I was previous at St John one particular chilly Boxing Day morning, on one particular of those dutiful visits to see Mom at Christmas. At just just after dawn, it was locked, but seemed a fine church and one to revisit.
So it was previous Thursday, touring back to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the sunlight was setting, setting the great church tower bathed in warm golden gentle.
As I stopped to consider a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar seeking to get earlier in his car, but he was affected individual as I go my shot.
He was waiting around for me at the porch, and suggested I hurry inside of to see the home windows that were being illuminated by the solar, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a wonderful town about halfway between Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was unfortunate for a although for the reason that, like many tiny cities in that problem, it misplaced the passing trade which experienced been a single of the motives for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals simply call it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th generations, and it still has the character of a Victorian railway city, especially all over the station. But it is not a vacationer city, contrary 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 spot, and any modest town with two next hand bookshops must have some thing going for it. What it does pass up is a dominating medieval church, mainly because St John the Baptist is away from the principal road on the highway to Leiston.
The graveyard is a fine spot, complete of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most famous is the headstone to John Noller, which has its own sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century come to feel to the church, since it was issue to an 1870s restoration at the fingers of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. Having said that, Phipson was extra delicate to the will need to protect medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Eco-friendly, and so the church has tons of appealing things to see. Having said that, Phipson wasn’t above earning them far more medieval than they now ended up, and so the font, a person of the best Suffolk examples of the 15th century East Anglian design, is completely recut. There are intense little wild men close to the base, and a person of the shields characteristics the devices of the passion.
Probably the most intriguing survival right here, and a uncommon a single, can be seen in the most easterly windows of every of the clerestories. These are the stone corbel ledges that after supported the canopy of honour around the rood. They are each carved elaborately, and the northern a person is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Professional Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner together that on the south side.
Inspite of these medieval survivals, the most vital artistic artefacts below are in the east window of the south aisle. This is a collection of ovals of 17th century glass believed to arrive from Innsbruck, depicting Saints and biblical scenes. It is of great good quality, and interesting to appear at. Indeed, aside from the lousy east window there is a fantastic selection of Victorian glass right here as nicely. I invested about 50 percent an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then lost the memory card from my digicam that had all the visuals on. And so, I will have to go again. Sorry.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.british isles/saxmundham.html
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The church is a great deal altered from the first church which was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Little proof of this Norman or possibly Saxon church continues to be, while some masonry to be noticed in the decreased phase of the tower may well be of this day.
We also know that the church experienced a South porch that contained a simple 11th century doorway. Regrettably, the porch and doorway disappeared in a major restoration and rebuilding in 1873. On the other hand, we do have a picture of the porch from an etching in 1848.
A great deal of the church that we see these days stems from the 19th century restoration but the church nevertheless contains a lot of unique objects of an before date.
The Western tower (14th century) has diagonal buttresses at its western angles. The two light belfry windows and the equivalent west window are in the Adorned style of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this day, though some of the masonry in the lessen portion of the tower is arranged in different ways from the relaxation and may possibly have formed aspect of the 11th century church.
The clock was offered 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 large head at the centre of the west facet and a gargoyle head on the south facet.
The tower is dwelling to a peal of 6 bells. 3 of these bells were being cast c. 1480-1 510 by John Kebyll of London. One more was built in 1609 by Brend, the Norwich bell-founder, and the tenor, weighing 8cwt.3qtr.7Ib, is by Lester and Pack of Whitechapel, manufactured in 1762. The ring was finished by the addition of a new treble bell by John Warner of London in 1880. The second bell was recast in 1938, and the bells were 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 observed south west of the church measures and in eight yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are modest, inclined rectangular recesses which type a straightforward and imaginative sundial. Just about every sundial demands a pointer or gnomon projecting in entrance of the dial to forged a shadow on to a marked scale. Any this sort of projection very low down on a tombstone would unquestionably, sooner or afterwards, be damaged. To stop this taking place, the designer of John Noller’s headstone strike on the ingenious strategy 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 morning dial on one particular side (east face) and an evening 1 on the other (west face). If you seem in the recesses on both of those 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 due to the fact at the instant of midday each dial is completely in shadow.
You will also notice that the dials are not upright on the stone but at a slant. The higher edge which functions as the gnomon is so slanted as to level exactly to the north star, or in other text, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it done? Well, we are not sure, but just as some clocks are marked with tile inscription “Tempus fugit” or time flies, so this headstone with its sundial marking the passing of time also reminds us, the living, that our time before long passes. Or potentially it was selecting up on yet another believed about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for anything, and a season for each
exercise below heaven: a time to be born and a time to die,”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)
The Nave
The Font c 1400
This is a usual East Anglian layout with octagonal panelled bowl carved with lions interspersed with angels holding shields on which are displayed the instruments of the Enthusiasm (East), the Cross (South), the emblem of the Trinity (West) and the 3 crowns of East Anglia (North). The bowl of the font is initial.
The Nave c 1500
Internally the setting up is harmonious, light and effectively-proportioned. The aisles are separated from the nave by 15th century (Perpendicular) arcades of four bays, with octagonal piers which have moulded capitals and bases. These are topped by 6 two light clerestorey windows.
At the West conclusion of the nave is the comparatively contemporary glazed gallery, from which the church’s peal of six bells are rung. The west window of the tower ringing chamber has the only piece of medieval glass, the head of an angel, to endure in this church. Above the ringing chamber is a huge Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval times authorized the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see more than the Rood Display to the primary altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass all over the church is of interest because of the subjects represented as nicely as the makers and artists included.
The West window of the North aisle is explained in The Well known Manual to Suffolk Church buildings as being “a pretty horrible merchandise of Ward and Hughes and functions an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be explained? Beauty is naturally in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels versus patterned quarries is of desire mainly because of its neighborhood connections. It was designed and painted by Mary and Bessie McKean of Saxmundham in 1872 and set up by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier.
The Victorian tour de drive is clearly the West window of the South aisle, created by the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, a friend of the poet John Ruskin, and a nicely known artist and ebook illustrator. The glass is by O’Connor and Taylor and illustrates Jesus’s ascension into heaven, in outstanding colour. Jesus stands in the centre, and the disciples kneel on either facet. The drama of the scene is improved by the high-quality of the artist’s perform and in individual the facial characteristics.
Pews and Pulpit
The current pews and pulpit date from the restoration of 1873 and are created from New Zealand kaurie pine. They substitute the aged box pews which were so tall that many folk employing them could neither see nor be observed.
The complete of the nave is crowned with a splendid 15th century one-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and wooden demi-figures as corbels under the wall posts.
Throughout the Georgian era, or possibly just before, the roof was protected in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church guide e-book of 1855 states that at the time only the “finishes” of the roof ended up noticeable beneath the ceiling and that the total inside was disfigured by galleries.
Happily the ceiling was removed in 1932 to expose this splendid roof. It has been restored and the wall plates have been renewed, as have numerous of the other timbers. The ancient woodwork is fewer brown in physical appearance than the modern-day. The figures beneath the wall posts are generally authentic.
The Chancel
A person of the most distinct features of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and glimpse toward the altar, you will discover that the Chancel is built at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is fairly common in churches created in the shape of a cross (cruciform) but is extremely exceptional in a church of this form. The major aspect is not the angle, which is much larger than standard, but that it is to the South.
Other churches with weeping chancels incline to the North, symbolizing Jesus on the cross with his head in the direction of the penitent thief on his proper. Here it is to his left, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as effectively as the penitent. Saxmundham church is a single of the couple of in Europe to have this function.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South were replaced as portion of the 1873 restoration, but we consider that the restorers copied the unique types (Embellished type)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was set up 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 06:47:32
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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