All Saints church at Eyke is a bit distinctive in just about every perception, you could quickly move by way of the village and miss it as you can find no tower to announce its presence on the streetscape, just a relatively humble-seeking nave and chancel in the midst of the nice open up house of the churchyard. Its look is alternatively nondescript however quirky, viewing it from the east reveals the chancel to be drastically off centre, consequently 1 miracles if there is certainly a south aisle concealed inside, but as it turns out, there is just not.
Getting into the church reveals a lot more of its idiosyncrasies, the nave is 1 open up space without aisles and yet the east wall subdivides with a curiously lop-sided result into two arches, the Norman chancel arch to the still left and a smaller sized pointed arch main to a smaller chapel to the appropriate. What is actually additional there is a additional Norman arch to the east main into the chancel consequently forming a crossing, so plainly this was intended to be a central tower stopped abruptly at roof level leaving no seen trace externally) and we can only presume it was lessened at some phase or possibly never ever completed. It seems thus that a cruciform church was the primary plan and the existing south chapel may perhaps have initially been a transept, and the afterwards opening into the nave fashioned when that element of the church was prolonged to its current width, presumably in the 14th century. All these irregularities do make this church a especially intriguing architectural puzzle.
The chancel consists of some eye-catching woodwork with carved bench finishes aplenty, but only a couple of items are truly medieval, the relaxation all the playful invention of early 20th century woodcarvers less than the steerage of the vicar. Numerous animals emerge alongside the poppyheads and are best described as rustic but enjoyable. There are a couple attention-grabbing items of previous glass below alongside with memorial brasses and a handsome usually East Anglian 15th century font at the west close of the nave adorned with the emblems of the evangelists.
I have to confess I would not carried out all my homework on this journey and enable the marked church towers on my OS map tutorial my prepared route, and usually observing all those marked with a smaller sized cross I would dismissed as extra modern structures of fewer desire so hadn’t supposed to cease, thus I was only intending to pass by way of Eyke en route to my subsequent prevent when I noticed a medieval church on my still left that absolutely warranted a end for more investigation! A full surprise, but a enjoyable one particular!
Happily Eyke church looks to be retained open and welcoming (in non-Covid troubled times) and the locals I achieved listed here ended up pleasant. For far more on the church see its entry on the Suffolk Church buildings web-site underneath:-
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/eyke.htm
Posted by Aidan McRae Thomson on 2021-03-04 00:42:53
Tagged: , Eyke , church , Suffolk
#home furniture #Do-it-yourself #woodwork #woodworking #freedownload#woodworkingprojects #woodsmith ,wood craft, wood planer, fantastic woodworking, picket chairs, wooden operating resources, preferred woodworking, woodworking books, woodworking workbench strategies