Hence also his emblem the windlass, the drum-shaped device on which large and heavy ropes and cables can be wound, especially at sea. As in the case of St. Catherine’s wheel or St. Sebastian’s arrows, this attribute of his martyrdom was not the instrument of his death - like those two saints he was eventually beheaded - although not until he had been tortured in various ingeniously gruesome ways, the final one of which was the winding-out of his entrails onto the windlass which became his attribute.

Below at the right is the lowest part of the painting, showing Erasmus, wearing a bishop’s mitre and with a halo, lying calmly across the horizontal space, with the long narrow ‘rope’ of his intestines pulled upwards onto the drum of the windlass. His arms are tucked behind his back, presumably fastened there (his bent left elbow shows at the bottom edge of the painting). There are some confusing details here, not least the faint remains of the short doublets and legs of two torturers doing the unwinding that eviscerated the saint. But the windlass itself is clearer, with a large red detail in the centre of the actual mechanism, from which the winding-arms radiate outwards like the spokes of a wheel, one of them much longer than the others, presumably to enable maximum force to be exerted.

In the central section above this (shown below left), three richly dressed men stand
beyond the windlass, apparently watching the scene with interest. The man in the centre is wearing some sort of crown, as is the one on the right, who also has something very reminiscent of a fool’s pointed cap, complete with a bell on the end, emerging from the circle of the crown. He holds some kind of staff in his left hand.
The man on the left, the clearest figure, also has odd headgear - a large, strangely-shaped hat, possibly again with a crown over it. He poses with his right hand on his hip, and dangling from his fancy slashed sleeve is something that again resembles a bell. With such a fragmentary painting it is impossible to be sure, but I think there may be a moralising comment here on the ignorant foolishness of those who persecute the saints.¹

At the top of the painting Erasmus’s soul is received into Heaven. This is shown (right, below) in a way traditional in art across medieval Europe but seldom found in English wallpainting. At the top is a rayed glory, radiating downwards towards a boat-shaped white swag. This is a napkin, held by the corners at each side by angels, and standing in it, very hard to see now, is a small figure representing the soul of the saint being carried up to Heaven. There are faint traces of the two angels, shown in horizontal flight, with the wings of the one at the left just detectable.²
A rayed glory of a similar type and in a similar context appears again at Gisleham, some 60 miles away on the north Suffolk coast. I tentatively suggested a Continental painter’s hand or influence there, but perhaps this is, rather, an iconographical detail peculiar to East Anglia. With so much now lost, no definitive conclusions about this sort of thing are possible.

There is also a St. Christopher (forthcoming) at Chippenham, and other fragments of painting, including some illusionistic brickwork and what may once have been a St. Michael in the chantry chapel.

¹ Or, as I am becoming more and more convinced, these details might be remnants of a painting of the Three Living and Three Dead, now hopelessly confused with the St. Erasmus subject despite being contemporary with it. The three figures look very similar to many of the Living in such paintings.
² Kelly’s Directory of 1929 reports that in about 1896 a painting was found of ‘two angels censing’ - probably those escorting Erasmus’s soul to Heaven at the top of the painting. Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Gazetteer of 1831 records the rebuilding after fire of the church on proceeds from a sale of Indulgences in the 15th century. If Lewis’s information is accurate the paintings were almost certainly part of the refurbishment following this rebuilding. More information online at Cambridgeshire History.

St. Andrew Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland	St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read-Corby Glen, Lincolnshire	St. Antony and the Pig, Barton, Cambridgeshire	St. Barbara : Hessett, Suffolk	St. Bartholomew : Selling, Kent	St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Castor, Cambs	St.Catherine of Alexandria : Hardley Street, Norfolk
St.Catherine of Alexandria : Old Weston, Northants	St.Catherine of Alexandria : Pickering, N. Yorks	St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Sporle, Norfolk	St. Clement : South Leigh, Oxon.	St. Dunstan holding the Devil by the nose : Barton, Cambs	St.Edmund : Boxford, Suffolk	St. Edmund : Lakenheath, Suffolk
St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Bishopsbourne, Kent	St.Edmund, Martyrdom of : Fritton, Norfolk	St. Edmund (or St. Walstan) : Gisleham, Norfolk	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Pickering, N.Yorks	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Stoke Dry, Rutland	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Troston, Suffolk	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Weare Giffard, Devon
St.Eloi, Broughton, Bucks	St. Eloi and the possessed horse, Slapton, Northants	St. Eloi, as bishop & blacksmith, Wensley, N.Yorks	St.Erasmus, Martyrdom of : Chippenham, Cambs	St. Etheldreda : Willingham, Cambs	St.Francis Preaching to the Birds : Wissington, Suffolk	St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Slapton, Northants
St. George & Dragon : Banningham, Norfolk	St. George & Dragon : Broughton, Bucks	St. George & Dragon : Earl Stonham, Suffolk	St. George & Dragon : Fritton, Norfolk	St. George & Dragon : Hornton, Oxon	St. George dedicating himself to the Virgin : Astbury, Cheshire	St. George, with the princess : Little Kimble, Bucks
St.Helena, Broughton, Bucks	St. Hubert, Miracle of : Idsworth, Hants	St.James the Great : Hales, Norfolk	Life of St. James, Stoke Orchard, Gloucestershire	St. James the Great, meeting pilgrims : Wisborough Green, Sussex	St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks	St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Heydon, Norfolk
St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Idsworth, Hampshire	St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Old Weston, Northants	Life of St. John the Baptist : Cerne Abbas, Dorset NEW	St. John the Evangelist, Selling, Kent	St. John the Evangelist, Weston Longville, Norfolk	St. Margaret of Antioch : Old Weston, Northants	St. Margaret and the dragon : South Newington, Oxfordshire NEW
St. Margaret of Antioch Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland	St. Margaret of Antioch, Life of : Charlwood, Surrey	Life of St. Margaret, Wendens Ambo, Essex	St. Martin dividing his cloak, Chalgrave, Beds	St. Martin dividing his cloak, Wareham, Dorset	St.Nicholas of Myra, life of : Little Horwood, Bucks	St. Nicholas of Myra, two miracles of : Wissington, Suffolk
St.Paul : Black Bourton, Oxon	St. Paul : Beckley, Oxon	St. Peter : Beckley, Oxon	St.Peter : Black Bourton, Oxon	St. Peter, Martyrdom of : Chacombe, Northants	St. Roch : Pinvin, Worcs	St. Sexburga? : Willingham, Cambs
St. Stephen, Stoning of: Black Bourton, Oxon	St. Stephen, Stoning of: Catfield, Norfolk	St.Swithun (?) enthroned : Old Weston, Northants	Scenes from the life of St. Swithun : Corhampton, Hampshire NEW	St. Thomas Becket, blessing, Hauxton, Cambs.	St. Thomas Becket, Murder of, Marston Magna, Somerset	St.Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Burlingham, Norfolk
St. Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Newington, Oxfordshire	St. Walstan of Bawburgh? or St. Edmund : Gisleham, Norfolk	St. Zita : Horley, Oxon	St. Zita : Shorthampton, Oxon	Unidentified female saint : Heydon