All Saints, Eyke, Suffolk
This village straggles the active street amongst Woodbridge and Snape considering that the closure of the close by American airbase, it is substantially quieter than it made use of to be, while when I arrived this way on a sub-zero day in January 2017 I was happy to see that the village shop was still executing good company. Across the highway, and established again from it, All Saints sits quietly, with no tower to lead you to it from afar.
At to start with sight, this is a basic, if uneven, minimal church, fairly barn-like in its ancient graveyard. Tall elm trees around it are dwelling to jackdaws and rooks their cries fill the air as they wheel higher than you. A terrific yew caresses the south of the nave. The modern-day tiny porch offers no indication that you are about to enter one particular of the more attention-grabbing churches in this portion of Suffolk.
As you phase down into the sq. south aisle and nave (in reality, they surface broader than they are extended!) the initially issue you notice is a pair of gorgeous Norman arches, 1 about 10 ft to the east of the other, at the foundation of what was as soon as the central tower, whilst practically no sign stays of it from the outside now. Beyond them, the chancel opens up, its height accentuating the lowness of the arches which direct into it.
Sam Mortlock argues that All Saints was likely a cruciform church as at Pakenham in west Suffolk, with the south chapel top off from the south-east corner of the nave taking up section of what was a south transept. Cautley regarded as a tripartite arrangement far more likely, as at Newton-by-Castle-Acre in Norfolk, mostly on the power of the arches only obtaining mouldings on the western facet. One of the decreased tower home windows can continue to be found on the eastern deal with from inside of the chancel, and seems most curious. A bell rope disappears up into the ceilure. While the western arch only has a person band of chevrons, the jap arch has two. If you search carefully at the nave roof instantly in front of the western arch, you can see traces of paint, proof of a one particular-time canopy of honour to the now-vanished rood. There is a compact collection of medieval and continental glass in the chancel north window, together with a higher good quality scene of St Bridget feeding the beggars, two jolly mermaids and what show up to be the arms of the Borough of Wonderful Yarmouth.
Edward Hakewill carried out the restoration listed here in the 1860s. He is accountable for the angels on the wall plate of the nave. The south aisle just isn’t definitely an aisle at all, much more a completion of the sq. involving unique nave and south transept. The south transept (if these it was) experienced been a chantry chapel, often referred to as the Bavents Chantry. Lavers, Barraud & Westlake equipped the glass for Hakewill’s west window, as very well as a more compact lancet on the east side of the south transept, but the woodwork in the church is somewhat a lot more current, and an fascinating tale pertains to it.
Like numerous other Suffolk churches, together with Waldringfield across the estuary, a relatives dynasty of vicars was responsible for the Anglican revival in this parish. These had been the Darlings, James pere et fils. They held this living for 80 yrs, concerning 1859 and 1939. The father oversaw Hakewill’s restoration of what had come to be a around-derelict church. The son, who took about in 1893, experienced a passion for woodcarving. He taught his parishioners the ability at evening courses in the village faculty. Among them, the villagers made the benches, font cover, organ scenario, chapel screen and reredos. If you glimpse at the bench finishes, you will obtain James Darling’s pet puppy, and some other unlikely animals like a beaver, a snake, a squirrel and a penguin. A topped determine with a rosary on the poppyhead of just one bench probably represents the Blessed Virgin, and a seated cleric with a smile on his confront is possibly James Darling himself. The pulpit is Darling’s memorial. The workshop’s bench finishes can be observed in half a dozen other east Suffolk church buildings.
The east window is a fairly sombre affair, also by Lavers, Barraud & Westlake, showing the little ones coming to Christ although angels check out and display what Charity appears to be like like. The parish’s most well known treasure, the 15th century Eyke key, is now in the British Museum. Its wards are shaped to make the phrase IKE, an substitute sort of the village name. I was upset to find out that the doorlock has been adjusted considering that, but I suppose retention of the first would have designed this the easiest of all churches to crack into. A fibre-glass duplicate hangs on the wall.
It pleases me to appear back again below. It is now seventeen decades considering that my initially go to, on New Year’s Working day 2000, I was the initial particular person of the century* to signal the website visitors reserve, and it was pleasing to turn again to it on my return in 2006 and 2010. But I have still left it far too prolonged, and on my most new visit in 2017 I identified that a new visitor’s e book experienced taken the position of the previous one. Ah nicely. Back in 2000, the awesome lady practising the organ had advised me that 1 of the Reverend Darling’s daughters was however alive, and occasionally frequented to see all over again her father’s and grandfather’s handiwork. In 2010 I wondered if she nonetheless did, but now some seventeen a long time have passed, and I suppose she does not any much more.
*Sure, I know that pedants will convey to you that the 21st Century started on New Many years Working day 2001. Will not hear to them.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2017-01-29 18:35:17
Tagged: , Eyke , East Anglia , suffolk , church , church buildings , nikon , d5300
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