I had to take down old lime render off the walls of this small village church. Above the altar area I found red and black lines painted into the limewash and hidden under the 2 coat render.
The whole interior of the church were originally limewashed rubblestone walls then somebody in their great wisdom decided that it would be better to do 2 coars of render over everything including the dressed stone down by the entrance to the bell tower and these lovely paint designs that would have covered the face of the entire stone arched altar window frame.
I had argued that all the render should be removed because in many places it still has a 1.5 inch gap between the rubblestone surface and the back of the plaster that has been caused by the trapped damp in the walls, little helped by the cement pointing on the outside walls of Stawell church.
In one corner I found a page of newspaper dated 1960 that had been plugged into a gap which dated when it had last been limewashed and the electric lighting fixed in, but other that that there are no records whatsoever anywhere.

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