Thursday 17 October 2019

Hinderclay St Mary

Before the church photos I must say thank you to everyone for comments yesterday and hello and welcome to more followers.

It's all about the stained glass in this small church close to the Norfolk border.

The church is tucked away at the end of an avenue of large oak trees



The porch is also special as it's timber framed which is quite unusual.  The outer frame dates right back to the C14. The baskets of fuchsias were huge and colourful .  


The C20 stained glass is the work of the artist Rosemary Rutherford who was the sister of the vicar at nearby Walsham Le Willows,  a church I visited in April . Its certainly striking and so different to old stained glass. They are her designs but weren't made and installed until many years after her death, probably when parishes were combined so that her brother John became vicar of this parish as well as Walsham .








Here is her history

RUTHERFORD, Rosemary


1912 - 1972
Rosemary Ellen Rutherford, was born at The Parsonage, Bartley Green Lane, Northfield, Kings Norton, Worcester on 1 September 1912, daughter of Revd John Finlay Rutherford . Rosemary studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and in 1939 an artist and part-time teacher at St Cedds School, Chelmsford, living at The Vicarage, Broomfield, Chelmsford with her parents. On the outbreak of the Second World War, Rosemary joined the Red Cross as a volunteer when she performed a variety of jobs, including driving a mobile canteen round gun batteries on the east coast and working as a nurse in hospitals and convalescent homes for servicemen. She was given permission by the War Artists Advisory Committee (W.A.A.C) to record her work. She studied art and painting with Cedric Morris [q.v.] at Benton End, Hadleigh, Suffolk but is principally known as a stained glass artist. Her work is in the Suffolk churches at Boxford, Walsham le Willows and in Hinderclay, where her brother, John Allarton Edge Rutherford (1910-2005), was the incumbent, she also completed stained glass windows in several Essex churches and as distant as West Heslerton All Saints, Yorkshire in 1964. She was of The Priory, Walsham le Willows, when she died  suddenly at Lambeth, London on 20 June 1972 aged just 60.

 Many of the pew ends have these carved rosettes, some have Fleur-de-lys and some have initials thought to be the churchwardens at the time.




So many of the churches I've visited have beautiful stitched kneelers, but usually they have one main colour. Here at Hinderclay they were multi-coloured which looked really colourful and beautifully stitched.



I noticed the decorated  organ pipes

A few of the pews are old box pews to keep out the draughts


If or when I get to the churches on the Suffolk/Essex border I will see her other designs at Boxford church as that also features in the 100 treasures book.

Suffolk Churches Website info HERE

Back Tomorrow
Sue


18 comments:

  1. The windows are so beautiful! I've been trying to work out which Bible stories are being depicted in them.

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    1. I'll add in the link to the Suffolk Churches website which has a few more details

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  2. Beautiful glass - goes to show that modern interpretations can be stunning, too.

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  3. How wonderful for Rosemary Rutherford to be remembered for ever for those windows. My favourite thing in this church is those colourful kneelers. I can see a Suffolk Regiment badge they must be all personal to the area. Beautiful! xx

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  4. I think this is one of the nicest churches you have shown us Sue. The kneelers are the colourfulest I have seen. It looks like it's going to be a nice day, my daughter is taking me back to the house I use to like in, there is 6 of us that had a monthly sewing evening for over 25 years and we are having a reunion.
    Thank you Sue.
    Hazel c uk

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  5. A church celebrating colour. I am tempted to visit it. I see it is about 30 miles away for me.

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  6. What a lovely place and that glass is absolutely stunning. I wonder how far from Southwold it is - must look and see.
    xx

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    1. Oh, it's quite close to Thetford. I must put it on my list of places to visit next time . . .
      I love the glass so much - it's my sort of thing.
      xx

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  7. Beautiful place in a beautiful setting. A lot of people must spend a lot of time caring for it.

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  8. I love stained glass and even though these have more simple lines than usual, they are just as beautiful. Wow, those kneelers. I can appreciate every stitch that's gone into them, they're wonderful. xx

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  9. What a lovely church! The stained glass windows are beautiful. And the stitched kneelers are so nice with all the colourful and different patterns.

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  10. Beautiful stained glass windows. Super church.

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  11. Beautiful! Lovely stained glass windows

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  12. Such beautiful old wood craft, and stained glass work, and needle work... And so lovely, that it is being well preserved and cared for.

    🍂🍁🍂

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  13. What a beautiful church, so filled with light and colour. It must lift the congregation's spirits every time they worship here.

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  14. What glorious windows. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  15. This is my favourite church that you have visited so far, Sue. I normally like old stained glass windows, but these are beautiful. It's lovely to see the kneelers up so everyone can see them while they're not being used too!

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  16. Aren't those kneelers beautiful :-)

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