Monday 25 March 2019

Woolpit St. Mary

Woolpit was a wealthy parish in medieval times, popular with pilgrims visiting the chapel of Our Lady of Woolpit and the Lady's Well, the water here was supposed to cure eye problems.

The picture below is from the Suffolk churches website, my exterior photo wasn't very good
Woolpit: click to view larger

A wide light large church for a large and very old village, one of only a dozen or so Suffolk churches to have a spire.

This is just a quick tour of the church, many more photos and information HERE on the Suffolk Churches website


Like a couple of others I've visited it's the roof that is the amazing thing about the church. A mid-C15 double hammerbeam roof full of saints,angels, bishops and kings



The screen below, showing Saints also dates from that period but was repainted more recently





This wording over the door is interesting


 The porch dating from C15, is said to be one of the best in the country. Like several others in the county it has a small room above the entrance where important papers and perhaps the churches holy items would have been stored.



This house right beside the church has unusual paintings in the mock windows


Woolpit was just a couple of miles from where I lived as a child and we all knew the story of "The Green Children"

The two green children, who climbed out of the ground, speaking a strange language and afraid of the sunlight. The boy died soon after, but the girl grew up and married; she learned to speak English, and told of St Martin's Land, from where she and her brother had emerged. There are holes in the ground around Woolpit, quarries where bricks were made in the 19th century and gravel extracted through much of the 20th. But perhaps there was once something much older, for every Suffolk schoolchild knows that the name 'Woolpit' is nothing to do with wool, but with the wolves that once lived in the pits here...........


 Thank you for comments on Saturday and apologies for not replying

Back Tomorrow
Sue

22 comments:

  1. What fabulous information! I love the carved angel

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    1. It's so difficult to photograph all the carvings on the roof, when I zoom in the camera wobbles and there isn't always enough light.......... Or is that just a poor workman blaming his tools!

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  2. Very interesting thanks Sue.All this information makes me want to know more especially about the green children. I love that house it reminded me of the arts and crafts type of style.The work done in this and the other churches you have shown us is amazing and done with no modern technology! Just goes to show. My daughter lives in Suffolk it's a beautiful and interesting county. Thanks again I read all your posts and enjoy them. Take care x

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    1. Thank you for reading
      The Green Children tale was very well known - not sure if children nowadays get told it

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    2. I expect not.probably some objection along the not politically correct lines.

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  3. Another very interesting church, I love the imitation of the windows.hazel c uk

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  4. What an interesting place and some notable architecture. As well as the beautiful roof I love the tiled floor down the aisle.

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  5. I wonder if people also went there to pay their taxes. A checker pattern in bricks used to indicate the place where taxes were collected so that everybody would recognise it because they would not all be able to read or write. Interesting. Woolpit was a very wealthy place.

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  6. I’m surprised how many of these Suffolk churches managed to survive the Protestant Reformation with altar rails, rood screens and art work honouring the Saints still intact.

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  7. How lovely. I do find the ornate ceilings of some of your churches to be amazing. Handcrafted with such love and attention.

    God bless.

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  8. It is so interesting to see an read about the churches. The roof in this church is very impressive. I have for a long time had a special interest for churches and have collected photos and postcards of many Norwegian churches. Thank you for sharing!

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  9. Another beautiful church to add to the list! I'm curious about the lovely phone box - is it still a phone box or used for something else?

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  10. Those pictures are amazing, and I loved the story about the green children. Thank you for sharing.

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  11. My camera can't manage at a distance either. I just get a blurry image so I need Mr GBT with his long lens to take them for me.
    Arilx

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  12. I'm finding these tours so interesting - thank you!

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  13. Suffolk is a beautiful county (and the 2nd largest after Yorkshire). I had a Chinese friend who remarked that Suffolk has an honest beauty unlike, say, the chocolate boxness of the Cotswolds.
    Sue, I’ve loved so many of your posts but have had trouble commenting ...

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  14. Beautiful church. And I've never heard the story of the Green Children. Always so much more to learn.

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  15. I had no idea what wool pit meant. What a haunting story you ended with. Another lovely church tour. Thank you.

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  16. Another great Church, I am really enjoying the little tours you take us on.

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