Saturday 10th May
Nearly forty Friends of Suffolk Historic Churches Trust enjoyed a day exploring three of the county’s most interesting and diverse parish churches, each led by a knowledgeable church member.
The annual event (along with the Winter Study Day that is held at Haughley Park) gives our supporters the opportunity to learn more about church history, whilst exploring unfamiliar buildings.
We began the day at All Saints, Crowfield. Walking down the track from the road, past sun-dappled spring woodland, we turned through the gateway to a breath-taking sight. This unexpected little gem, looking like a fairy-tale cottage with its partial thatched roof, really does have “the wow-factor”!
Our guide was the church Treasurer/Secretary Stewart White who told us that the church was mentioned in the Doomsday Book in 1086. In 1447 documents also mention the church, and the porch, with its carved woodwork and the doorway, date back to the 16th century. The church was listed under the parish register for nearby Coddenham in 1543, (only getting its own register in 1870).
The hammerbeam roof dates to the late 15th c and the timber chancel arch is very rare – and unique in Suffolk.
In 1674 the church was reported as ‘much decayed and ruined’ and locals as ‘backward and lawless’ …and the ongoing disagreements with Coddenham, lasted for the next ten years. As a ‘Chapel of Ease’, in 1676 the Bishop of Norwich ordered repairs to be made to Crowfield church, and that ornaments should be bought. £60 was spent – around £200,000 in today’s money.
Like so many of our churches, All Saints was rescued in Victorian times with extensive restorations paid for by Lady Middleton of nearby Shrubland Hall, in memory of her husband Sir William. The work was carried out by local builder Mr Gibbons, and three generations on, the Gibbons family still live in the village.
The bell-tower was replaced, and the boxed pews were replaced with pews with carved pew-ends (each carved with different fruit and foliage). One medieval pew end remains.
The church is Grade Two* Listed and eventually became a separate parish to Coddenham in 1923.
In 2015 a new cross was made for the top of the church roof and embedded in it is a 10p coin that will show future generations exactly when it was created.
Although the congregation is small the church is much visited as a public footpath is near, but the church has financial challenges as they cope with dry and wet rot, deathwatch beetle and incorrectly applied limewash which is cracking and will need replacing. All at a total cost of £100,000!
(The church holds a. popular three day flower festival each August Bank Holiday weekend – the theme this year is “Time’. )
We moved on then to St Mary’s, Coddenham, an impressive Grade One Listed Church standing proudly overlooking a beautiful valley, with the old Rectory on the opposite hill. It is surrounded by one of the best wild flower sites in the country with hundreds of cowslips on the day of our visit. We were met by local guide David McDonald…. and the end of a friendly coffee morning.
We started outside and David pointed out the unusual angle of the church tower compared with the main building and explained it could either be so that north door faced the village street, or because of its hillside location. The tower was built over many years, and has a 13th century base, 14th century middle while the top is 15th century. Roman bricks can be spotted throughout the walls.
One wall has a semi-circular red brick protrusion which was the original rood screen turret, built in 1535, just five years before they were banned! The Chancel, built in the 11th and 12thcentury, was extended in the 13th and clerestory windows added – you can still see the line of the original roof.
We then moved inside St Mary’s, and admired the long chancel, the 15th century double hammerbeam roof, and the clerestory windows, which allowed light to stream into the nave. The angel heads are mostly 19th century.
You can still see the traces of pre-Reformation red paint on the pillars, along with ancient graffiti – some of 15th century knights with shields and swords.
The pulpit with a tiny door, is Jacobean on a Victorian base and was originally part of a triple-decker pulpit. The Chancel is at an angle to the nave, which could be because of the lie of the land, or could be to echo the angle of Christ’s head on the Cross.
In the Chancel is a panel from the original rood screen, carved in 1570 and there is a 14thcentury carved piscina.
This was William Dowsing’s church and six of his children were baptised here. Perhaps that was why little damage was done in St Mary’s, Coddenham when he and his Puritans rampaged through the churches across the county?
We travelled finally to nearby Hemingstone, to assemble in The Hut, a Great War hut used as a much loved community building, where the WI served delicious cakes, tea and coffee to us as we ate our packed lunches.
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A complete contrast to the morning churches, St Gregory’s is a small 14th century church built of timber and flint, one of only four in Suffolk named after this saint. Our guide was local historian, Chris Codd, and she showed us the floor pattern, based on a sunrise theory, and the ‘new door’ -installed in 1530! The plain glass of the large east window was once half covered over, probably to give it strength because its expanse was supported only by its tracery. The shape of the windows show they date from 14-15th century.
As the bell chimed the hour, we were told it was one of the church’s three medieval bells, that had rung out across the village for 600 years.
On the walls of the narrow and modest church were painted texts, and over the altar were prayers hand-painted 100 years ago onto tin panels, rarely seen due to the poor state of repair.
William and Mary’s Coat of Arms are on the west wall along with the Martin hatchments, hanging inn the tower space. These were placed outside Hemingstone Hall (the family seat) following a death, and moved into the church between one and twelve months later.
Chris had kindly arranged for the heavy cover to the strong room door, with stairs leading to the bell tower and clock, to be set to one side so we could see it.
She also explained about the 1585 William Cantrel memorial and the family’s links to Framlingham Castle, Queen Elizabeth 1st, St Edmundsbury Cathedral, the Restoration, and Catholicism. A small chapel ‘Ralph’s Hole’, was built on the side of the church by Ralph Cantrell, William’s nephew, and it has a squint hole to look through. It is thought that, as it doesn’t line up with the altar as is usual, he built it so that he could abide by Queen’s order to attend the parish church, conduct his own service but still not actually enter. A good English compromise or a clever way round the rules against Catholic worship perhaps?
St Gregory’s church still has a Rood Beam, on top of which are the holes for the Great Rood etc to be attached in the past, and a hollow-sounding wall implies that a rood staircase may be hidden within it.
A lovely touch was the ‘Welcome to SHCT’ sign’ – thank you!
Indeed, thank you to everyone who made it a very special day, especially the volunteer guides and the Trust’s Education Trustee, Jamie Norman who, stuck in a plane on an Edinburgh airport runway, wasn’t able to enjoy the event he had organised.