Illustrated Dictionary of British Churches - Poppy Head Definition

• Aisle
• Altar
• Ambulatory
• Angel Roof
• Apophyge
• Apse
• Arcade
• Arch
• Archivolt
• Base
• Battlement
• Bay
• Belfry
• Bell Tower
• Bellcote
• Bench End
• Board Bell Turret
• Body
• Boss
• Box pew
• Bracket
• Broach Spire
• Buttress
• Canopy
• Capital
• Cartouche
• Chancel
• Chancel Arch
• Chancel Screen
• Chantry
• Chapel
• Chapter House
• Choir
• Clerestory
• Cloister
• Communion Rail
• Compound Column
• Consecration Cross
• Corbel Head
• Crossing
• Crypt
• Early English
• Easter Sepulchre
• Effigy
• Fan Vaulting
• Font
• Font cover
• Funerary Helm
• Gallery
• Gargoyle
• Gothic
• Green Man
• Grotesque
• Hatchment
• Herringbone
• Hogback Tomb
• Holy Water Stoup
• Hunky Punk
• Jesse Window
• Kempe Window
• Lady Chapel
• Lancet
• Lectern
• Lierne
• Lych Gate
• Misericord
• Monumental Brass
• Mullion
• Nave
• Ogee
• Organ
• Parclose Screen
• Parish Chest
• Pendant
• Perpendicular Gothic
• Pew
• Pinnacle
• Piscina
• Poor Box
• Poppy Head
• Porch
• Priest's Door
• Pulpit
• Purbeck Marble
• Quire
• Rebus
• Reliquary
• Reredos
• Retable
• Romanesque
• Rood
• Rood Loft
• Rood screen
• Rood Stair
• Rose Window
• Round Tower
• Sanctuary
• Sanctuary Knocker
• Saxon Period
• Scratch Dial
• Sedilia
• Spire
• Statue Niche
• Stoup
• Tomb Recess
• Tracery
• Transept
• Triforium
• Tympanum
• Undercroft
• Vaulting
• Victorian Gothic
• Wall Monument
• Wall Painting
• Wheel Window

Poppy head is a generic term applied to the carved finial of a wooden bench end. Although an actual carving of a poppy head was frequently used, in practice poppy-heads might be carved to represent practically anything, from animals, birds, grotesque mytholigical creatures, angels, saints, religious symbols, and human figures. Some of the more overtly religious carvings were intentionally damaged by iconoclasts during the Reformation, and in some churches you can clearly see where poppy-heads have been lopped off or defaced.

Related: Bench End   Grotesque