I was past at St John just one chilly Boxing Working day morning, on just one of individuals dutiful excursions to see Mother at Christmas. At just following dawn, it was locked, but appeared a good church and a single to revisit.
So it was final Thursday, touring back to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the sun was setting, placing the high-quality church tower bathed in warm golden light.
As I stopped to choose a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar hoping to get earlier in his car, but he was individual as I go my shot.
He was ready for me at the porch, and prompt I hurry inside to see the windows that were illuminated by the sun, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a good city about midway between Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was regrettable for a when simply because, like many smaller cities in that situation, it missing the passing trade which experienced been 1 of the explanations for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals contact it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th generations, and it nonetheless has the character of a Victorian railway city, particularly close to the station. But it is not a tourist town, as opposed to its fantastic rival Framlingham, or ‘Fram’, just throughout the A12.
I like Saxmundham a great deal there is an air of resilience about the place, and any small town with two second hand bookshops will have to have anything likely for it. What it does overlook is a dominating medieval church, because St John the Baptist is absent from the principal road on the road to Leiston.
The graveyard is a fantastic area, entire of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most well-known is the headstone to John Noller, which has its very own sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century really feel to the church, since it was subject to an 1870s restoration at the hands of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. Having said that, Phipson was additional delicate to the need to protect medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Inexperienced, and so the church has a lot of exciting factors to see. Even so, Phipson was not earlier mentioned earning them extra medieval than they currently had been, and so the font, just one of the most effective Suffolk examples of the 15th century East Anglian design, is carefully recut. There are aggressive tiny wild men all over the base, and a person of the shields functions the instruments of the enthusiasm.
Probably the most intriguing survival right here, and a unusual one particular, can be witnessed in the most easterly 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 each carved elaborately, and the northern one is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Professional Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner along that on the south facet.
Inspite of these medieval survivals, the most critical inventive artefacts below are in the east window of the south aisle. This is a assortment of ovals of 17th century glass believed to appear from Innsbruck, depicting Saints and biblical scenes. It is of great high-quality, and interesting to search at. In fact, aside from the inadequate east window there is a excellent collection of Victorian glass listed here as properly. I invested about 50 percent an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then missing the memory card from my digicam that had 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 a lot changed from the initial church which was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Very little evidence of this Norman or probably Saxon church continues to be, though some masonry to be viewed in the decrease stage of the tower could be of this day.
We also know that the church experienced a South porch that contained a easy 11th century doorway. Unfortunately, the porch and doorway disappeared in a main restoration and rebuilding in 1873. Nevertheless, we do have a picture of the porch from an etching in 1848.
A great deal of the church that we see today stems from the 19th century restoration but the church nevertheless consists of lots of authentic goods of an previously day.
The Western tower (14th century) has diagonal buttresses at its western angles. The two mild belfry windows and the similar west window are in the Embellished fashion of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this date, even though some of the masonry in the reduce portion of the tower is arranged in different ways from the rest and could have formed section of the 11th century church.
The clock was given in 1880 and was restored in 1938. The parapet has attractive 15th century flint panelling (flushwork) with traceried panels. Beneath it is a band of bouquets (flearons) and carved heads, in addition to a big head at the centre of the west side and a gargoyle head on the south facet.
The tower is home to a peal of 6 bells. Three of these bells have been forged 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, made in 1762. The ring was completed 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 uncovered south west of the church steps and in eight yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are little, inclined rectangular recesses which type a simple and imaginative sundial. Each individual sundial needs a pointer or gnomon projecting in entrance of the dial to cast a shadow on to a marked scale. Any this sort of projection reduced down on a tombstone would unquestionably, sooner or later, be weakened. To avoid this occurring, the designer of John Noller’s headstone hit upon the ingenious notion of generating the edge of the headstone’s floor the gnomon and attained the relative projection by recessing the dial.
As the stone faces east and west, he carved a morning dial on just one aspect (east experience) and an night just one on the other (west encounter). If you search in the recesses on both equally 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 minute of midday just about every dial is entirely in shadow.
You will also observe that the dials are not upright on the stone but at a slant. The higher edge which acts as the gnomon is so slanted as to point accurately to the north star, or in other terms, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it carried out? Very well, we are not confident, 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 residing, that our time before long passes. Or perhaps it was finding up on one more thought about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for all the things, and a year 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 regular East Anglian style and design with octagonal panelled bowl carved with lions interspersed with angels holding shields on which are shown the devices 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 primary.
The Nave c 1500
Internally the developing is harmonious, light and nicely-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 mild clerestorey windows.
At the West conclude of the nave is the comparatively present day glazed gallery, from which the church’s peal of six bells are rung. The west window of the tower ringing chamber incorporates the only piece of medieval glass, the head of an angel, to survive in this church. Over the ringing chamber is a significant Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval situations allowed the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see more than the Rood Display screen to the major altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass throughout the church is of fascination due to the fact of the topics represented as well as the makers and artists involved.
The West window of the North aisle is explained in The Well-liked Guidebook to Suffolk Churches as getting “a relatively horrible product or service of Ward and Hughes and features an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be reported? Splendor is certainly in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels in opposition to patterned quarries is of curiosity mainly because of its area connections. It was created and painted by Mary and Bessie McKean of Saxmundham in 1872 and installed by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier.
The Victorian tour de force is obviously the West window of the South aisle, designed by the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, a pal of the poet John Ruskin, and a properly identified artist and book illustrator. The glass is by O’Connor and Taylor and illustrates Jesus’s ascension into heaven, in amazing color. Jesus stands in the centre, and the disciples kneel on either facet. The drama of the scene is improved by the quality of the artist’s operate and in unique the facial features.
Pews and Pulpit
The existing pews and pulpit day from the restoration of 1873 and are produced from New Zealand kaurie pine. They change the previous box pews which ended up so tall that lots of folks working with them could neither see nor be observed.
The total of the nave is crowned with a splendid 15th century single-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and wooden demi-figures as corbels beneath the wall posts.
Through the Georgian period, or potentially in advance of, the roof was covered in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church tutorial e book of 1855 states that at the time only the “ends” of the roof were being seen underneath the ceiling and that the total inside was disfigured by galleries.
Fortunately the ceiling was taken off in 1932 to reveal this splendid roof. It has been restored and the wall plates have been renewed, as have various of the other timbers. The ancient woodwork is fewer brown in look than the modern. The figures beneath the wall posts are mostly authentic.
The Chancel
Just one of the most distinctive capabilities of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and search in the direction of the altar, you will recognize that the Chancel is created at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is relatively widespread in churches built in the condition of a cross (cruciform) but is pretty exceptional in a church of this type. The major function is not the angle, which is much better than normal, but that it is to the South.
Other church buildings with weeping chancels incline to the North, symbolizing Jesus on the cross with his head toward the penitent thief on his suitable. Here it is to his still left, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as properly as the penitent. Saxmundham church is one of the couple of in Europe to have this feature.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South were replaced as portion of the 1873 restoration, but we imagine that the restorers copied the initial sorts (Adorned type)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was set up below in the early 1950s. It has two manuals, pedals and 15 talking stops.
www.saxmundham.org/aboutsax/parishchurch.html
Posted by Jelltex on 2016-11-14 20:44:07
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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