Graffiti in All Saints Leighton Buzzard

 
Sim and Nelly graffito October 2008

The graffiti in the church include a famous scene in which a woman appears to be hitting a man with a spoon. This gave rise to the tale of Simon and Nellie who supposedly quarrelled whilst Nellie was making a meal from scraps left in the cupboard. Simon insisted that it should be boiled as it was pudding whilst Nellie asserted that it was a cake and should be baked. After a protracted and violent argument they compromised by boiling it first, then baking it, thus creating the original Simnel (SIMon and NELlie) cake. More recently it has been suggested by, unromantic, scholars to be an unfinished doodle showing two musicians, a woman playing a small drum and a man playing the bagpipes. In an article for the Bedfordshire Magazine (Volume 1 Number 6) in 1948 the Vicar of Leighton Buzzard stated that the doodle was, at one time, painted, traces still being visible in a good light. The clothes of the participants seem to place the graffito in the late 14th or early 15th century.

Graffito on south east crossing column October 2008

The Simon and Nellie graffito is on one of the piers of the tower. The other graffiti in the church were also described by the vicar and illustrated by his brother E. W. Forrest - they include:

• two king's heads (south-east pier of the tower);
• the emblem of the Holy Trinity (near the choir stalls on the north side of the chancel);
• a Star of David on a pier of the tower (formed by two triangles it had significance for Christians as a notation for the Holy Trinity);
• the coat of arms of the Saint-Leger family and also that of the Botelers, Earls of Ormond (on the south-east pier of the tower near the chancel screen); the families had no Leighton Buzzard connection but were united in marriage and held the manors of nearby Aylesbury and Great Linford in Buckinghamshire in the early 16th century;

 
Graffiti in the church

• a basilisk or cockatrice, a symbol of Satan (on the south-east pier of the tower);
• a man holding a goblet and a cup, perhaps a priest (south-east pier of the tower);
• a demon and a nearby hooded figure perhaps running from it (south-east pier of the tower);
• a bird with long legs, perhaps a heron (south-east pier of the tower, facing the Lady Chapel);
• Christ and a saint (south-west pier of the tower);
• Madonna and Child (north-east pier of the tower);
• a 15th century spearman (north-east pier of the tower), though half of this is missing due to a Victorian gas fitting

 
Rose window graffito on south east crossing pillar October 2008

There are also numerous crosses all over the church as well as geometric patterns including window tracery such as a rose window on the south-east pier of the tower. These may be copies of the tracery in the windows at the time, before the Perpendicular tracery was inserted in the 15th century.

Window graffito on south east crossing column October 2008