I was very last at St John 1 chilly Boxing Day early morning, on just one of all those dutiful excursions to see Mom at Christmas. At just just after dawn, it was locked, but seemed a high-quality church and a person to revisit.
So it was previous Thursday, touring again to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the sun was placing, placing the high-quality church tower bathed in warm golden gentle.
As I stopped to get a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar striving to get earlier in his car or truck, but he was affected person as I go my shot.
He was waiting for me at the porch, and proposed I hurry within to see the home windows that had been illuminated by the sunlight, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a fantastic town about midway between Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was regrettable for a even though simply because, like many small cities in that scenario, it lost the passing trade which experienced been a single of the reasons for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals get in touch with it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th generations, and it continue to has the character of a Victorian railway town, in particular all-around the station. But it is not a vacationer town, as opposed to its good rival Framlingham, or ‘Fram’, just across the A12.
I like Saxmundham a large amount there is an air of resilience about the spot, and any smaller town with two next hand bookshops ought to have a little something going for it. What it does skip is a dominating medieval church, for the reason that St John the Baptist is away from the primary avenue on the highway to Leiston.
The graveyard is a high-quality place, entire of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most famed is the headstone to John Noller, which has its personal sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century sense to the church, due to the fact it was subject matter to an 1870s restoration at the arms of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. However, Phipson was extra sensitive to the need to have to protect medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Inexperienced, and so the church has lots of attention-grabbing factors to see. Even so, Phipson wasn’t over creating them extra medieval than they currently ended up, and so the font, one particular of the best Suffolk examples of the 15th century East Anglian design, is totally recut. There are aggressive very little wild guys about the base, and a single of the shields features the devices of the enthusiasm.
Possibly the most fascinating survival right here, and a rare a person, can be viewed in the most easterly home windows of each of the clerestories. These are the stone corbel ledges that when supported the canopy of honour above the rood. They are each carved elaborately, and the northern 1 is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Pro Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner together that on the south facet.
Despite these medieval survivals, the most crucial artistic artefacts here are in the east window of the south aisle. This is a assortment of ovals of 17th century glass thought to arrive from Innsbruck, depicting Saints and biblical scenes. It is of fantastic high quality, and interesting to seem at. Certainly, apart from the very poor east window there is a good collection of Victorian glass below as effectively. I expended about half an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then lost the memory card from my digicam that experienced all the photographs on. And so, I will have to go back again. Sorry.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.united kingdom/saxmundham.html
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The church is much modified from the authentic church which was recorded in the Domesday Survey of 1086. Small proof of this Norman or potentially Saxon church continues to be, although some masonry to be found in the lower stage of the tower may be of this date.
We also know that the church experienced a South porch that contained a simple 11th century doorway. However, the porch and doorway disappeared in a main restoration and rebuilding in 1873. However, we do have a photograph 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 nonetheless has many original goods of an earlier date.
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 Adorned model of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this day, while some of the masonry in the reduced part of the tower is organized in a different way from the rest and may possibly have shaped section 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 substantial head at the centre of the west facet and a gargoyle head on the south aspect.
The tower is home to a peal of six bells. 3 of these bells ended up cast c. 1480-1 510 by John Kebyll of London. One more was produced 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 concluded 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 have been rehung in new oak frames by Bowell of Ipswich.
A gem in the crown that is St John’s can be identified in the churchyard on the tombstone of John Noller (1725), which can be discovered south west of the church actions and in eight yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are modest, inclined oblong recesses which form a straightforward and imaginative sundial. Each sundial wants a pointer or gnomon projecting in entrance of the dial to cast a shadow on to a marked scale. Any this kind of projection lower down on a tombstone would surely, quicker or later on, be damaged. To prevent this going on, the designer of John Noller’s headstone strike on the ingenious notion of creating the edge of the headstone’s surface 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 aspect (east deal with) and an evening 1 on the other (west experience). If you glance 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 since at the second of noon each and every dial is totally in shadow.
You will also detect that the dials are not upright on the stone but at a slant. The upper edge which acts as the gnomon is so slanted as to position precisely to the north star, or in other terms, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it finished? Perfectly, we are not absolutely 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 dwelling, that our time soon passes. Or maybe it was selecting up on yet another thought about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for every thing, and a year for every
exercise under 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 style with octagonal panelled bowl carved with lions interspersed with angels keeping shields on which are shown the devices of the Passion (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 constructing is harmonious, gentle 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 six two gentle clerestorey home windows.
At the West close of the nave is the comparatively modern day 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 survive in this church. Above the ringing chamber is a large Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval periods allowed the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see around the Rood Display screen to the most important altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass in the course of the church is of fascination simply because of the topics represented as very well as the makers and artists associated.
The West window of the North aisle is explained in The Well-liked Guidebook to Suffolk Churches as becoming “a pretty horrible products of Ward and Hughes and options an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be reported? Beauty is of course in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels towards patterned quarries is of curiosity since of its area connections. It was made and painted by Mary and Bessie McKean of Saxmundham in 1872 and put in by Mr Howlett, a Saxmundham glazier.
The Victorian tour de drive is certainly the West window of the South aisle, developed by the Dowager Marchioness of Waterford, a buddy of the poet John Ruskin, and a nicely regarded artist and ebook 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 both side. The drama of the scene is enhanced by the quality of the artist’s operate and in distinct the facial options.
Pews and Pulpit
The present pews and pulpit day from the restoration of 1873 and are created from New Zealand kaurie pine. They exchange the outdated box pews which were being so tall that a lot of folk using them could neither see nor be found.
The full of the nave is crowned with a splendid 15th century single-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and wood demi-figures as corbels below the wall posts.
For the duration of the Georgian era, or possibly just before, the roof was covered in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church manual guide of 1855 states that at the time only the “ends” of the roof were visible beneath the ceiling and that the total inside was disfigured by galleries.
Happily 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 a number of of the other timbers. The ancient woodwork is considerably less brown in overall look than the contemporary. The figures beneath the wall posts are mainly authentic.
The Chancel
Just one of the most unique functions of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and look to the altar, you will observe that the Chancel is built at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is quite frequent in churches designed in the condition of a cross (cruciform) but is pretty scarce in a church of this variety. The most important aspect is not the angle, which is a great deal better than usual, but that it is to the South.
Other churches with weeping chancels incline to the North, representing Jesus on the cross with his head towards the penitent thief on his ideal. In this article it is to his left, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as nicely as the penitent. Saxmundham church is a person of the several in Europe to have this function.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South have been changed as part of the 1873 restoration, but we assume that the restorers copied the original forms (Embellished style)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was installed in this article 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 17:45:10
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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