I was past at St John just one chilly Boxing Day morning, on 1 of these dutiful visits to see Mom at Christmas. At just after dawn, it was locked, but seemed a wonderful church and a single to revisit.
So it was previous Thursday, traveling back again to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the solar was environment, placing the wonderful church tower bathed in heat golden light-weight.
As I stopped to choose a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar striving to get past in his auto, but he was patient as I go my shot.
He was waiting for me at the porch, and suggested I hurry inside of to see the windows that have been illuminated by the sun, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a high-quality town about halfway among Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was unfortunate for a when mainly because, like numerous small cities in that scenario, it lost the passing trade which experienced been a single of the factors for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals call it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries, and it nevertheless has the character of a Victorian railway city, primarily all over the station. But it is not a vacationer town, compared with its good rival Framlingham, or ‘Fram’, just across the A12.
I like Saxmundham a good deal there is an air of resilience about the spot, and any little city with two next hand bookshops will have to have one thing heading for it. What it does miss out on is a dominating medieval church, simply because St John the Baptist is away from the key road on the road to Leiston.
The graveyard is a fantastic place, full of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most popular is the headstone to John Noller, which has its very own sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century feel to the church, because it was subject matter to an 1870s restoration at the hands of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. Even so, Phipson was extra sensitive to the need to have to protect medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Eco-friendly, and so the church has loads of fascinating issues to see. Nonetheless, Phipson was not higher than making them a lot more medieval than they already had been, and so the font, a person of the finest Suffolk examples of the 15th century East Anglian design and style, is totally recut. There are intense minor wild adult men about the foundation, and just one of the shields options the instruments of the enthusiasm.
Probably the most appealing survival in this article, and a rare 1, can be found in the most easterly windows of every single of the clerestories. These are the stone corbel ledges that as soon as supported the cover of honour about the rood. They are both of those carved elaborately, and the northern just one is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Pro Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner together that on the south facet.
Despite these medieval survivals, the most crucial artistic artefacts here are in the east window of the south aisle. This is a selection of ovals of 17th century glass considered to come from Innsbruck, depicting Saints and biblical scenes. It is of great quality, and interesting to glance at. In fact, aside from the lousy east window there is a excellent selection of Victorian glass below as perfectly. I expended about 50 percent an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then misplaced the memory card from my digicam that experienced all the visuals on. And so, I will have to go again. Sorry.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/saxmundham.html
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The church is substantially altered from the initial church which was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Minimal evidence of this Norman or probably Saxon church stays, while some masonry to be seen in the reduce phase of the tower may perhaps be of this date.
We also know that the church had a South porch that contained a very simple 11th century doorway. However, the porch and doorway disappeared in a key restoration and rebuilding in 1873. Nonetheless, we do have a photograph of the porch from an etching in 1848.
Substantially of the church that we see now stems from the 19th century restoration but the church even now incorporates lots of authentic items of an earlier date.
The Western tower (14th century) has diagonal buttresses at its western angles. The two mild belfry home windows and the related west window are in the Decorated model of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this day, whilst some of the masonry in the reduced section of the tower is organized differently from the rest and could have formed part of the 11th century church.
The clock was presented in 1880 and was restored in 1938. The parapet has charming 15th century flint panelling (flushwork) with traceried panels. Beneath it is a band of flowers (flearons) and carved heads, in addition to a huge head at the centre of the west facet and a gargoyle head on the south facet.
The tower is home to a peal of 6 bells. Three of these bells had been solid c. 1480-1 510 by John Kebyll of London. A different was built 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 completed by the addition of a new treble bell by John Warner of London in 1880. The second bell was recast in 1938, and the bells have been rehung in new oak frames by Bowell of Ipswich.
A gem in the crown that is St John’s can be uncovered in the churchyard on the tombstone of John Noller (1725), which can be found south west of the church techniques and in eight yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are smaller, inclined oblong recesses which variety a straightforward and imaginative sundial. Each and every sundial needs a pointer or gnomon projecting in front of the dial to forged a shadow on to a marked scale. Any these types of projection lower down on a tombstone would surely, faster or later on, be damaged. To stop this going on, the designer of John Noller’s headstone hit upon the ingenious thought of creating the edge of the headstone’s floor the gnomon and obtained the relative projection by recessing the dial.
As the stone faces east and west, he carved a morning dial on one particular facet (east encounter) and an night one on the other (west confront). If you look in the recesses on the two 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 due to the fact at the minute of midday each individual dial is absolutely in shadow.
You will also recognize that the dials are not upright on the stone but at a slant. The upper edge which functions as the gnomon is so slanted as to level accurately to the north star, or in other phrases, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it finished? Very well, we are not sure, but just as some clocks are marked with tile inscription “Tempus fugit” or time flies, so this gravestone with its sundial marking the passing of time also reminds us, the residing, that our time quickly passes. Or possibly it was finding up on one more considered about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for every thing, and a season for every
action 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 normal East Anglian structure with octagonal panelled bowl carved with lions interspersed with angels keeping shields on which are shown the devices of the Enthusiasm (East), the Cross (South), the emblem of the Trinity (West) and the three crowns of East Anglia (North). The bowl of the font is initial.
The Nave c 1500
Internally the constructing is harmonious, light and nicely-proportioned. The aisles are separated 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 mild clerestorey home windows.
At the West stop of the nave is the comparatively modern-day glazed gallery, from which the church’s peal of 6 bells are rung. The west window of the tower ringing chamber contains the only piece of medieval glass, the head of an angel, to survive in this church. Over the ringing chamber is a huge Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval times allowed the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see more than the Rood Display screen to the most important altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass all through the church is of desire due to the fact of the topics represented as effectively as the makers and artists involved.
The West window of the North aisle is explained in The Well-liked Information to Suffolk Churches as being “a reasonably terrible item of Ward and Hughes and characteristics an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be mentioned? Natural beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels towards patterned quarries is of curiosity simply because of its neighborhood connections. It was developed and painted by Mary and Bessie McKean of Saxmundham in 1872 and mounted by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier.
The Victorian tour de drive is of course the West window of the South aisle, developed by the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, a friend of the poet John Ruskin, and a well identified artist and guide illustrator. The glass is by O’Connor and Taylor and illustrates Jesus’s ascension into heaven, in fantastic colour. Jesus stands in the centre, and the disciples kneel on either side. The drama of the scene is increased by the high quality of the artist’s do the job and in particular the facial attributes.
Pews and Pulpit
The present pews and pulpit date from the restoration of 1873 and are produced from New Zealand kaurie pine. They switch the outdated box pews which were being so tall that several folk working with them could neither see nor be viewed.
The full of the nave is crowned with a splendid 15th century solitary-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and wooden demi-figures as corbels below the wall posts.
Throughout the Georgian era, or maybe in advance of, the roof was lined in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church manual e book of 1855 states that at the time only the “finishes” of the roof ended up noticeable below the ceiling and that the full inside was disfigured by galleries.
Fortunately the ceiling was taken out in 1932 to reveal this splendid roof. It has been restored and the wall plates have been renewed, as have a number of of the other timbers. The historical woodwork is fewer brown in overall look than the fashionable. The figures beneath the wall posts are typically unique.
The Chancel
Just one of the most distinctive capabilities of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and appear towards the altar, you will detect that the Chancel is constructed at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is relatively typical in churches built in the shape of a cross (cruciform) but is quite rare in a church of this kind. The most important characteristic is not the angle, which is a lot larger than regular, 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 correct. In this article it is to his still left, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as well as the penitent. Saxmundham church is 1 of the handful of in Europe to have this aspect.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South had been replaced as element of the 1873 restoration, but we feel that the restorers copied the initial types (Decorated design and style)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was installed in this article in the early 1950s. It has two manuals, pedals and 15 speaking stops.
www.saxmundham.org/aboutsax/parishchurch.html
Posted by Jelltex on 2016-11-14 17:45:12
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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