I was last at St John one particular chilly Boxing Day early morning, on 1 of those people dutiful trips to see Mom at Christmas. At just just after dawn, it was locked, but seemed a fine church and a person to revisit.
So it was past Thursday, touring back again to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the solar was location, setting the high-quality church tower bathed in heat golden gentle.
As I stopped to just take a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar seeking to get previous in his automobile, but he was individual as I go my shot.
He was ready for me at the porch, and instructed I hurry inside of to see the home windows that were illuminated by the sunlight, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a great city about midway concerning Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was regrettable for a although simply because, like quite a few smaller cities in that predicament, it shed the passing trade which had been just one of the factors for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals call it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries, and it nonetheless has the character of a Victorian railway city, specially about the station. But it is not a vacationer city, contrary to its great rival Framlingham, or ‘Fram’, just throughout the A12.
I like Saxmundham a lot there is an air of resilience about the position, and any compact city with two 2nd hand bookshops ought to have a thing heading for it. What it does miss is a dominating medieval church, since St John the Baptist is away from the most important avenue on the road to Leiston.
The graveyard is a great location, full of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most popular is the headstone to John Noller, which has its have sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century experience to the church, due to the fact it was matter to an 1870s restoration at the arms of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. Nevertheless, Phipson was extra delicate to the want to preserve medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Eco-friendly, and so the church has plenty of intriguing points to see. Having said that, Phipson wasn’t earlier mentioned creating them extra medieval than they already were, and so the font, a single of the ideal Suffolk illustrations of the 15th century East Anglian fashion, is carefully recut. There are intense minimal wild guys all around the foundation, and a single of the shields characteristics the devices of the passion.
Potentially the most attention-grabbing survival below, and a exceptional a person, can be observed in the most easterly windows of every of the clerestories. These are the stone corbel ledges that after supported the cover of honour around the rood. They are both equally carved elaborately, and the northern one particular is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Pro Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner alongside that on the south aspect.
Irrespective of these medieval survivals, the most important artistic artefacts right here are in the east window of the south aisle. This is a collection of ovals of 17th century glass believed to come from Innsbruck, depicting Saints and biblical scenes. It is of excellent good quality, and interesting to appear at. Certainly, apart from the bad east window there is a great selection of Victorian glass below as effectively. I invested about half an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then lost the memory card from my digicam that experienced all the illustrations or photos on. And so, I will have to go back. Sorry.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.british isles/saxmundham.html
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The church is significantly modified from the primary church which was recorded in the Domesday Study of 1086. Tiny proof of this Norman or possibly Saxon church remains, although some masonry to be observed in the decreased phase of the tower might be of this day.
We also know that the church experienced a South porch that contained a easy 11th century doorway. Unfortunately, the porch and doorway disappeared in a major restoration and rebuilding in 1873. Nonetheless, we do have a photo of the porch from an etching in 1848.
A lot of the church that we see today stems from the 19th century restoration but the church however incorporates numerous unique things of an earlier date.
The Western tower (14th century) has diagonal buttresses at its western angles. The two gentle belfry home windows and the related west window are in the Adorned design of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this date, whilst some of the masonry in the lower section of the tower is arranged in different ways from the relaxation and could have formed part of the 11th century church.
The clock was given in 1880 and was restored in 1938. The parapet has beautiful 15th century flint panelling (flushwork) with traceried panels. Beneath it is a band of bouquets (flearons) and carved heads, in addition to a massive head at the centre of the west facet and a gargoyle head on the south side.
The tower is house to a peal of 6 bells. 3 of these bells have been forged c. 1480-1 510 by John Kebyll of London. An additional was designed in 1609 by Brend, the Norwich bell-founder, and the tenor, weighing 8cwt.3qtr.7Ib, is by Lester and Pack of Whitechapel, manufactured in 1762. The ring was finished by the addition of a new treble bell by John Warner of London in 1880. The next bell was recast in 1938, and the bells were rehung in new oak frames by Bowell of Ipswich.
A gem in the crown that is St John’s can be found in the churchyard on the tombstone of John Noller (1725), which can be discovered south west of the church methods and in eight yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are tiny, inclined oblong recesses which sort a uncomplicated and imaginative sundial. Each sundial needs a pointer or gnomon projecting in entrance of the dial to forged a shadow on to a marked scale. Any this sort of projection lower down on a tombstone would surely, faster or later on, be destroyed. To prevent this taking place, the designer of John Noller’s headstone strike on the ingenious strategy of generating the edge of the headstone’s surface the gnomon and acquired the relative projection by recessing the dial.
As the stone faces east and west, he carved a early morning dial on one particular aspect (east face) and an night 1 on the other (west encounter). If you search in the recesses on each faces you will see the hour markings 1,2,3,4,5 on the west recess and 7,8,9,10,11 on the east recess. 12 o’clock is not marked because at the second of noon just about every dial is totally in shadow.
You will also observe that the dials are not upright on the stone but at a slant. The higher edge which functions as the gnomon is so slanted as to place specifically to the north star, or in other phrases, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it finished? Properly, we are not positive, but just as some clocks are marked with tile inscription “Tempus fugit” or time flies, so this headstone with its sundial marking the passing of time also reminds us, the living, that our time quickly passes. Or possibly it was choosing up on one more assumed about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for every little thing, and a year for each individual
activity beneath heaven: a time to be born and a time to die,”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)
The Nave
The Font c 1400
This is a common East Anglian structure with octagonal panelled bowl carved with lions interspersed with angels holding shields on which are displayed the devices of the Passion (East), the Cross (South), the emblem of the Trinity (West) and the a few crowns of East Anglia (North). The bowl of the font is first.
The Nave c 1500
Internally the creating is harmonious, gentle and nicely-proportioned. The aisles are divided from the nave by 15th century (Perpendicular) arcades of four bays, with octagonal piers which have moulded capitals and bases. These are topped by 6 two gentle clerestorey windows.
At the West end of the nave is the comparatively contemporary glazed gallery, from which the church’s peal of 6 bells are rung. The west window of the tower ringing chamber includes the only piece of medieval glass, the head of an angel, to endure in this church. Earlier mentioned the ringing chamber is a substantial Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval times authorized the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see more than the Rood Monitor to the major altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass in the course of the church is of interest since of the topics represented as properly as the makers and artists included.
The West window of the North aisle is described in The Well-known Tutorial to Suffolk Churches as staying “a reasonably terrible solution of Ward and Hughes and functions an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be mentioned? Magnificence is of course in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels versus patterned quarries is of fascination since of its community connections. It was created and painted by Mary and Bessie McKean of Saxmundham in 1872 and mounted by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier.
The Victorian tour de power is of course the West window of the South aisle, made by the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, a close friend of the poet John Ruskin, and a perfectly acknowledged artist and reserve illustrator. The glass is by O’Connor and Taylor and illustrates Jesus’s ascension into heaven, in outstanding colour. Jesus stands in the centre, and the disciples kneel on both aspect. The drama of the scene is improved by the good quality of the artist’s work and in distinct the facial options.
Pews and Pulpit
The current pews and pulpit date from the restoration of 1873 and are made from New Zealand kaurie pine. They swap the previous box pews which were being so tall that quite a few folk utilizing them could neither see nor be observed.
The complete of the nave is crowned with a splendid 15th century single-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and wood demi-figures as corbels beneath the wall posts.
In the course of the Georgian era, or most likely in advance of, the roof was included in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church manual e book of 1855 states that at the time only the “ends” of the roof were seen below the ceiling and that the full interior was disfigured by galleries.
Happily the ceiling was eradicated in 1932 to reveal this splendid roof. It has been restored and the wall plates have been renewed, as have several of the other timbers. The ancient woodwork is considerably less brown in visual appeal than the present day. The figures beneath the wall posts are largely unique.
The Chancel
Just one of the most distinctive characteristics of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and seem toward the altar, you will detect that the Chancel is created at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is quite frequent in churches constructed in the shape of a cross (cruciform) but is incredibly scarce in a church of this kind. The key function is not the angle, which is much better than standard, but that it is to the South.
Other church buildings with weeping chancels incline to the North, symbolizing Jesus on the cross with his head toward the penitent thief on his proper. Right here it is to his left, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as nicely as the penitent. Saxmundham church is a person of the handful of in Europe to have this aspect.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South have been changed as component of the 1873 restoration, but we believe that the restorers copied the initial kinds (Adorned design)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was put in listed here in the early 1950s. It has two manuals, pedals and 15 speaking stops.
www.saxmundham.org/aboutsax/parishchurch.html
Posted by Jelltex on 2016-11-15 06:47:31
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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