I was last at St John a single chilly Boxing Day early morning, on 1 of all those dutiful trips to see Mother at Christmas. At just right after dawn, it was locked, but appeared a good church and one to revisit.
So it was very last Thursday, touring back again to Suffolk, I arrived at Saxmundham as the sun was location, location the good church tower bathed in heat golden light-weight.
As I stopped to take a shot of the tower, I was unaware of the vicar making an attempt to get past in his car or truck, but he was client as I go my shot.
He was waiting around for me at the porch, and instructed I hurry inside of to see the windows that have been illuminated by the sunshine, this I did.
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Saxmundham is a great city about halfway between Ipswich and Lowestoft. The A12 now bypasses it, which was unlucky for a whilst for the reason that, like many tiny towns in that problem, it missing the passing trade which had been a person of the causes for its existence. Saxmundham, or ‘Sax’ as locals call it, grew to prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries, and it continue to has the character of a Victorian railway town, specially close to the station. But it is not a tourist town, unlike its excellent rival Framlingham, or ‘Fram’, just across the A12.
I like Saxmundham a lot there is an air of resilience about the place, and any smaller city with two second hand bookshops need to have a thing going for it. What it does miss out on is a dominating medieval church, because St John the Baptist is absent from the main road on the highway to Leiston.
The graveyard is a fine put, whole of the headstones of 18th and 19th century worthies. Most popular is the headstone to John Noller, which has its own sundial.
There is a crisp 19th century experience to the church, for the reason that it was subject to an 1870s restoration at the palms of Diocesan architect Richard Phipson. Nevertheless, Phipson was more sensitive to the need to protect medieval survivals than his successor Herbert Environmentally friendly, and so the church has plenty of attention-grabbing factors to see. On the other hand, Phipson wasn’t above building them a lot more medieval than they presently had been, and so the font, a person of the ideal Suffolk illustrations of the 15th century East Anglian type, is extensively recut. There are intense minor wild men about the foundation, and a person of the shields characteristics the instruments of the enthusiasm.
Potentially the most fascinating survival below, and a uncommon a single, can be observed in the most easterly windows of every single of the clerestories. These are the stone corbel ledges that the moment supported the canopy of honour about the rood. They are the two carved elaborately, and the northern one is castellated. Sancta Johnannes, Ora Pro Nobis (‘St John pray for us’) is carved in a banner along that on the south aspect.
Inspite of these medieval survivals, the most critical inventive 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 excellent, and intriguing to look at. In truth, aside from the poor east window there is a superior selection of Victorian glass below as effectively. I put in about 50 % an hour documenting it all meticulously, and then missing the memory card from my digital camera that experienced all the images on. And so, I will have to go back. Sorry.
Simon Knott
www.suffolkchurches.co.united kingdom/saxmundham.html
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The church is substantially improved from the initial church which was recorded in the Domesday Study of 1086. Minimal evidence of this Norman or perhaps Saxon church continues to be, even though some masonry to be found in the reduce phase of the tower may 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 major restoration and rebuilding in 1873. Nonetheless, we do have a photograph of the porch from an etching in 1848.
Much of the church that we see today stems from the 19th century restoration but the church continue to is made up of a lot of authentic products of an before date.
The Western tower (14th century) has diagonal buttresses at its western angles. The two light-weight belfry home windows and the equivalent west window are in the Decorated design and style of the early 14th century. The restored west doorway is also of this day, while some of the masonry in the decrease part of the tower is arranged in different ways from the rest and may have fashioned 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 huge head at the centre of the west facet and a gargoyle head on the south facet.
The tower is house to a peal of six bells. Three of these bells had 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, manufactured in 1762. The ring was concluded by the addition of a new treble bell by John Warner of London in 1880. The 2nd 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 identified in the churchyard on the tombstone of John Noller (1725), which can be found south west of the church actions and in 8 yards. The east and west faces of the tombstone are smaller, inclined rectangular recesses which form a simple and imaginative sundial. Each and every sundial requires a pointer or gnomon projecting in entrance of the dial to cast a shadow on to a marked scale. Any such projection small down on a tombstone would surely, quicker or later on, be ruined. To avoid this happening, the designer of John Noller’s headstone strike on the ingenious concept of creating the edge of the headstone’s area the gnomon and obtained the relative projection by recessing the dial.
As the stone faces east and west, he carved a morning dial on one facet (east experience) and an evening one particular on the other (west deal with). If you appear in the recesses on both 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 each and every dial is completely in shadow.
You will also recognize 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 text, be parallel with the earth’s axis.
And why was it carried out? Very well, 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 residing, that our time soon passes. Or most likely it was selecting up on another thought about time from the Bible:
“There is a time for all the things, and a period for every single
exercise 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 normal East Anglian layout 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 initial.
The Nave c 1500
Internally the constructing is harmonious, mild and nicely-proportioned. The aisles are divided 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 glazed gallery, from which the church’s peal of 6 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. Over the ringing chamber is a substantial Sanctus bell window, which in mediaeval periods authorized the ringer of the Sanctus bell to see more than the Rood Display to the main altar.
Stained Glass
The 19th century stained glass through the church is of curiosity simply because of the topics represented as effectively as the makers and artists associated.
The West window of the North aisle is explained in The Well-known Tutorial to Suffolk Church buildings as being “a relatively horrible merchandise of Ward and Hughes and characteristics an outlandishly dressed centurion”. What else can be reported? Beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder.
The East window of the North aisle depicting two angels towards patterned quarries is of interest due to the fact of its regional 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 force 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 perfectly regarded artist and book 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 possibly aspect. The drama of the scene is improved by the high quality of the artist’s perform and in particular the facial attributes.
Pews and Pulpit
The existing pews and pulpit day from the restoration of 1873 and are made from New Zealand kaurie pine. They exchange the previous box pews which ended up so tall that lots of people applying them could neither see nor be witnessed.
The complete of the nave is crowned with a splendid 15th century single-hammerbeam arch braced roof, with castellated hammers and picket demi-figures as corbels below the wall posts.
For the duration of the Georgian era, or possibly right before, the roof was coated in with a flat plaster ceiling. A church information book of 1855 states that at the time only the “finishes” of the roof had been obvious beneath the ceiling and that the full inside was disfigured by galleries.
Happily the ceiling was removed in 1932 to reveal this splendid roof. It has been restored and the wall plates have been renewed, as have quite a few of the other timbers. The historic woodwork is fewer brown in visual appeal than the modern day. The figures beneath the wall posts are generally initial.
The Chancel
A single of the most unique characteristics of St John’s is its weeping chancel. If you stand in the nave centre aisle and glimpse to the altar, you will notice that the Chancel is designed at a pronounced angle to the nave. This is relatively frequent in church buildings built in the shape of a cross (cruciform) but is quite unusual in a church of this style. The principal feature is not the angle, which is a lot bigger than common, 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 to the penitent thief on his proper. Below it is to his remaining, signifying that Jesus died for the impenitent as effectively as the penitent. Saxmundham church is a person of the handful of in Europe to have this aspect.
The Chancel arch and the two bay arcade North and South ended up changed as aspect of the 1873 restoration, but we assume that the restorers copied the primary forms (Adorned style)
The organ by Albert Pease of Hackney was installed here in the early 1950s. It has two manuals, pedals and 15 speaking stops.
www.saxmundham.org/aboutsax/parishchurch.html
Posted by Jelltex on 2016-11-14 06:38:48
Tagged: , St. John the Baptist , Saxmundham , Suffolk , Church , Jelltex , Jelltecks
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