• Context: fertile ground for research and exploration.
• Linked examples – Angels but not Belvoir Angels (almost but not quite)
• Other Angels: Orkney

The headstones known as Belvoir Angel slates are a wonderfully distinct local group but they didn’t pop up in isolation; they emerged from existing cultural and folk art traditions. Exploring these peripheral contexts helps us to identify and understand the Belvoir Angels, themselves.

As a starting point; there are many headstones from this period carved in Swithland slate which are not Belvoir Angels and have no similarity to them – this is particularly true of headstones close to the quarries themselves and which, consequently, identifies the Belvoir Angels design as something localised to the Vale – based in/emerging primarily from the Vale of Belvoir. The location map shows that concentrations of Belvoir Angels emerge north of the quarries, roughly ballooning around the A46/Fosse Way corridor which would have supported the movement of such a heavy material:

Equally, there are headstones from the period which are similar in design but carved in materials other than Swithland slate – emerging from similar traditions but not defined as ‘Belvoir Angels’. It is possible that the north American examples fall into this category, too:

Context: fertile ground for research and exploration.

Exploring the context surrounding the Belvoir Angels group of headstones may help us to understand them better; particularly the emergence locally of such a distinctive design:

• Social context
• Religious and political context
• Susceptibility to disease and economic pressures
• Changes: post-Civil War, pre-Enclosure, growth in migration to the ‘New World’.
• Symbolism and iconography – messaging in the early C18th
• We know that considerably more Belvoir Angels would have been carved than have survived; have they survived in disproportionate numbers?

In essence, the Belvoir Angel headstones are probably best defined as an isolated, localised, quirky variation that has survived 300 years because of the enduring properties of the slate they are carved into. Perhaps this goes a little way to explaining their significance and our interest in them – they are both distinct and distinctive.

Linked examples – Angels but not Belvoir Angels (almost but not quite):

The Heathcote catalogue serves as our basic reference and other headstones have been added to the list since the book’s publication; jokingly, it has been suggested that we should appoint the equivalent of the art specialists who ‘declare’ on Rembrandts and Van Goghs etc!

Debating what ‘is’ and what ‘isn’t’ is part of the fun?

• Would the original stonemasons have thought of their work as ‘different’ to the work of their peers?
• If so; were they protective of their designs? Or could anyone develop their own variations?
• Was the distinctive style so recognisable at the time that it represented the stonemasons’ ‘calling card’? As national fashions and London design books emerged, masons increasingly signed their work, so that they could be identified easily.

David Lea’s research in Leicestershire includes some interesting examples and some food for thought as well as debate:

Other Angels: Orkney

(with thanks to Sheila Markham – see May 2024, below)

(December 2025 – an update)

Some of the similarities between the Orkney Angels and our Belvoir Angel slate headstones are particularly interesting:

• These Orkney Angels tend to pre-date our Belvoir Angels (mid- to late- 1600s) and are most likely to be separate but emerging from common social/folk traditions/roots.
• They have the characteristic downward wings and the rather severe expression of the Belvoir Angel (although they do have chubby cheeks)
• Of real interest is the crossover with wood carving; particularly in relation to the Belvoir Angels which have been carved in relief. The difficulties involved in transferring a complicated wood design to slate may explain the shift to the simpler more stylised design of the distinctive Belvoir Angel.

In early 2024 Sheila Markham shared an intriguing photograph of a carved angel on display in the Orkney Museum. It transpires that this angel was one of several carved in wood towards the end of the 1600s and it seems to have been part of the opening up of creativity following the Restoration when protestant services were conducted in the choir area of St. Magnus cathedral. At some point during later restorations these carvings were moved and some were lost. The example in the Orkney Museum was collected by James Walls Cursiter who was a celebrated Orcadian businessman and antiquarian in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Sadly, little is known about the original craftsmen but they are likely to have been local to Orkney.

Transcripts of conversations with Orkney historians (June 2024)

In June 2024 we were fortunate to enjoy a very helpful correspondence with Ellen Pesci curator (social history) at the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall about what she described as; “our carved angel from St. Magnus Cathedral”. Although they don’t have much information, “Other than that it came from St Magnus Cathedral. The Cathedral underwent several periods of restoration, and I suspect that this piece has come from one of these periods.”

Ellen further explained that; “Our carving is in wood, but other than that there is very little information on file about it. What I can tell you is that the collector of this particular item was a  C19th Orcadian antiquarian called James W Cursiter. As there was no county museum at the time of his death, his collection ended up in the Huntarian Museum [Glasgow]. I’m not quite sure how we acquired some items, but my guess is that one of the founders of the Orkney Antiquarian Society, established in 1922, may have acquired it as we assumed many items from them that had been in storage from 1939 when the Society disbanded, to the creation of the Orkney Museum in 1968. Their paperwork tended to be made up of simple list and scant descriptions, so there are many gaps in our understanding of some of the items.”

The correspondence continued with Fran Hollinrake who is the Cathedral Curator for the Orkney Islands Council: 

“I’ve been trotting round the cathedral with my phone camera and have found four more angels with similarities to the Belvoir angels.

“After the Reformation in 1560, the cathedral’s role as a site of pilgrimage ceased, with the destruction of the shrine of St Magnus, and the thorough iconoclasm which followed. Post-Reformation, the choir area was screened off from the nave, and the protestant services were conducted in the much more confined choir area. During the late 16th and into the 17th century, local worthies paid handsomely for pews, lofts and galleries in this cramped space, and there were many disputes about who had the right to sit where. Many bits of furniture were created, including some lovely carved wooden pieces, of family coats of arms, etc. The wooden furniture included a number of wooden winged head/angel figures. Exactly where they were situated we can’t say, but they are thought to date from some time in the 17th century.

“A significant period of restoration took place in the mid-19th century, when the furniture was removed, restored and rationalized, before being put back into the choir. It seems that at that time the carved wooden panels were preserved, and then reused in pews, lofts and galleries from about 1850 onwards.

“Then, in the early 20th century, another major restoration took place. All the old furniture that was crammed into the choir was removed completely. I suspect much of the old, worn, and non-decorative pews etc were discarded. However, many carved panels were saved, and have since found their way into new pieces of furniture. One of the wooden angels, (Angel C) was incorporated into a new readers’ desk, when the interior of the east end was remodelled in 1965. You can see how the modern desk has the angel set into the upper part. Another angel found its way to form part of a memorial to HMS Royal Oak, a battleship sunk in Scapa Flow in 1939. The memorial was expanded in 1983 and Angel D was fixed to the lower part of the memorial. I don’t have a photo of it in situ, because in 1993 the memorial was expanded again and the angel removed. He now sits on a display table in the triforium and can be seen on the upper level tours.

“In addition to these wooden examples, we also have a couple of interesting gravestones. Angel A is at the top of a late 17th-century stone and forms part of a large mural monument. That monument is probably in its original position. There’s another stone, featuring Angel B, which is clearly part of two different gravestone memorials (probably from two different locations and neither in situ), and it is a slightly different shape.

“We have many examples of carved stones featuring the ‘winged head’ motif, but none have the distinctive downturned wings of the ‘Belvoir’ style.

“As for the example in the museum, my educated guess would be that when the furniture was stripped out in either the 1845-51 or the 1913-30 restoration, someone took it or bought it (perhaps it was their family seat?), with it being donated to the museum later on.”

“Certainly the late 17^th century saw a great burst of creativity in gravestone and memorial design throughout Scotland. As I said before, the iconoclasm of the 16th century was ruthless, and there followed more puritanical purging of Scottish churches during the Commonwealth. With the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the relatively ‘merry’ courts of Charles II and James VII/II seemed to have briefly encouraged more decorative arts in general, and perhaps the memorials were an expression of that. Some of them even have imagery and symbolism that could conceivably been interpreted as Catholic. I don’t think there was necessarily covert Catholicism going on, but in previous decades even a hint of something like a Crown could lead to possible prosecution for heresy; there seems to be a slight ‘loosening of the stays’, decoration-wise, around 1660-1690.

• “Our decorated gravestone collection is extensive and it has been suggested that there must have been someone working on them in Orkney, rather than someone elsewhere creating them and having them sent. Perhaps it is the same for the carved wood.
• “As for the Museum example and how it got into the community – I wonder if there is something in the Parish Records. There is one reference from the 1845-51 restoration about a local family called Halcro Johnston (still extant in Orkney today) buying six windows from the choir. So there is certainly evidence for bits being sold off during that period.”

Suggestions for further research include:

• So far, there is no information about the origins of the wooden carvings; there may well be references in the archives if/when searched
• “There is a fellow called Mark Hatton who has been doing quite a bit of work about late 17th and early 18th century memorials- he has a Facebook page called Memento Mori on 18th Century Gravestones: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2077041982439221”
• Further research into the collector of Orcadian antiques, James W Cursiter;
  • Parish record searches are a little confusing as there seem to be two individuals with the same name who are contemporaries in the area; there are references to a James W Cursiter and a James Walls Cursiter – the latter is the antiquarian collector but the former could refer to either of the known individuals.

Our grateful thanks and credit go to the Orkney Islands Council, Fran Hollinrake and Ellen Pesci (social history curator of the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall).

James Walls Cursiter (Orkney collector and antiquarian)

A biography: orkneystonetools,org

The C17th wooden carved angel which is so similar to our Belvoir Angels has been preserved through the collections of James Walls Cursiter who lived on Orkney for 60 years in the late C19 and early C20th. Further family research is needed but it seems that his wife was very active in the Orkney community, too – including campaigning for women’s suffrage. JW Cursiter is credited with the collection of many extraordinary archaeological finds; including bronze-age weapons, an ancient carved stone ball and the earliest known earth cottage. He was such a renowned expert that dozens of newspapers recorded his absence from Orkney at the time of Prime Minister Gladstone’s visit! Unfortunately, at the time of his retirement and removal to Edinburgh there was no museum in Orkney that could house his collection; the collection went to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow but the collection was mis-catalogued in the early years and, it seems, is still being re-catalogued.

The Orkney Angel.

(with thanks to Sheila Markham)

(May 2024) This photograph was taken at the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall – little is known about it and we have contacted the museum to see if we can find out more. The carving style is more like wood carving but it has the Belvoir Angels triangular face, almond eyes and grim expression but it also has less characteristic features such as, cherub-like cheeks and styled hair. Could it have been removed from the top of a headstone? So far, we don’t have a date but it is believed that it came from North America.