I was born in Norfolk and lived in Suffolk. So I believed I knew all those two counties. But of study course there is much more to Norfolk than Norwich, Cromer, Yarmouth and Kings Lynn, as there is to Suffolk than Ipswich, Lowestoft, Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds. And so on My pal, Simon K, runs a fantastic internet site, which I website link to on EA churches, and on his Suffolk Church website page he has visited 707 Suffolk church buildings, and 909 Norfolk churches. That is a ton of churches for two counties to share, and several of people churches are ancient, flint designed, round towered or have wall paintings, wood roof angels or a little something well worth the hard work of likely to see or trying to find out the keyholder to achieve obtain.
What I suggest is that there is no way anyone who only had their very own car right up until 1984, and experienced very little curiosity in church buildings or parishes could have heard of most of the parishes in the two counties, and so a parish church like St George.
I noticed St George from the most important road, I was getting a short cut to join the A14 and from there to the A12 and south on what I hoped my my previous excursion of the 12 months to lowestoft as Mother is now out of healthcare facility and in the treatment of district nurses in buy to get put back on her toes.
So I noticed the tower of St George from about half a mile away, and assumed I experienced adequate time to go around and see inside if I could.
I parked at the stop of a cul-de-sac of new bungalows, and as I stroll up the lender to the gate into the churchyard, the clean up lines of the tower, very well, towered in excess of me.
In the porch I experimented with the doorway and located it locked, but the keyholder record designed it distinct that the nearest one particular, at Christmas Cottage, was just over the highway. So, why not test, Ian?
I went to the cottage and rang the bell. I experienced to fill out my information in a ledger, a practical measure. But I showed by driving licence to confirm that I was who I claimed. Minor did I know the tiny village I lived in experienced been observed. Much more of that in a moment.
Inside of St George, you eye is stolen by the amazing pew ends animals of all forms, actual and imaginary, and most experienced not been defaced, only people of clear human type. One particular with the body of a chicken but a distinct human facial area experienced been left by itself, so is the insanity of the puritan’s thoughts.
I determined that I would document each and every pew stop determine, and a lot of full pew finishes so fantastic that they were being.
There is the feint define of a substantial wall portray, Simon says it was of St. Christopher. It would have been most remarkable when freshly painted. There is also a high-quality established of misericords.
St George’s glory is the altarpiece, into depth Simon goes down below. It is alarmed, so you are unable to search at them too carefully, sadly, but these kinds of is a sign of the times.
I took the keys again, and the girl of the dwelling came to communicate to me as she experienced been informed by her spouse that I was from Cliffe in Kent, which is the place her family members is from. Unfortunately, I am not from, nor dwell in Cliffe. For as soon as there was in truth two Cliffs in Kent, 1 on the Hoo Peninsular, wherever her relatives is from, and a person in the vicinity of to Dover. Quite a few decades back, Cliffe in close proximity to to Dover was identified as WestCliffe to differentiate it from its namesake even further north. I spelled out this to her, but mentioned St Helen in Cliffe is a single of my favourite Kent churches, created of alternate layers of black and gentle flints and stone, in sunlight it glistens and sparkles.
Although St George listed here in Stowlangtoft is a great church, it is in a very poor state of mend, and is because of to be made redundant in the new calendar year. Often sad when that comes about to a parish church, but it is very likely to be taken about by the CCT, but then who will volunteer to keep it tidy when the aged wardens and keyholders are as well outdated.
Stowlangtoft is a fantastic church and so glad am I that I expended 40 minutes of my time to visit it. Go to see it now before it is far too late!
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In the summer season of 2003, this web site grew to become a six-component series on BBC Radio Suffolk. Something I stated in the fourth programme, about Hessett, generated a good volume of correspondence. Referring to the way a lot of church buildings have been restored in the 19th century, I noticed that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval even when the precise furnishings and fittings are medieval, the complete piece is continue to a Victorian conception.
Men and women wrote to me and reported factors like “but in that circumstance, Simon, how do we know what was there originally and what was not?”. To which my reply was the enigmatic “assume that almost nothing is as it to start with appears, as Sherlock Holmes claimed”. And if he failed to, then he need to have performed.
A key illustration of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is right here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This component of Suffolk can be fairly bleak, particularly in late Oct, but England’s finest summer time and autumn for many years had left the churchyard here verdant and golden, as lovely a spot as any I would viewed that yr. The church is significant, and sits on a mound that has been reduce down on one particular aspect by the road. I walked up the slope, earlier the memorial to the artwork critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, which hardly ever fails to go me. It is by the sculptor Glynn Williams, and Sister Wendy Beckett claims of it that it are unable to be pinned down and encapsulated, it defeats the types of the mere mind and sings to us of our further self.
Overcome as you might be by it, you should not are unsuccessful to place the damaged window tracery that has been used to make the wall in this article, for therefore hangs a tale.
St George, in circumstance you never know, is 1 of the excellent Suffolk church buildings. Though it may well externally look a little serious, and is by no indicates as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure property of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one particular go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not nonetheless entire of the ‘walls of glass’ self confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery seems to have been fixed, and probably even renewed, which might reveal why there is damaged medieval tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it will not acquire much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but embellished. So it may well be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall is not medieval, so in which experienced it been all individuals many years?
A further survival from the previously church is the font. It also asks some concerns. Unusually, it capabilities a Saint on 7 of the panels, Christ getting on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and a lot less normally St George. The cult of St George was at its top in the early yrs of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it unquestionably is not looking its greatest. But I imagine there is much more likely on right here than fulfills the eye. Fonts were plastered around in Elizabethan occasions, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not imagine they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at minimum, this stonework seems weathered. I ponder if this font was taken off from the church, possibly in the mid-17th century, and served an outside reason right up until it was returned in the 19th century.
The tale of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as component of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy frequented, and was delighted to discover that the church was at very last undergoing repair. The chancel experienced been roofless, and the nave utilised for companies. A new Rectory was getting designed. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His identify was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for virtually the center forty yrs of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a excellent mate of John Henry Newman, the potential Cardinal, and they normally corresponded on the topic of the pre-Reformation purchasing of English church buildings. It is fascinating to imagine how, at this seminal moment, Rickards may possibly have informed the considered of the Oxford Movement. Regrettably, when Newman turned a Catholic Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.
For the duration of the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the wonderful Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and total the marvellous set of bench finishes – Ringham did the exact same factor at Woolpit, a number of miles away. Ringham’s work is so excellent that it is often challenging for the inexperienced eye to detect it even so, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals listed here, and the wierder stuff is all medieval, and likely dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft’s bench ends is partly the sheer quantity – there are most likely 60 carvings – but also that there are numerous one of a kind subjects you can see some of them below.
The carvings appear to be aspect of the exact group as Woolpit and Tostock – you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the fowl with a man’s head, from equivalent carvings somewhere else. And then with any luck , that minor alarm bell in your heard should start out to go “Hmmmm…..” since some of the carvings here are obviously not from the same team. It is tough to believe that that the mermaid and the owl, for illustration, are from the exact workshop, or even from the exact same ten years. The benches themselves are no clue it was frequent follow in the 19th century to switch medieval bench finishes on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches created out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards observed some of these bench finishes in other places? Could he have been the variety of person to do a factor like that?
Effectively, indeed he could. As Roy Tricker remembers, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley’s church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is one particular that Rickards acquired after discovering it in storage in Ipswich docks. In the ferment of the wonderful 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was hundreds of medieval junk lying around, a great deal of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of particular person to counterfeit his church’s medieval inheritance?
Perfectly, indeed he most likely was. Seem at the medieval roundels in the center window on the south facet of the nave. The 4 evangelists are over and under two outstanding representations of the Presentation in the Temple and the Baptism of Christ. You can see them under click on on them to enlarge them. Regretably, they are not medieval at all, and it is commonly recognized that they have been painted by a daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. There is anything comparable the other facet of Bury at Hawstead.
Definitely medieval is the extensive St Christopher wall-portray however discernible on the north wall. It was in all probability one of the final to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval glass in the higher tracery of some of the home windows. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard’s fee, and the perform of William White. What can Rickards have been pondering of? But we stage through into the chancel, and quickly the total matter moves up a gear. For in this article are some things that are truly amazing.
In a county popular for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft’s chancel are spectacular, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood monitor dado is Suffolk’s most total established of return stalls. Most placing are the figures that type finials to the stall finishes. They are individuals in the Mass, together with two Monks, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk will have to be a person of the greatest medieval pictures in Suffolk Mortlock imagined the stalls the very best in England. I was below with my close friend Aidan of Sylly Suffolk fame, and he had beforehand photographed and written about these carving a a pair of years in the past. But even he found something new to photograph, and a hush fell on the chancel as we explored.
The benches that encounter eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are great things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces. Some of them are beneath click on them to enlarge them.
Now, you know what I am going to question future. How significantly of this is from this church initially? It all appears medieval work, and there is no cause to consider it may not have been moved in other places in the church when the chancel was open up to the elements. What proof have we received?
Firstly, we must notice that the only other Suffolk church with this kind of a huge range of medieval misericords of this top quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I do not check with you to see this as important, basically to recognize it in passing. Next, I am no carpenter, but it does appear to me as while two sets of furnishings have been cobbled alongside one another the stalls that back on to the display screen appear to have been integrated into the larger composition of stalls and desks that entrance them and the north and south partitions.
However, if you appear closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche people. The Ashfield arms also seem on the rood display, and the Ashfields have been the big donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on stability I am inclined to think that the better part of the stall composition was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Perfectly, I will not know. But I believe they have to be considered as component of the similar set as those people at Norton. In which case they could have come from the very same church, which may possibly have been this just one, but may not have been. Practically surely, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they ended up initially in the quire of Bury Abbey. Hmm….
Other amazing items in St George consist of FE Howard’s lovely war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the reverse corner of the nave Hugh Easton’s beautiful St George, which serves the very same purpose. It is as superior as his perform at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a pleasant painted pipe organ which was evidently exhibited at, and obtained from, the Wonderful Exhibition of 1851.
But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of study course, most popular for the Flemish carvings that flank the fairly weighty altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly discovered them in an Ixworth junk shop. They exhibit photos from the crucifixion tale, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides propose. They date from the 1480s, and were almost surely the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked throughout the French Revolution. I had viewed a little something equivalent at Baumes-les-Messieurs in the French Jura a several months just before. There, the carvings are brightly painted, as these at the time were being, and piled up in a block rather than unfold out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century. My favorite images are the Pieta and the Mouth of Hell. Click on on the photographs underneath.
A single chilly winter’s night time in January 1977, a gang of robbers broke into this locked church and stole them. Very little extra was seen or read of them right until 1982, when they had been identified on display screen in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey experienced been a convoluted one particular taken to Holland, they ended up applied as safety for a personal loan which was defaulted upon. The new operator was then burgled, and the carvings have been fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They ended up bought from his store, and taken to the museum, which promptly recognized them as 15th century carvings. They place them on show, and a Dutch female who experienced examine about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.
The parish instituted lawful proceedings to get them back an injunction was taken out to prevent the new operator getting rid of them from the museum. The parish lost the situation, leaving them with a monstrous authorized bill but the story has a satisfied ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their obtain from the operator, paid out off the lawful costs, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Seemingly this was all at vast price tag, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain’s liberation of Holland for the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.
Now, the carvings are mounted firmly in put and alarmed, so they would not be going walkabout yet again. But a very little element of me miracles if they definitely should be listed here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they were not below at first they weren’t even in England originally. Wouldn’t it be superior if they ended up exhibited someplace safer, wherever people could pay back to see them, and present some cash flow for the servicing of the church building? And then, whisper it, St George may possibly even be stored open.
St George, Stowlangtoft, is in the village substantial road. 3 keyholders are detailed, two of them immediately reverse. I am explained to that Wednesday is not a good time to check out and get the key – it is industry working day in Bury.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.united kingdom/stowlangtoft.htm
Posted by Jelltex on 2017-12-17 20:59:01
Tagged: , St George , Stowlangtoft , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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