I was final at St John one chilly Boxing Day morning, on 1 of those dutiful excursions to see Mother at Christmas. At just right after dawn, it was locked, but looked a high-quality church and a person to revisit.
So it was final Thursday, touring again to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the sunshine was location, environment the good church tower bathed in warm golden mild.
As I stopped to just take a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar striving to get previous in his automobile, but he was individual as I go my shot.
He was waiting around for me at the porch, and prompt I hurry inside to see the home windows that have been illuminated by the sunlight, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a good town about midway involving Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was unfortunate for a though simply because, like many compact cities in that problem, it lost the passing trade which experienced been 1 of the good reasons for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals call it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th generations, and it however has the character of a Victorian railway city, specially close to the station. But it is not a vacationer city, in contrast to its excellent rival Framlingham, or ‘Fram’, just throughout the A12.
I like Saxmundham a great deal there is an air of resilience about the place, and any little town with two second hand bookshops must have something likely for it. What it does miss out on is a dominating medieval church, because St John the Baptist is away from the major road on the road to Leiston.
The graveyard is a good position, comprehensive of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most well-known is the headstone to John Noller, which has its possess sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century feel to the church, since it was topic to an 1870s restoration at the hands of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. Nonetheless, Phipson was additional sensitive to the need to maintain medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Green, and so the church has plenty of attention-grabbing things to see. Even so, Phipson wasn’t over making them much more medieval than they currently were being, and so the font, a single of the best Suffolk examples of the 15th century East Anglian type, is thoroughly recut. There are aggressive small wild adult men around the base, and 1 of the shields characteristics the devices of the passion.
Probably the most appealing survival in this article, and a exceptional a person, can be viewed in the most easterly home windows of each and every of the clerestories. These are the stone corbel ledges that after supported the canopy of honour over the rood. They are equally carved elaborately, and the northern a person is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Professional Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner together that on the south side.
Inspite of these medieval survivals, the most crucial creative artefacts right here are in the east window of the south aisle. This is a assortment of ovals of 17th century glass believed to arrive from Innsbruck, depicting Saints and biblical scenes. It is of outstanding good quality, and intriguing to appear at. In fact, apart from the very poor east window there is a very good collection of Victorian glass in this article as properly. I expended about half an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then dropped the memory card from my camera that experienced all the illustrations or photos on. And so, I will have to go back again. Sorry.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/saxmundham.html
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The church is substantially adjusted from the primary church which was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Small evidence of this Norman or quite possibly Saxon church remains, despite the fact that some masonry to be seen in the decrease phase of the tower may be of this day.
We also know that the church had a South porch that contained a uncomplicated 11th century doorway. Regretably, the porch and doorway disappeared in a big restoration and rebuilding in 1873. However, we do have a picture of the porch from an etching in 1848.
Substantially of the church that we see nowadays stems from the 19th century restoration but the church even now includes lots of primary items of an earlier date.
The Western tower (14th century) has diagonal buttresses at its western angles. The two mild belfry windows and the very similar west window are in the Decorated style of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this date, even though some of the masonry in the lower element of the tower is organized in different ways from the relaxation and may have formed component of the 11th century church.
The clock was provided in 1880 and was restored in 1938. The parapet has pretty 15th century flint panelling (flushwork) with traceried panels. Beneath it is a band of flowers (flearons) and carved heads, in addition to a large head at the centre of the west facet and a gargoyle head on the south side.
The tower is property to a peal of six bells. A few of these bells ended up cast c. 1480-1 510 by John Kebyll of London. Yet another was made in 1609 by Brend, the Norwich bell-founder, and the tenor, weighing 8cwt.3qtr.7Ib, is by Lester and Pack of Whitechapel, made 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 were rehung in new oak frames by Bowell of Ipswich.
A gem in the crown that is St John’s can be observed in the churchyard on the tombstone of John Noller (1725), which can be observed south west of the church steps and in eight yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are tiny, inclined rectangular recesses which sort a easy and imaginative sundial. Each individual sundial requires a pointer or gnomon projecting in front of the dial to cast a shadow on to a marked scale. Any this sort of projection small down on a tombstone would definitely, faster or later, be destroyed. To avert this going on, the designer of John Noller’s headstone strike upon the ingenious thought of building the edge of the headstone’s floor the gnomon and received the relative projection by recessing the dial.
As the stone faces east and west, he carved a early morning dial on 1 side (east deal with) and an night one particular on the other (west face). If you glimpse 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 since at the minute of noon each and 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 acts as the gnomon is so slanted as to issue specifically to the north star, or in other words and phrases, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it done? Well, we are not confident, 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 dwelling, that our time before long passes. Or perhaps it was choosing up on another believed about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for every thing, and a time for each
exercise under 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 design with octagonal panelled bowl carved with lions interspersed with angels keeping shields on which are shown the instruments 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 first.
The Nave c 1500
Internally the creating is harmonious, gentle and perfectly-proportioned. The aisles are divided from the nave by 15th century (Perpendicular) arcades of 4 bays, with octagonal piers which have moulded capitals and bases. These are topped by 6 two light-weight clerestorey home 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 consists of the only piece of medieval glass, the head of an angel, to survive in this church. Previously mentioned the ringing chamber is a large Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval periods allowed the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see in excess of the Rood Monitor to the key altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass throughout the church is of interest simply because of the subjects represented as nicely as the makers and artists included.
The West window of the North aisle is described in The Popular Guidebook to Suffolk Church buildings as being “a reasonably terrible product or service of Ward and Hughes and options an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be claimed? Splendor is obviously in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels versus patterned quarries is of curiosity due to the fact of its community connections. It was created and painted by Mary and Bessie McKean of Saxmundham in 1872 and installed by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier.
The Victorian tour de force is of course the West window of the South aisle, created by the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, a friend of the poet John Ruskin, and a perfectly regarded artist and book illustrator. The glass is by O’Connor and Taylor and illustrates Jesus’s ascension into heaven, in amazing colour. Jesus stands in the centre, and the disciples kneel on both side. The drama of the scene is improved by the top quality of the artist’s operate and in individual the facial capabilities.
Pews and Pulpit
The current pews and pulpit day from the restoration of 1873 and are created from New Zealand kaurie pine. They switch the outdated box pews which ended up so tall that several folks using them could neither see nor be witnessed.
The complete of the nave is topped with a splendid 15th century solitary-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and wooden demi-figures as corbels below the wall posts.
For the duration of the Georgian period, or probably just before, the roof was covered in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church manual guide of 1855 states that at the time only the “ends” of the roof had been seen underneath the ceiling and that the complete interior was disfigured by galleries.
Fortunately the ceiling was taken off in 1932 to expose this splendid roof. It has been restored and the wall plates have been renewed, as have various of the other timbers. The historical woodwork is a lot less brown in visual appearance than the modern-day. The figures beneath the wall posts are largely first.
The Chancel
One particular of the most unique characteristics of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and glance in direction of the altar, you will observe that the Chancel is created at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is reasonably popular in churches constructed in the condition of a cross (cruciform) but is quite unusual in a church of this type. The principal attribute is not the angle, which is considerably greater than typical, 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 to the penitent thief on his ideal. Below it is to his still left, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as well as the penitent. Saxmundham church is just one of the number of in Europe to have this attribute.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South were replaced as section of the 1873 restoration, but we imagine that the restorers copied the first kinds (Decorated design and style)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was set up below 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 20:44:10
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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