St Peter, Neatishead, Norfolk - Poppyhead - geograph

Poppyhead is a form of carving of the top of the end of a bench or a

choir stall A choir, also sometimes called quire, is the area of a church or cathedral that provides seating for the clergy and church choir. It is in the western part of the chancel, between the nave and the sanctuary, which houses the altar and Church tab ...

. Its name is unrelated to the

poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, ''Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug opi ...

flower. It is derived, by way of

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

, from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''puppis'', which means the

poop Poop or pooped may refer to: Informal * Feces, the solid or semisolid remains of the food that could not be digested in the small intestine ** To poop, to defecate, to eliminate waste material from the digestive tract via the anus Other * ...

or the

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a person who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet ''de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that they ...

of a ship. In its simplest, and its most usual form, it has the appearance of a stylised

fleur-de-lys The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...

. In some cases, it consists of a much more intricate carving; for example in

Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh The Holy Trinity Church is the parish church of the village of Blythburgh in the East Suffolk area. It is part of the Church of England Halesworth deanery in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, and has been listed Grade I on the National ...

, some of the poppyheads represent the

seven deadly sins The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings. Although they are not directly mentioned in the Bible, there are parallels with the seven things ...

References

External links

Architectural elements Carving {{architecturalelement-stub