St Mary's Church, Barking (The One in Suffolk not Essex!)

 St Mary's Church Barking is at the end of  the aptly named Parsons Lane, a narrow road a mile from Needham Market, and is Huge, yet the actual village of Barking is over a mile away, set around a large green or Tye and has a population of just 400.

The reason the church is so big is because it once also served Needham Market which has always been a town. Later a Chapel of Ease was built in Needham to save the population the long walk. I wrote about St Johns Needham Market HERE way back in 2019.

A very wide central aisle, side aisles, Clerestory windows and side chapels, both with parclose screens This church has everything you would expect in a large  town church.

Including a Rood Screen still standing

The South side chapel has matching parclose screen

and on the other side chapel too, with remnants of colour

This could be the coffin bier that had to be pushed all the way from Needham Market along a causeway (corpse way?) for burials in Barking churchyard. The line of the path across fields out of Needham Market can still be seen on overhead views of the town.

The font has a Very fancy carved wood cover

Beautiful stitched altar cloth and interesting reredos set on the window sill of the East window.

It looks as if there was once a window here on the north wall of the Chancel.

Just one stained glass window in the church  - in the bell tower, seen through the bell ropes.

Huge old chest for all the parish treasures and records - three locks was quite common, therefore needing three key holders to be present.

It really is a surprise to get to the end of the narrow dead-end lane, turn a corner and find this huge church.

 

The 2nd and 3rd Food Shops of July

 I said "no more food shop posts" but the photos were there so might as well use them.....filling a blog post again.

Second food shop of the month was on the 11th

 Asda first then Aldi. I'd put ice packs in my cold box in the car so the Asda things were OK while I did a whizz round Aldi before heading home.

There were so many things missing in Aldi, which is unusual. I don't know if it was because I was so early or their deliveries were late or the shortages talked of  for months have finally happened.

1kg Nectarines £2.39; 6 apples £1.39;  6 ordinary meat sausage rolls £1.55; 2x dried prunes @ £2.49 = £5.58; 2 x decaf ground coffee @ £2.49 = £4.98; Extra Mature Cheddar 400g £2.49; Large pack of back bacon £4.69;  Tortilla chips 57p; Pack 6 mini cheese bakes 99p; Peanuts from car boot sale £2. Not in the picture are two things from Asda as they went straight into the freezer ...... Flora cholesterol reducing spread £4.60 and Linda McCartney burgers £2.48.

Total Spend £31.71.

I bought 2 decaf ground coffee as they've not had any the last two Aldi visits. I wanted Aldi's pack of 6 cheese and onion rolls but they didn't have them or the vegetarian frozen sausage rolls either - so got ordinary meat ones which aren't so good (I put in freezer and use two at a time as the main part of a meal with vegetables, they are handy for a speedy meal). I usually get a pack of the cheap  bacon bits from Asda, but they didn't have any so spent out more on a huge bacon at Aldi which I split into smaller packs before freezing.  All in all my spend was more than it could/should have been.

Just to make things worse the car-boot sale peanuts had to be thrown out, even though they were still in date. As soon as I opened a pack I could smell they'd gone a bit rancid, and one mouthful told me I was right. (No point keeping them to take back as the guy selling isn't always there and it's really a case of 'buyer beware'.)

 Running total for July £26.80 + £31.71 = £58.51

3rd Food shop on the 18th

All from Aldi. Carrots 44p; cherries 65p; mini potatoes 59p; nectarines £1.39p; 2 x peanuts @ 59p = £1.18p; pack 6 jammie cartwheels 99p; extra mature cheddar £2.49; multigrain crackers 85p; eggs £1.49; 4 pints semi skimmed milk £1.65p.

Lovely to get the cherries from the "supper six" fruit and veg offers, I love them but they are usually so expensive to buy. This packs usual price is £1.39.

Total spend £11.88

Running total £58.51 + £11.88 = £70.39

The 4th  July shop has already happened and photo to follow......maybe. I thought that would be the last shop but the birds have munched their way through all the sunflower hearts very fast so I need to go into town on market day and that means paying £1 for car park and having to spend £5 in Asda to get the parking fee back so there will be an extra food shop after all.

Library Book Photo for July

8 books of crime fiction that I'd reserved turned up all at once on the mobile library last week- Not cancelled due to excess heat this time....thank goodness.

I'm hopeful that most of these are readable, but there are a couple of new authors there ( I've already tried the BLCC by Joseph Shearing and found I didn't like it) and two books of short stories which are usually quickly read. Which might mean reading from my shelves before the mobile is round again toward the end of August.............depends how hot it is.................forecast is for high 20's ℃ or low 30's℃ this week again and into August, it's just so very odd.

I've still got 20 books reserved and waiting, either  for the library to get them into stock and/or for my turn on waiting lists. Several will arrive by the August van visit. What is really annoying is that some were so slow to be bought by the library that my reservation had 'expired' before they even had them in stock - and I've had to re-reserve. It means I went from nearly at the top of the waiting list to the end! I've now found out how to make sure that doesn't happen again.

 Last months library books were these two photos below and I read some but abandoned many for various reasons - usually they just didn't appeal once I got started. 

Details of all the books I read were copied from the July books read list onto last Wednesdays post  or on the separate 2026 page. I read one from my shelves, picked up another from library shelves when I took some back and another for 50p from the books For Sale library shelf.

The Tree Lore book didn't have any mention of  Horse Chestnut Trees to add to info for my Following a Tree posts and I flicked through Tonics and Teas but nothing appealed. Evergreen was yet another book I just skimmed through, it was about 'finding joy in the seasons'............. I wasn't in the right frame of mind!