All Saints church at Eyke is a little bit distinctive in each perception, you could effortlessly pass by the village and miss out on it as there is certainly no tower to announce its presence on the streetscape, just a quite humble-hunting nave and chancel in the midst of the enjoyable open place of the churchyard. Its visual appearance is instead nondescript even though quirky, viewing it from the east shows the chancel to be substantially off centre, hence 1 miracles if you will find a south aisle hidden inside, but as it turns out, there is not.
Entering the church reveals a lot more of its idiosyncrasies, the nave is 1 open place with no aisles and yet the east wall subdivides with a curiously lop-sided outcome into two arches, the Norman chancel arch to the remaining and a smaller sized pointed arch primary to a smaller chapel to the ideal. What is actually far more there is a further Norman arch to the east top into the chancel consequently forming a crossing, so evidently this was supposed to be a central tower stopped abruptly at roof stage leaving no noticeable trace externally) and we can only assume it was lessened at some phase or perhaps in no way finished. It seems consequently that a cruciform church was the original plan and the current south chapel might have at first been a transept, and the later opening into the nave fashioned when that section of the church was extended to its present width, presumably in the 14th century. All these irregularities do make this church a specially intriguing architectural puzzle.
The chancel is made up of some eye-catching woodwork with carved bench finishes aplenty, but only a pair of items are genuinely medieval, the rest all the playful invention of early 20th century woodcarvers under the steerage of the vicar. Several animals arise alongside the poppyheads and are greatest described as rustic but enjoyable. There are a number of attention-grabbing parts of old glass listed here together with memorial brasses and a handsome generally East Anglian 15th century font at the west conclude of the nave adorned with the emblems of the evangelists.
I must confess I might not done all my research on this excursion and permit the marked church towers on my OS map guidebook my planned route, and commonly viewing all those marked with a lesser cross I’d dismissed as additional current buildings of fewer desire so hadn’t supposed to end, thus I was only intending to go via Eyke en route to my future end when I observed a medieval church on my remaining that unquestionably warranted a halt for more investigation! A full surprise, but a nice just one!
Fortunately Eyke church appears to be saved open and welcoming (in non-Covid troubled situations) and the locals I achieved below were friendly. For extra on the church see its entry on the Suffolk Churches web page underneath:-
www.suffolkchurches.co.british isles/eyke.htm
Posted by Aidan McRae Thomson on 2021-03-04 08:39:50
Tagged: , Eyke , church , Suffolk
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