Our Winter Study Day, held on Saturday 22nd March at Haughley Park, was attended by Friends and Supporters of the SHCT, all lovers of churches and the history behind them.
All present were welcomed by the Chairman of the Trust, Geoffrey Probert, who reminded us that the sole work of the Trust is to give grants to help communities with the upkeep of their churches, and that one day’s fundraising in September (Ride and Stride/Pedal and Drive) raises around £200,000. That event started as a sponsored bike ride in Suffolk and has been copied across the country.
At the sell-out Study Day, those attending enjoyed a full programme of four fascinating speakers and a delicious hot two course lunch.
Speaker: Dr Richard Hoggett “Changing Beliefs: The Archaeology of the East Anglian Conversion”.
Richard’s talk was based upon his PHD study and explained how archaeologists look for patterns from the artefacts discovered, often by metal detectorists, that can shed a light on the ‘dark ages’ .
He led us through stories of pagan kings who were converted to Christianity, of Raedwald and Sutton Hoo, Edwin of Northumbria, and Sigeberht who succeeded him as King of the Eastern Angles in 630AD, turning his whole East Anglian Kingdom, Christian. Missionaries came from Northern Britain and Ireland, including Bishop Felix who was given space within the Roman fort walls at Walton Castle as the centre for Christianity. The use of such buildings was a pattern repeated at Caister, Burgh and Dover and elsewhere.
Richard explained that the original churches may have been built of wood but were still important buildings, and rotten timbers can be found during excavations of later stone churches that were built upon the same foundations. Bed-burial sites have also been found that reveal the importance of wealthy women in early Christianity, who were buried with jewellery such as pendants or chokers, with designs based upon a cross.
Speaker: Peter Bloore “Medieval Chantry Colleges”
Peter began by stating he believed that the Dissolution of the Monasteries’ is over-stated and that the dissolution of Chantry Colleges had a bigger impact, because of the loss of all the charity work they undertook.
Chantries were built to commemorate the dead and were paid for, with a perpetual endowment, from wealthy benefactors who wished for prayers for their souls to be released from Purgatory so they could go into heaven. Although a community of priests lived there, they differed from monasteries as they didn’t have to give up their wealth, anmd were popular as any donated money stayed local rather than going to Rome, the buildings could be ‘branded’ with the donor’s heraldry, statues etc.
As well as the prayers, charity work such as running schools, alms-houses, hospitals etc. were part of their remit.
Usually built with a church, a gatehouse, quadrangle, cloisters, kitchens etc they were overseen by a dean, master or warden. Examples are Eton College, Oxford, Cambridge and Wincester and locally were Wingfield College and one at Mettingham.
There were 78 surviving collages in the early Tudor period. Chapel Guilds and wealthy families also built Chantry Chapels within churches such as those at Lavenham, Long Melford (now the Lady Chapel) and Dennington.
‘The Little Dissolution’ as it has been called, is when King Henry 8th, when ridding the country of Catholicism, enacted the 1545 Abolition of Chantries Act and 90 colleges, 110 hospitals, 2374 Chantry Guilds, the Chantry Chapels, Chapels of Ease, and alms-houses were sold or given to the King’s wealthy friends. Chantry churches became parish churches, private houses or were demolished.
The well-established charity work that was done by the Chantries ended, leaving the poor is desperate circumstances. It was in Elizabethan times that Charitable Foundations were created to replace that vital work… Framlingham’s Alms-houses are a good example.
Peter ended his talk by saying that Henry the 8th was responsible for “ the greatest theft against the charity sector in England” and “stole from the church to give to his rich friends and stole from the poor to give to the rich”.
Speaker: Peter Stanford “A journey around 20 extraordinary Christian sites in the British Isles”
Journalist for the Daily Telegraph, Peter Stanford, is a proud ‘church-crawler’ and was commissioned to write a book about his travels and the churches he loves. He decided to choose twenty – one for each decade.
He thinks churches give us a sense of ‘otherness’, we can enjoy their beauty and they tell us about our history. He chose nine of his twenty churches to tell us about at the Winter Study Day They included St Mary’s at Houghton on the Hill, (a remote derelict church rescued by one man and revealed, during restoration to have amazing wall paintings), and All Saints, Brixworth in Northants with its huge Anglo-Saxon arches., (and possibly the location of the first meeting of Christian church representatives).
Another church he featured was the 18th century Heptonstall Methodist Church, which was once the oldest in the world in continuous operation, ran by two elderly ladies, but now sadly closed. The 19th century St Elizabeths, Reddish, was inspired by St Mark’s in Venice and was built with grey marble brought from Italy by sea and river, before a procession led by elephants brought the marble to the site! It is now closed, looked after by one man.
Peter ended by asking why don’t we value our history more… and saying that someone has to pay for it, or it will be lost forever.
Speaker: Capt Richard Channon RN (rtd) “A history of St Mary’s Stoke by Nayland and its recent major restoration.”
With images to show us the glory of St Mary’s, Richard said that it is a grand church in architecture, size, its site on a hill and in its connections. It was a Christian church in the 7thcentury, was mentioned in the Doomsday Book, and was painted by John Constable.
He told us of its 13th century piscina, the tower built in 1439-1462 (with the first tower staircase in the buttress), the font dated to1461, the 15th century carved oak door, and the eight medieval bells that were rehung on a steel frame in 1965.
After talking us through the wonderful tombs and monuments in the church, Richard brought us back to earth by telling the story of how they faced disaster in 2020 when a head stone fell from the top of an arch and the true state of the building was revealed, mainly because of poor repairs done in the past.
A bulging wall needed repairing and the roof re-slated all at a cost of £84,000, but gradually, as each lot of work was done, more problems were revealed, including the discovery that oak that had previously been replaced with soft wood. Restoration work finished in August 2024 and had cost £591,585.
Along the way Historic England had put St Mary’s onto the At Risk Register and a total of 23 charities (including SHCT), corporate donors and fundraising had raised the half million pounds they needed.
Then ….a final inspection revealed that the tower and nave roof needed work costing another £2 million! Now the fundraising begins again.
A sobering end to the day.
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A further report on the very successful 2025 Winter Study Day will be included in the next Friends Newsletter, written by the organiser of the day Jamie Norman.