St James, Nayland, Suffolk

St James, Nayland, Suffolk

St James, Nayland, Suffolk

Nayland. All villages all over appear to be by or next to Nayland. Very best go to Nayland to see what it was like.

I experienced programmed the sat nav to consider me to Wissington, more of that following, but I observed that we would go by way of Nayland, I determined to turn up the major street through the village and discover a location to park.

Nayland is quite as a photograph, probably even chocolate box rather. But it appreciates it. Nayland, twinned with Aldburgh!

The streets have been entire of sporting activities automobiles and best stop vary rovers. Pubs experienced been converted to residences, which comes about in all places, but it gave off, at the very least to me, an air of being much better. Superior than me.

I glimpsed St James along the line of Church Mews. I walked together to the church, discovered that the entrance was round the other facet of the church, but it was quick to slice as a result of a steel gate and made my way within.

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Most recently, I frequented St James as section of the anniversary celebrations – of a different church. I’ll clarify why in a second, but an observation initial: I like St James a ton. I like Nayland way too – Suffolk has much less chocolate box villages than you could possibly be led to hope, but Nayland is one particular of them.

The church is shoehorned into a tight web page amongst residences that are almost as outdated only to the north is there room for the graveyard to develop. Simply because of this, you may possibly be tempted to perspective it only from this aspect but this would be a oversight, for though it is grand ample, it is most likely the least interesting of the four sides. At any church, a walk around the outside the house is advised. Below, it is critical.

As I say, I came below past for the reason that of celebrations It was the centenary of the tiny creating on the north-east edge of St James’s churchyard. This is the Catholic church of the Sacred Coronary heart. Ahead of the Reformation, of class, St James by itself was a Catholic church but Henry VIII and two of his children threw the Priests out of the Temple, and now Nayland’s Catholics leave their Mass below the shadow of the glory that was when theirs. Sacred Heart is a small small church, and St James is large but as so typically these days, it is Sacred Coronary heart that has the larger congregation. So it was that the centenary Mass was held in the significant sister church. It ought to have been lots of several years since St James hosted a higher pontifical Mass, but it seemed very snug with it.

I have numerous good reasons for particularly liking St James. Firstly, he is my favorite Saint, and his church listed here is a glory to him it is furnished in the Anglo-catholic manner of the early 20th century, with Stations of the Cross established in the walls and a grand ritualist sanctuary. But it does not have the pomposity or the triumphalism you uncover in other substantial Suffolk Anglican churches like Lavenham and Clare. Right here, the feeling is of a rural church at relieve with itself, not the proto-urbanity that comes with Minton tiles and polished woodwork.

Possessing explained that, the work here is of a significant high-quality, and pretty properly-cared for. Very frankly, I imagine this church is a credit score to its village and parish.

But enable us survey the outdoors initially. St James was a 15th century fabric church, rebuilt on the prosperity of the fabric traders. You stage down into the seriously civic south porch, or continue on anti-clockwise to the west tower, behind the residences, exactly where the west door has 4 measures – up. Most curious. The tower was in no way rebuilt it is however the authentic 14th century a person, and the late-medieval battlements are, in simple fact, Victorian.

Carrying on southwards, we appear to a third entrance, and the grandest. William Abell’s porch was supplied as component of a bequest on the eve of the Reformation. Rather curiously, it faces westwards at the conclusion of the south aisle, and is no more time in frequent use.

A slender path potential customers up the south aspect of the church, with a wall and gardens over and above. It normally takes us earlier a grand red brick rood loft stair turret, an indicator that the screen went proper the way across the church as at Blythburgh, Southwold, Lowestoft St Margaret and other grand churches of the similar date.

The eastend is like a tiny town of chancel and chapel, such as several first doorways. Then, you are back again spherical into the open churchyard.

We step in, then, through the north porch. The nave is instantly reminiscent of that at Framlingham, with the organ substantial in its gallery, the nicely recut font in the north-west corner, and strong pillars top to a daring clerestory. The aisles unfold past the arcades, and end in fantastic fashionable chapels that in the north aisle is specifically appealing. The roof is reminiscent of Blythburgh in its camber, but is entirely devoid now of angels and monograms.

The chancel is substantial and grand, and if the stone reredos is a small serious then this is sufficiently compensated for by John Constable’s best altar piece. I am assuming that there is now a replica in area, as at Brantham. Christ blesses the bread and wine with a haunting expression on his face you ponder what Constable may have carried out if he hadn’t attained accomplishment as a landscape painter.

If you can get access to the vestry, you will come across the memorial to William Jones, vicar for the very last quarter of the 18th century. His area in modern-day Anglican historical past is protected and undeniable, and yet his name is practically solely neglected. At a time when the Church of England was practically completely the maintain of a boorish squirarchy, he led a team of intellectuals who explored the spiritual nature of the church, and tried to reintroduce tips to their parishioners like the actual presence in the Eucharist. He created his mark felt in many corners of the English Church. 1 of his early followers was John Wesley, who founded the Methodist motion. An additional was the father of John Keble, who went on to be the inspiration guiding the Oxford Motion. Still a different person inspired by the legacy of his religious writings was the younger John Henry Newman. It looks incredible that the catalyst driving the two good breakaway actions of the final 250 decades need to have been a quiet clergyman in this Suffolk backwater, although in the late 18th and early 19th century the name ‘Jones of Nayland’ was properly-recognized.

For brass-hunters, there is significantly to see – there are six, all informed, to the Sekyn, Hacche and Davy households. There is also some really very good fashionable glass, especially in the north aisle.

Why is this grand church not on the ecclesiological vacationer circuit? Perfectly, it is all a bit Victorianised, I suppose. But as on the exterior, there are some medieval survivals within, and the most exceptional of these are hanging up on the south aisle wall. These are the panels of the medieval roodscreen (the body and boarding is all Victorian) and display eight figures. The initial shows St Cuthbert – the soccer in his hand is in simple fact a head the next and 3rd are two well-known Saints in East Anglia, our have St Edmund and the Papal St Gregory (you can convey to that the furious Anglican reformers did not like him). The fourth is a King, the fifth displays the legend of St Edward the Confessor (you can see this in stone at Wordwell) the subsequent two are Kings, and the previous is probably St Thomas of Canterbury.

I’m assuming that the monitor should have been in situ until finally the Victorian restoration.

If you can get permission to climb to the organ loft, then the see of the church from there is superb, and notably that of the roof and clerestory.

Do not leave with no analyzing the funeral bier in the south aisle it is one of Suffolk’s major, and clearly created for grand processions for civic worthies. It is a reminder that, as late as the 19th century, Nayland was a considerable location, right before the next industrial revolution light it into obscurity.

www.suffolkchurches.co.united kingdom/nayland.htm

Posted by Jelltex on 2014-10-22 19:58:04

Tagged: , St James , Nayland , church , jelltex , jelltecks , Suffolk

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