ribs, stomach, mouth and eye sockets. It was made using gold wax on black paper and was quite hideous. Above the head, an opened scroll – like a cartoon bubble – has a Latin inscription, translated as: “Here I am given to the worms and thus I try to show that as I am laid aside here so all honour is laid aside”. Below the body, a more formal panel is inscribed: “Pray for the soul of Ralph Hamsterley sometime Fellow of Merton College Oxford and Rector of this church who died in the year 15 ... of Christ on the ... day of the month of ...”

The date is incomplete since it was installed before his death. Most brasses show placid figures in interesting costumes, but commemorating the deceased as dead – as skeletons or shrouds – became popular in the 15th century, the aim being

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