Last Day of February, Ins and Outs and Frugal Bits

 As usual I've been keeping a note of a few Small Frugal bits from the month...........

• Made a huge pasta,salmon and broccoli bake which divided into 6 portions (Salmon tin £1.69, broccoli 58p, Pasta.15p, 1½ pint milk from milk powder 30p?, 1oz willow butter 15p, tablespoon flour.... pennies, grated cheddar 50p?)
• Dried some bay leaves in the boiler cupboard
• Made a batch of chicken and leek pasties with one chicken breast and leeks from the garden 1 to eat and 4 into freezer ( Flour pennies, baking fat approx 50p chicken breast approx £1, leeks negligible white sauce of butter, flour milk approx 30p)
• Eating homegrown mange tout, peppers and courgettes from the freezer 
• Reading free library books
• Bargain offer of fruit bushes and plants from T&M via the Money Saving Expert website
• Beetroot from the garden ...... now finished............ the last lot were cooked on the 21st.
• Batteries from car boot sale saving a little.
• £1.50 Tesco voucher 
• Picked up  a whole wheelbarrow full of twigs and bits from the meadow and put them in to dry for kindling wood.
• Discovered a random Lemon Balm plant growing in the veg bed when I weeded so don't need to look for one in boot sale after all (where has it appeared from?)
• Using the leeks from the garden, made a big batch of veg curry with leeks , apple,onion. spinach from the freezer and small potatoes. Ate 1 portion and put 4 boxes in freezer (leeks cost negligible, apple 16p, frozen spinach approx 15p, curry powder pennies, flour pennies, onions approx 20p , dried apricots approx 20p, home made chutney pennies) 

(So this month I've made 16 meals for around  £6.50, if my maths are right, and most are still in the freezer)

The Planned Expenses for February were.............

House and contents insurance, negotiated to last years price;  6 Month water bill; Food for me and the cat; Diesel for the car and petrol for the mower; Phones and broadband direct debits; Seed Potatoes. Dual membership for small WI; Walking shoes.

Unplanned Expenses
More peanuts for the birds - they are suddenly eating them like crazy!; The special offer fruit plant collection;
Bulk online purchase of soda crystals which I use for laundry(better overall than driving to Ipswich and car park charges just for slightly cheaper washing soda at Wilkos).

And I'm still sorting and getting rid.......OUT  went

• Some shirts and tee-shirts  of Colin's to the charity shop
• A suit of Col's to charity shop
• Suit cover to son
• Jug to charity shop 
• Vase to the charity shop
• 2 Metal Filing Cabinets from workshop to son's garage 
• 2 Wooden trestles and some tools as above
• Jigsaw Puzzle into the car-boot box
• Couple of old strap things from workshop into bin 
• Small bag of bits of electrical and plumbing odds and ends from the workshop into the bin
• Few old books to charity shop
• Craft Papers and some other card making stuff into the car boot box
• Old useless leaf blower that was here when we came off to the Household Waste Recycling centre AKA The Tip
• Old Pressure Washer that no longer worked .....as above
• Old Radio that was falling to bits......as above
• Pipe bender and a handful of tools from workshop to Brother in Law S.
• 3 small things that had been in the present cupboard for ages went to the Charity Bring and Buy stall at WI 
• Books from the cupboard to granddaughter
• Biggest out was the grey Fiesta..........finally I got organised to use the new car all the time and sold the old one to the local car repair workshop where they want to use it as a cheap-to-run  loan car.

Quite a good list

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The "Cathedral" of the Marshes

Some churches are hidden away in villages but Blythburgh Holy Trinity stands huge,  high and proud on the edge of the Blyth estuary, just off the A12. It is often called The Cathedral of the marshes .

There is so much about this church on the SUFFOLK CHURCHES website and it would be impossible to copy the whole story of the church here. So do go and look if you are interested. Or even better, come to Suffolk and see it for real!

People used to think this medieval church was so big because Blythburgh was once a larger village. But Blythburgh has always been a small village and this church was built close to a Priory with plenty of money available at the time given by the pious. The size of the village meant that virtually no restoration was done between the 16C and the 19C. The roof was so bad that people had to take umbrellas and the church was actually ordered to be closed in the 1880s. It has taken a whole century for the church to be slowly restored to how it is today.

Enter through the huge porch which has a chapel in the little room above it.

You step into a huge open area, where the sun was shining on the old uneven brick floor

This fellow is the reason for this church  being featured in the 100 treasures book he is  Jack-o-the-clock. Jacks used to ring a bell on the hour and are quite rare, there are just two in Suffolk, the other is not far away at Southwold. Now he is just used at the beginning of services. He is wearing armour from the mid 1500's but may date from later in the 1680's.

The roof is amazing and original and somehow escaped having all the angels removed and the stencilling should have also been removed during Puritan times.

The choir stalls have carvings of saints on their fronts, they are a mystery because although they've been in the church for several centuries they seem too good for a rural church

The brasses that should have marked these tombs were probably stolen way back in the 18th or 19th century

There is  a strange bronze Beast of Burden Sculpture under the east window by Laurence Edwards, a sculptor based in Suffolk

The font has had all the carvings removed at some time. It had already been damaged when the original steeple fell on it in 1577

More amazingly good carvings on all the bench ends

I bought a postcard to show the reflection of the church on the estuary water when it is all lit up at night

And then of course I still have the print that we bought for Col's birthday several years ago. It was originally used to advertise the area in train carriages during  the 1920s and 30's.

Don't forget the link at the beginning of this post to see dozens more photos of the church and lots about the history.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

The Rural Bygones Sale...........

...............otherwise known as  ' a load of old tat!'

Well, not quite everything was tat but some things had been at the back of old sheds for a VERY long time. It was the first of 3 Rural Bygones sales at Campsea Ashe Auction Rooms this year

I went to have a look on Saturday because on the online catalogue I'd seen an old enamel Flour bin and one or two other interesting things. Also thought my Ipswich cousin might have been there but he wasn't.

The flour bin was teeny, not even tall enough for a 1½ kg bag of flour!

A nice collection of stoneware. The jugs and jelly moulds were the best pieces.

I'd also been interested in this bagatelle board but it wasn't as big as it looked on the catalogue and the nails were all rusty.

Some blue and white stripe Cornish tableware. My mum once had a whole set of this (she also had sets of about 4 other dinner/tea sets!  goodness knows why)

I reckon this was one of the best things in the sale. A 19th century elm gingerbread mould depicting a bishop or a saint on horseback.  I don't know what it went for but I know it was much more than the £20 - £40 estimate because online bidding was higher than that before the sale even started.

(poor photo because it was in the counter cabinet)

The other Lots I looked at were a box of country crafts books, might have been able to sell one or two on Ziffit but not the rest and a dolls pram which was completely rusty and the hood all torn.

The beginning of the sale had some old enamel signs - and one or two including a Robertsons Golly and an RAC sign went for several £100 each - I know they are popular collectors items but can't see the attraction myself.

I decided not to hang around to see what other things sold for because it was absolutely freezing in the big auction building, while outside the sun was shining gloriously.

So home for more gardening. Their next Rural bygones sale is in July - I might go and look......I might not.

Thank you for all the comments yesterday 

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The Bargain Fruit Parcel

That bargain fruit plant offer arrived, luckily it came last Friday midday giving me all of the lovely sunny afternoon to sort everything out.

 The 12  strawberry plants were planted into pots, given a good watering and left in the greenhouse. 3 Gooseberry bushes and 6  raspberry canes were stood in water  for an hour before planting out and cutting back. The 2 blueberries I left in the pots they were in as they were very wet and had almost no root system.
Several £s worth of seeds but mostly things I don't want. So they will go in the car boot box.
200g of fruit fertilizer will be used on the new raspberry bed.
Even without the seeds I think still a good  value purchase, although it might be a year or two before I harvest the amount of fruit shown in the ad!

The weather continued to be sunny on Saturday and Sunday but still chilly. People who have been able to sit out for coffee or lunch are very lucky! and must have very sheltered gardens although it is often colder in East Anglia in the spring because we stick out into the cold North Sea.
 I got some more grass cut  Saturday with the small mower as well as going out -  which is for tomorrows post and in the afternoon there were two rugby matches on TV which I watched while writing posts and loading photos.
Spent ages on Sunday trying to find a photo of the inside of the greenhouse on the blog to see what pots were used where last summer. Reason being because I started sorting the greenhouse, just putting the big pots in place  with the trays they will stand in, for cucumbers,tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. But I ran out of big pots before I ran out of space - very odd - what pots did I use? where are they now? No idea as I couldn't find a clear photo anywhere on the blog.

What I did find was this list made last August, after just 3 months alone and puzzling how I would get through the winter.
Well, I got through the winter OK so added some ticks to all the ones that have been done. ...Feels like success!

• Clear the garden✓ 
• Clear the greenhouse and wash down✓
• Wash all the used pots ✓
• Clear the patio pots of summer stuff and then✓
• Plant up some pots for winter colour✓ (Although everything has died off now)
• Keep swimming✓
• Keep going to monthly craft group (No, too gossipy! anyway it clashed with swimming day)
• Sort through Colin's clothes and send to charity shop/clothes bank (I cleared his chest of drawers several weeks ago because I need to move it but the wardrobe is still full) (Almost finished)
• Make a memory box for the grandchildren. A lovely idea that a friend (who was a Cruse Bereavement counselor) gave me.(Started)
• Go through Col's books and sort.......... to Ziffit/Charity shop/ keep/donate to Mid Suffolk Light Railway Museum ( I've actually made a start on this already)✓
• Go through Colin's DVDs and CDs and sort as above✓
• Visit more churches in Suffolk ✓
• Day out in Bury St Edmunds ✓
• Day out in Felixstowe (It was too cold to linger when I went)
• Make lots of birthday cards - I've stocked up on 3D Decoupage sheets ready to get started✓
• Start the HUGE job of sorting out all the might-come-in-handy stuff in the workshop. I have no idea what a lot of it is anyway. Sort into crates for selling at Auction and stuff for a skip. (ongoing for many months I think)
• Help at a charity shop? ✓
• Read (goes without saying!)✓
• Visit local NT properties that are open. (Haven't got to any as Sutton Hoo has been closed all winter- waste of membership so far)
• Chop kindling and pick up twigs for fire lighting.✓

I had completely forgotten about that list so it was good to find it.

Hello and welcome to some more followers and thank you for all the comments on Saturday's post

 Back Tomorrow
Sue

The Winter Month of February is ..........

............better than the winter month of  January...............  because it seems to go quickly. Is it because it's exactly 4 weeks?

Whatever the reason here we are with less than a week to the end of the month already.

 I've been tired this week and that's without  swimming (half term makes the 1 hour over 50's session really busy as the pool is used for scuba and canoeing lessons at other normal swimming times). Sometimes having to do all the thinking and organising that used to be done by two people is hard work and I do so much more driving than in the old days and have always found it tiring and even though I've cut  my charity shop stint down to 3½ hours I still came home exhausted...... and it's not even proper work!
So it was good to have Thursday and Friday without taking the car out of the garage.

Instead of out in the car it was out into the garden.............

Seeds have been sown and popped in the electric propagator .........aubergine and peppers which both need a long growing season, then parsley and basil. Hanging  fire a bit for tomatoes and cucumbers.

Compost has been spread onto the bit where I'm putting potatoes. Must work out where everything else is going. Colin always seemed to remember what he had put where but once a bed is cleared I haven't the foggiest.
But, the useful thing about blogging, there's usually a photo somewhere, and there was.................
from last June.............

 (Do you remember June, when the sun shone and you could just wander outside in tee-shirt and shorts  without extra layers of clothes?)

  And with the photo was a list of what was where.........

• Bed 1 = Beetroot
• Bed 2 = Mangetout peas, climbing French beans and runner beans, with corner clump of chives and clump of parsley at the other end
• Bed 3 =Courgettes and leeks
• Bed 4 = Potatoes -6 rows of 5 spuds (rhubarb clumps at the hedge end)
• Bed 5 is the permanent fruit bed - raspberries, 1 blackcurrant, gooseberries with the new asparagus bed at the hedge end.

Plans for growing this year include all the above (although fewer potatoes) PLUS Butternut squash and the mini sweetcorn and I'm determined to grow some chard and actually manage to keep it protected from the pheasants and ducks.

• Bed 1 will be courgettes and squash
• Bed 2 Mangetout peas (on the other side from last year) and sweetcorn and chard
• Bed 3 Potatoes and the climbing beans
• Bed 4 Beetroot and leeks

And I'm going to keep doing this idea for my weekly round-up posts...............

This week I have been grateful for

• A Garden to grow things
• Sunday lunch at my sister-in-laws
• Grass dry enough to cut with the ride-on mower.
• BBC i player to see the first episode of Shetland which I had somehow missed the week before
• Finally organising the selling of the second car.

Have a lovely weekend whatever your plans.
Back Monday
Sue

Timing it Right

If I go and collect my prescription meds from the pharmacy at my doctors in a nearby village on the right day at the right time, I can treat myself. Because twice a week the fish and chip shop in the same village does a cheap Pensioners lunch for £3.50.

It's probably a good thing that I only pick up tablets once a month!

 Plaice and chips last week.

Thanks for comments over the last few days especially the ones found late, sorry I've not had a chance to reply.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

St Mary the Virgin Church at Earl Stonham

Apart from it's mention in the 100 treasures book this church has a claim to fame as being the church featured in AKENFIELD, the 1974 film made by Sir Peter Hall and based on the book by Ronald Blythe.

It's a large church for a small village

This church is all about the roof, the carvings and the angels, but being right up high 'twas a bit difficult to photograph.

The book says that with binoculars you can see an albatross,a fox with a goose in its mouth, an owl and a terrier. Apologies for my dreadful photos, trying and failing to hold the camera steady pointing up in the air.

One stained glass window over the altar

View down the nave. This church is cross shaped and has two projecting 'arms' known as transepts.

The remains of a medieval Doom painting of the 'Last Judgement' on the chancel arch

The bench ends feature some unusual carvings, they date from C15

As always there are lovely stitched kneelers, green this time

The font has interesting carvings

 More about this church HERE on the Suffolk Churches website

Back tomorrow
Sue

Back to the WI in February

No WI meetings for me in January, it's Big WI's month off and small WI just go and watch a DVD in someones house - pretty pointless and not my idea of a WI meeting. (I was glad I didn't go because the film was long and they didn't finish until 10.30 and I want to be home and in bed by then!)

The speaker at Big WI for February was Bob Harding Jones who had come all the way from Hertfordshire (although he once lived in Suffolk) and is a retired farmer. His subject was "Funny Stories from a speaker".

He has written books of humourous tales and poems

He had a folder full of notes gleaned from his years travelling round to speak to WI's and other groups.
Two I remember were letters he received with instructions.........
One said " there is very little parking so please drive slowly passed the hall and someone will be there to show you where to park. If there is no one waiting drive round again and slow down as if you were looking for someone to pick up!"
Another " A chair will mark your parking space, but please move the chair before parking!"

He had lots of other tales like this and old country stories and also read bits from Sheila Stewart's  book "Lifting the Latch" and some of his poems.

Coffee and Cakes of course. It was a bit misty in places on my drive there so I was pleased to find that it hadn't turned foggy when I drove home....hate fog in the dark.

Small WI hadn't had a proper meeting since November because they had a Christmas meal instead of a meeting in December as well as the DVD thing mentioned already. I didn't go to the meal because it was quite expensive and I was having the free village Christmas meal the same week anyway. (This is one of the things I don't like about WI, it's expensive enough without all the extra costs.)

This week the meeting was a speaker from Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue. They are a voluntary self funded organisation. She told us all about how the rescue centre had started, taking in just a few sick, injured or underweight hedgehogs until up to date when they can have up to 200 hedgehogs being cared for in two centres.

The reason for the increase in calls for help to the charity seems to be warmer winters which has stopped hedgehogs "Hibernating" ( strictly speaking they don't hibernate) but then there isn't enough food for them. Warmer winters and wetter summers has also increased problems with internal parasites like Fluke worms.
From being one of the most common creatures their numbers have dropped to critical.
The decrease in towns and villages may be because gardens are too tidy and fenced so the hogs can't range, they like a big area to move round for food and to make daytime nests. In the countryside it has been the large fields without hedges that have seen numbers decrease.
She explained how they care for the hogs and try and release them back where they have come from once they've been treated and put on weight.

 We had a bring and buy sale to raise a little extra money for the charity as well as their fee. Coffee and cakes again. I've put my name down for the Suffolk East Federation Spring Quiz in March which will be fun.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

Looking For............

Thought I'd better make a list of what I'm looking for at boot sales this year................

• For Willow...............  young children's classic books like  Very Hungry caterpillar
• For Willow...............Wooden fit-the-shapes-in puzzles
• For Florence..........winter clothes aged  3 - 4 .....ready for next winter
• For Jacob's birthday ? (must ask eldest what Jacob needs)
• For me..............vest tops in light colours
• Things that would make Christmas gifts
• Printer cartridges - Epson with a cheetah picture - vain hope!
• A lemon balm plant 
• Kilner or similar bottles (Not jars -have plenty of them) for flavoured vinegar gifts 
• There is something else but I can't think what at the moment!

MUST NOT BUY
Christmas cards and craft stuff.

So what did I find at my first boot-sale of the season..............................

There were lots of car boots with tons of stuff, many big vans with boxes full of house clearance rubbish and it looked hopeful.

But............................no real treasure...... however I did tick wooden puzzles off the list.

The small batteries fit the doorbell and I've been carrying an old one around for ages trying to remember to find some new spares = £1. The puzzles for Willow, one 50p and the other £1.50, book 50p (I've picked up Margery Allingham books before and then resold on Ziffit and this one is worth 79p to them at the moment, so I shall read and sell, a 29p profit is not to be sniffed at!) The chocolates? - they are my Brexit store!  = 50p each with 5 mini things in each pack.

So one car boot sale down and many more to come - I hope

Thank you for all the Magpie comments yesterday. Amazing that two people saw eightand boys were born. Don't think I've seen more than 3 or 4 at once, usually two.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Magpies

Above is the February page from An Illustrated Country Year by Celia Lewis. Instead of using it for the 1st of the month post I decided to find out more about magpie folklore for a separate post, but apart from the well known rhyme for spotting the number of birds seen, all I could find in my books was just one country saying  for weather......

         Magpies flying three or four together and uttering harsh cries predict windy weather.

and one for fishermen

For anglers in spring it is always unlucky to see single magpies; but two may always be regarded as a favourable omen. The reason is, that in cold and stormy spring weather one magpie alone leaves the nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting with eggs or the young ones; but two go out together only when the weather is mild and warm, which is favourable for fishing.

The magpie rhyme that I know must be the one from from the children's TV programme  back in the 1970's

One for sorrow

Two for joy

Three for a girl

Four for a boy 

Five for silver 

Six for gold

Seven for a secret 

Never to be told 

Because in my book they are different

One for sorrow

Two for mirth

Three for a wedding

Four for a birth

One sign of anger

Two, sign of mirth

Three sign of wedding day

Four sign of death

Five sign of sorrow

Six sign of joy

Seven sign of maid

Eight sign of boy. 

Growing up in the country there is one thing I do know about magpies.......... they are pests, taking the eggs and even the chicks of other birds. There are certainly more around now than in the past and it's rare to drive out anywhere in the country without seeing one or more.

There's more about magpies and superstition HERE and the birds themselves HERE

Back Tomorrow

Sue

The February Library Book Photo + Halfway Through the Month

Here we are heading into the second half of February and I came out of hibernation on the 11th. It's always a worry in November, December and January because I begin to wonder if my gardening mojo has gone forever but there will be a day when the sun comes out, the wind drops and it's dry underfoot and I find that the pull of the hoe gets me outside. I started with the cutting garden and then  found lots of brambles growing over one of the shrubs so the secateurs came out too.  After an hour several odd jobs were done and that was enough for one day. Another hour on Wednesday and  the Hollyhocks were planted out and a small bed weeded. On Thursday  the raspberry and strawberry beds were weeded and I started cutting back last years dead stuff from the flower garden.Yesterday I cleared the big soft fruit bed of weeds and finished cutting back the dead stuff in the quarter circle.  I really have to take care of my back early in the season but just an hour at a time makes a difference . Got lots of tidying done in the garage too which felt good.


Another month and another heap of books collected from the library van, all books I've requested.

From the bottom of the pile...........first Jack Monroes latest cookery book.
Then four other non-fiction to read or just browse. I asked the library about getting some of the Dean Street Press Furrowed Middlebrow reprints. Lots more have  been published this year but they just ordered 2  by D.E.Stevenson- which  I shall be grateful for as I can't afford to buy them. There is another British Library Crime Classic reprint and also another George Bellairs has also been reprinted from the 1960's.Top of the pile is by Chris Nickson, the second in a series about one of the first WPCs.

A big pile of books went back to the library van and the ones I've read during the last four weeks have been  added to the separate page and of course a whole post about Tombland.
A few from last time went back unread for various reasons.........one had tiny print, one was from earlier in a series............... I'd read a later one and decided not to go back to the beginning to read.
I've still got the 3 in 1 book by Ngaio Marsh, must read it as it's been renewed  a couple of times already.

I don't add factual books like cookery books to my books read page but the Creative Kitchen was an interesting sounding book, and has some lovely ideas for possible presents. The photo-copier bit of my printer has packed up so I'll take this into the library and photo copy some pages to keep.




This week I have been thankful for

• Lunch with son and daughter in law and cuddles with Willow
• Books from the library....all for free
• Sunny days to start gardening
• A letter from a penfriend
• A visit from my cousin

Have a lovely weekend whatever you are doing. I spotted signs for another Jumble Sale, so that's my plan.

Back Monday
Sue

2019 Superfoods (Allegedly!)

According to a list in the free magazine (Ipswich 24) I picked up recently these are THE things that people will be buying this year.....they are the new super-foods! 

Watermelon Seeds
Sardines
Cassava Flour
Lucuma
Swiss Chard
Cottage Cheese
Seaweed
Sauerkraut
Dark Chocolate
Garlic
Mango
Green Tea
Kefir
Blackberries
and  PORK SCRATCHINGS!


OK.........  I can see that Sardines, Swiss Chard, Cottage Cheese,Seaweed, Dark Chocolate, Garlic, Mango, Green Tea and Blackberries are probably all good for you and I'll take their word about Watermelon Seeds, Cassava Flour, Lucuma, Sauerkraut and Kefir...........
................ but Pork Scratchings?

I'll pass thank you

Back Tomorrow
Sue

St. Valentine

There was probably more than one St Valentine, but one of them was a 3C martyr and not much is known about him but there is an undisputed history of people celebrating on this day going back 600 years. Chaucer wrote, sometime between 1376 and 1382, a poem telling how birds choose their mates on St Valentines Day each year and this day was supposed to be the first day of spring in many places. Later the link was made to people choosing a mate on this day too but  no real connection with  St Valentine.

Valentine cards appeared in the 19C and were elaborate or romantic, comic or rude. Rude ones sent as a joke among the working classes were the cause of the celebration of this day going out of fashion through Victorian times, coming back into popular fashion in the second half of the 20th century. Now  the cards are in the shops just after Christmas and everything is sold, from teddies to cakes, with a heart featuring on it and every shop has a Valentine window and florists charge a fortune for roses (cynical ........ moi?).

I found just a couple of weather sayings in my books

To Saint Valentine the spring is a neighbour

Valentine's Day breaks the back of winter 

Back Tomorrow
Sue
PS. Thank you to all new followers, what a nice surprise.

Mmmmmmmm Cake

Found a recipe to use up some of the jars of home made marmalade that have been stored since 2017. I don't eat it often because of eating less bread.
Also need to make use of the loaf tin liners that I won at the Bacton Produce show last year.

Sticky Marmalade Tealoaf

140g or approx third of a jar of marmalade
175g softened butter
175g light muscovado (brown) sugar
3 eggs, beaten
225g SR Flour
1tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground ginger ( I just used one as I was using orange and ginger marmalade)
1tsp mixed spice
100g chopped pecan nuts (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 180C/Gas4/Fanoven160C
Set aside 1 tablespoon of the marmalade in a cup or saucepan
Mix everything else together and  tip into prepared 2lb/1kg loaf tin and smooth the top.
Bake for  1 - 1¼ hours until a skewer comes out clean......... cover the top with foil for the last 15 minutes.
Warm the remaining marmalade in a microwave or on the hob until its soft then brush over the cake while it's still hot.

I'll add the recipe to the separate recipe page

This might be a good cake to make when I have to take cakes to WI.


Many thanks for comments about Thornham Parva church. It's not far from home yet on a road that I would never have used so wouldn't have found it except for this blog. It was such a welcoming little church and the movement sensor lights are an easy idea that other churches could copy.

Welcome to another person clicking the follower button, I'm hoping for 500 by the end of the year!

Back Tomorrow
Sue

St Mary's Church, Thornham Parva

This Norman church is small but perfectly formed. It is a thatched church in a tiny parish to the north of the Thornham Estate, home of Lord Henniker. The other side of Thornham estate is Thornham Magna which has it's own church.

Stepping inside, unusually there is no porch, on a cold snowy day in January and lights came on automatically, what a good idea.
This is the reason for this church being in the 100 treasures book  (and more lights came on as I walked towards it)

Behind the altar is a painted oak panel or retable dating all the way back  over six and a half centuries to the 1330s.It is part of a work that was probably originally made for the Dominican Priory in Thetford. It was lost for decades until an ancestor of Lord Henniker bought it at the sale of a farm in Stradbrooke in 1778 it was then forgotten again and found in a stable loft at Thornham Hall in 1927 when it was given to the church. It was during restoration in 1998 that the age of the panel was confirmed. There is another part of this panel in the Musee de Cluny.

But it's not just this panel that people come to see because on the walls are the remains of C14 wall paintings

These show the early years of Christ and the Martyrdom of King Edmund..

The view down the nave

The pulpit is small and neat to suit the church

 
And looking back from the altar, the font is also small. There is a little gallery from C18 overhead with a round Saxon window, now just looking into the tower which was added in the 1480's

Lovely kneelers  showing buildings in the parish

I wonder if this chest dates all the way back to the beginnings of the church

A board shows how the panels would have looked together with more information

Hope you can read from my photo who all the Saints are

More description of this special little church on the Suffolk Churches Website  HERE

Many Thanks for comments yesterday, apologies for not replying and I also didn't get round to commenting anywhere else either.......sorry

Back Tomorrow

Sue