I was past at St John 1 chilly Boxing Day early morning, on one particular of those people dutiful visits to see Mother at Christmas. At just just after dawn, it was locked, but looked a good church and one particular to revisit.
So it was past Thursday, traveling back again to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the sunlight was environment, placing the wonderful church tower bathed in warm golden light.
As I stopped to take a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar making an attempt to get earlier in his motor vehicle, but he was affected individual as I go my shot.
He was waiting for me at the porch, and proposed I hurry inside to see the home windows that ended up illuminated by the sunlight, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a good town about midway among Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was regrettable for a although because, like lots of tiny cities in that circumstance, it dropped the passing trade which experienced been just one of the motives for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals get in touch with it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries, and it however has the character of a Victorian railway town, specially all over the station. But it is not a vacationer town, in contrast to its terrific rival Framlingham, or ‘Fram’, just across the A12.
I like Saxmundham a good deal there is an air of resilience about the location, and any little town with two second hand bookshops will have to have a little something likely for it. What it does skip is a dominating medieval church, because St John the Baptist is away from the most important street on the highway to Leiston.
The graveyard is a fine spot, complete of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most well known is the headstone to John Noller, which has its individual sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century really feel to the church, for the reason that it was subject matter to an 1870s restoration at the fingers of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. Having said that, Phipson was far more delicate to the need to maintain medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Environmentally friendly, and so the church has a lot of appealing factors to see. Nonetheless, Phipson wasn’t higher than producing them a lot more medieval than they currently were being, and so the font, one particular of the finest Suffolk examples of the 15th century East Anglian fashion, is comprehensively recut. There are intense very little wild men all over the base, and one particular of the shields features the instruments of the passion.
Maybe the most attention-grabbing survival in this article, and a scarce one, can be seen in the most easterly home windows of each and every of the clerestories. These are the stone corbel ledges that at the time supported the cover of honour in excess of the rood. They are both equally carved elaborately, and the northern one particular is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Professional Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner together that on the south aspect.
Regardless of these medieval survivals, the most significant inventive artefacts here are in the east window of the south aisle. This is a assortment of ovals of 17th century glass considered to arrive from Innsbruck, depicting Saints and biblical scenes. It is of excellent high-quality, and intriguing to look at. In truth, aside from the very poor east window there is a excellent selection of Victorian glass in this article as very well. I put in about 50 percent an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then shed the memory card from my digicam that experienced all the photographs on. And so, I will have to go back. Sorry.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/saxmundham.html
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The church is substantially altered from the primary church which was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Minor evidence of this Norman or probably Saxon church remains, even though some masonry to be noticed in the decrease stage of the tower may well be of this date.
We also know that the church had a South porch that contained a very simple 11th century doorway. Unfortunately, the porch and doorway disappeared in a significant restoration and rebuilding in 1873. However, we do have a photo of the porch from an etching in 1848.
A lot of the church that we see these days stems from the 19th century restoration but the church nonetheless consists of quite a few initial goods of an earlier day.
The Western tower (14th century) has diagonal buttresses at its western angles. The two light-weight belfry windows and the similar west window are in the Decorated style of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this day, despite the fact that some of the masonry in the lessen part of the tower is organized otherwise from the rest and may perhaps have formed element of the 11th century church.
The clock was specified in 1880 and was restored in 1938. The parapet has beautiful 15th century flint panelling (flushwork) with traceried panels. Beneath it is a band of bouquets (flearons) and carved heads, in addition to a massive head at the centre of the west side and a gargoyle head on the south aspect.
The tower is household to a peal of 6 bells. A few of these bells ended up cast c. 1480-1 510 by John Kebyll of London. Another was designed 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 done by the addition of a new treble bell by John Warner of London in 1880. The next bell was recast in 1938, and the bells had been rehung in new oak frames by Bowell of Ipswich.
A gem in the crown that is St John’s can be located in the churchyard on the tombstone of John Noller (1725), which can be identified south west of the church actions and in eight yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are tiny, inclined rectangular recesses which type a simple and imaginative sundial. Each and every sundial needs a pointer or gnomon projecting in front of the dial to forged a shadow on to a marked scale. Any these projection very low down on a tombstone would certainly, quicker or afterwards, be broken. To prevent this happening, the designer of John Noller’s headstone hit upon the ingenious thought of generating the edge of the headstone’s area the gnomon and acquired the relative projection by recessing the dial.
As the stone faces east and west, he carved a early morning dial on a single side (east experience) and an night just one on the other (west confront). If you search in the recesses on the two 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 because at the second of noon every dial is fully in shadow.
You will also recognize that the dials are not upright on the stone but at a slant. The upper edge which functions as the gnomon is so slanted as to level precisely to the north star, or in other words and phrases, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it finished? Very well, we are not guaranteed, but just as some clocks are marked with tile inscription “Tempus fugit” or time flies, so this gravestone with its sundial marking the passing of time also reminds us, the dwelling, that our time quickly passes. Or potentially it was selecting up on an additional considered about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for anything, and a time for each individual
activity less than heaven: a time to be born and a time to die,”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)
The Nave
The Font c 1400
This is a standard East Anglian structure with octagonal panelled bowl carved with lions interspersed with angels keeping shields on which are displayed 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 unique.
The Nave c 1500
Internally the setting up is harmonious, light-weight and perfectly-proportioned. The aisles are separated 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 windows.
At the West close of the nave is the comparatively modern glazed gallery, from which the church’s peal of 6 bells are rung. The west window of the tower ringing chamber contains the only piece of medieval glass, the head of an angel, to survive in this church. Higher than the ringing chamber is a substantial Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval instances permitted the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see more than the Rood Display to the principal altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass all over the church is of fascination for the reason that of the topics represented as well as the makers and artists involved.
The West window of the North aisle is explained in The Well known Information to Suffolk Churches as staying “a fairly awful merchandise of Ward and Hughes and capabilities an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be explained? Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels versus patterned quarries is of fascination simply because of its neighborhood connections. It was created and painted by Mary and Bessie McKean of Saxmundham in 1872 and put in by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier.
The Victorian tour de force is naturally the West window of the South aisle, developed by the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, a mate of the poet John Ruskin, and a perfectly recognised artist and ebook illustrator. The glass is by O’Connor and Taylor and illustrates Jesus’s ascension into heaven, in fantastic colour. Jesus stands in the centre, and the disciples kneel on either aspect. The drama of the scene is improved by the high-quality of the artist’s do the job and in particular the facial options.
Pews and Pulpit
The existing pews and pulpit day from the restoration of 1873 and are created from New Zealand kaurie pine. They change the previous box pews which were so tall that lots of folks utilizing them could neither see nor be found.
The entire of the nave is crowned with a splendid 15th century one-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and picket demi-figures as corbels underneath the wall posts.
Throughout the Georgian period, or probably prior to, the roof was coated in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church manual e-book of 1855 states that at the time only the “ends” of the roof were visible down below the ceiling and that the whole inside was disfigured by galleries.
Happily the ceiling was eradicated in 1932 to reveal this splendid roof. It has been restored and the wall plates have been renewed, as have a number of of the other timbers. The historical woodwork is less brown in appearance than the modern-day. The figures beneath the wall posts are primarily initial.
The Chancel
A person of the most unique options of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and glance to the altar, you will detect that the Chancel is constructed at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is rather prevalent in church buildings built in the form of a cross (cruciform) but is very scarce in a church of this kind. The most important characteristic is not the angle, which is significantly increased than normal, but that it is to the South.
Other church buildings with weeping chancels incline to the North, representing Jesus on the cross with his head to the penitent thief on his correct. Below it is to his still left, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as effectively as the penitent. Saxmundham church is one of the couple of in Europe to have this aspect.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South ended up replaced as aspect of the 1873 restoration, but we imagine that the restorers copied the unique types (Decorated design)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was installed in this article in the early 1950s. It has two manuals, pedals and 15 speaking stops.
www.saxmundham.org/aboutsax/parishchurch.html
Posted by Jelltex on 2016-11-15 06:47:33
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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