St Nicholas, Minor Saxham, Suffolk
Tiny Saxham is a handsome village, not significantly from the edge of the Ickworth estate. The church is set at the japanese conclusion of the village exactly where the key road from Bury forks, agricultural cars and 4x4s thundering suddenly around corners concealed by ancient yews, the view of the church alone spoilt rather by an exuberant use of street furnishings. And genealogists building their way listed here would be dissatisfied to find that the southern side of Tiny Saxham churchyard was really perfectly cleared of all its older gravestones by lawnmower enthusiasts in the 1960s. A number of of the older headstones have been reset in a line to the south of the nave, with some great18th century ones in close proximity to the porch. An old photograph inside the church demonstrates this graveyard as it once was, an entrancing jumble of priceless historical memorials. Relatively really hard to get a lawnmower between, having said that, and so they are now long gone.
But the extensive expanse of grass does, at least, offset Suffolk’s very best spherical tower, and perhaps England’s. There are historical explanations for other people getting at minimum as attention-grabbing, but are any as attractive? The bell-phase is Norman, and consequently notably worthy of a gaze, since so quite a few of Suffolk’s spherical towers had their bell stages rebuilt in later on centuries. The Victorians did incredibly minor to it, and the exterior system of the church alone is continue to broadly as it was on the eve of the Reformation. The Lucas chapel (far more usually referred to these times as the Crofts chapel) on the north aspect of the chancel was created in the 1530s, just right before this sort of points turned theologically unacceptable.
You stage as a result of a doorway that is broadly up to date with the tower top rated, and on your still left are two fairly impressive archways. The to start with, on your remaining, is a minimal Norman arch, roughly the identical measurement as the doorway you have just stepped by means of, but established barely a metre and a 50 % off of the flooring. This has been variously identified as a tomb recess, an aumbry, a protected for valuables and a doorway into a dropped chapel. None of these appear ideal, and it appears far more than probably that it is the aged north doorway, maybe moved right here in the 19th century, whilst to what purpose is a mystery. Most likely, it was reconstructed merely to glimpse like a tomb recess – the Victorians went in for that sort of matter. It may possibly have been meant to echo one thing comparable in the chancel.
Beside it is a single of the most breathtakingly wonderful tower arches in Suffolk, a large matter in these a smaller church, perfectly beautiful, raising the eye heavenwards. The doorway above it recollects the a single at Thorington, wherever the tower is also not dissimilar. Beneath the arch are panels of the rood display, lions, squirrels and eagles struggling with every other off in the spandrels. Beside the tower arch is the parish war memorial, with three names on it. Frederick Fisher was wounded at Ypres, and died of his wounds at home in Minimal Saxham in 1919. The other two on the memorial are brothers, George and William Sansom. George was killed at Neuve Chapelle in 1915, William on the Somme in 1916. The two brothers are also remembered on Frederick Fisher’s headstone outside in a gloomy corner of the churchyard.
Turning eastwards, the amount and good quality of medieval woodwork is placing for these a humble setting up. It is just not hard to form it out from the 19th century stuff, broadly talking the newer benches are on the south facet. Of the medieval bench finishes, a lady at a prayer-desk may possibly perfectly be component of an Annunciation, a dragon biting its tail looks instead heraldic, and what is likely a lion appears not contrary to the cock-monster at Stowlangtoft.
Mortlock considered that the entrance to the rood stairs becoming 6 ft off the ground proposed that it had after been used to keep valuables. This may possibly be so, but I believe it is considerably a lot more likely that it is supplying us evidence of a now-vanished picket section of the stairs that led down into the aisle, as at close by Denston.
The chancel is at once wonderful and plain. The communion rails have been rescued from the abandoned church at Little Livermere, and have been reset below. On the north aspect, the curious memorial with its heraldic devices is the blocked up entrance to the Lucas chapel, now the vestry. The shields come from the tomb of Sir Thomas Fitzlucas, which at the time stood within.
The entrance to the vestry is from the east end of the north aisle. It is held locked. Having said that, it is value making contact with the keyholder detailed on the doorway, simply because, from its times as the Lucas chapel, it nevertheless consists of the somewhat impressive tomb of William, very first Baron Crofts, in all its 1670s Restoration glory.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2019-07-19 16:24:01
Tagged: , Tiny Saxham , Suffolk , East Anglia
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