St. Mary and St Lambert Church, Stonham Aspal

Parking for the church is at the village hall with a path through the churchyard - and a good show of primroses.

 

 

The church has two unusual things......first is in having it's tower at the side so the entrance porchway is under the tower plus the wooden bell chamber. The tower was restored in the 1980s but dates from the C18.

 

 

And the second is it's strange dedication which Simon Knott explains on his Suffolk Churches website

 "Now, it would be foolish to make too much of the dedications of Anglican churches, since few of them have remained unchanged over the centuries. During the years between the 16th Century Reformation and the 19th Century revival they largely fell into disuse, except where required to differentiate one church in a town from another. Some current dedications of Suffolk churches are the result of well-meaning but not always entirely accurate 18th Century antiquarians. Suffolk's churches were in the Diocese of Norwich in the medieval period, and several dedications were conflated or confused by the antiquarians.

So it is no surprise to learn that the Saint Lambert here is a mistake. In fact, there are three Stonhams, and this one once used the name of the Lambert family, owners of the Manor, to distinguish itself from the others. Such distinctions are more common in Essex. There is such a thing as a Saint Lambert, but he was never the dedicatee here."

 

There are a couple of old pictures of the church inside which are always interesting to see. Descriptions on the poster below

 

 

The quite plain font dates fro the C13

 

The tiles through the chancel were catching the sun and there is a different pattern around the altar.

 

 

The stained glass window over the altar

 

Closer look at the piscina

 

I noticed this carpet leading to the pulpit

 

A bier for the coffin stands at the back of the church and it was good to see the explanation below with the charges for using it from 1915

Looking up at the tower from below.

In the porch was a 'books for sale shelf' and I found this below which looked interesting, as  I've read some of his walking books before. So went back inside to put my donation into the box.

 Back Tomorrow

Sue