Dennington St. Mary

A Very Big church for a small village (population around 600)

The thing that gets this church into the 100 treasures book is this rare pyx canopy.  A what?

 I had to have a look on Wiki to get some more information, and this is what I found
A pyx or pix (Latin: pyxis, transliteration of Greek: πυξίς, boxwood receptacle, from πύξος, box tree) is a small round container used in the Catholic, Old Catholic and Anglican Churches to carry the consecrated host (Eucharist), to the sick or those otherwise unable to come to a church in order to receive Holy Communium. The term can also be used in archaeology and art history to describe small round lidded boxes designed for any purpose from antiquity or the Middle Ages.

The one in Dennington church dates from 1500 and is 5 foot tall and is the only one complete enough to be used for its original purpose in the whole country - goodness, very, VERY special.


It's a wide and long church with side aisles. There are box pews at the front of the church and the usual pews further back.

Both side aisle chapels have these rare elaborate medieval screens

There is some very unusual stained glass in this church apart from the usual scenes of saints and bible stories I notice this blue window.

Ancient heating pipes snake up and down the side aisles. I doubt they would have warmed  the church much. Although the gentry would have been inside their high side boxes to cut down the draughts.

The alabaster effigies over the tomb of William, Lord Bardolf who fought at Agincourt and died in 1441. His wife Joan lies beside him.

The pew ends at the back of the church are carved with all sorts of creatures, real and mythical.

In the north aisle is this very unusual sand table, where the village children would have learned to write their bible texts in the C19

A fascinating church to visit.

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Sue