A Special Church - St Mary's, Redgrave.

 This church is now looked after by the Historic Churches Conservation Trust. When I visited the Chapel of Ease to this church  in nearby Botesdale  HERE. I wrote about the way the village walked away from St Marys Redgrave in 2004 when it became too expensive to maintain. They hoped the Trust would take it on and thankfully they did.

Here is what Simon Knott from The Suffolk Churches Index says about the recent history of the church

 The cost and effort of maintaining this vast barn full of priceless treasures had become too great a burden for the small congregation, so they locked the doors and decamped to the village hall, declaring that St Mary was now no longer their responsibility. As you may imagine, this caused a certain amount of consternation. While Redgrave church is a building of national significance, there is a certain protocol required if you want to declare a building redundant and have it conveyed into the stewardship of the Churches Conservation Trust. Not being able to pay the repair bills is not considered a good enough reason to declare redundancy. Even so, the parish persisted, which rather placed the Diocese in a quandary. While their first responsibility was to the parishioners, they clearly did not have the resources needed to look after St Mary, and yet the church commissioners would have looked with some doubt on any attempt to declare the building redundant.

It was, in modern political parlance, uncharted territory. Nevertheless, it was obvious that the ultimate destination must be to ensure the future security and upkeep of the building, and so after eighteen months or so of what one imagines must have been fairly tense meetings, the church was conveyed into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

And in the meantime, something else had happened. The shock of the incident had galvanised some local people, including a few of the former congregation, to get together and form a group to look after St Mary. With the support of the Churches Conservation Trust this has become one of the most successful support groups in the county, putting on exhibitions and concerts for which the church is eminently suitable. Before the end of the decade, the Daily Telegraph newspaper awarded Redgrave church the prize of English Village Church of the Year. 

The church stands on a small rise over a mile out of the village. From outside it's large but quite ordinary, except for the unusual white brick tower.

But step inside and you find it is HUGE, one of the largest parish churches for a small village. It had been funded by the Abbots of Bury St Edmunds Abbey who had a shooting lodge in the village and plenty of money for the building .

I visited on a day I hoped it would be open as I knew they were having a concert later in the day. And there was a man beginning to get ready who was very keen to explain all sorts of the special things to me which was good but meant I kept forgetting to take photos!

It's so wide and light with huge arches and windows. The pews, each with it's own little door at the end, could probably seat several 100 people

The East window is magnificent

And another lovely window in the South Aisle Chapel

which now holds the village war memorials

Some of the other memorials in this church are so big and seem really out of place for a village church.

This below is for one of the Holt family, a life sized monument - he was Lord Chief Justice and sits in his lawyers robes, with the figures of Justice and Mercy on either side.

The carving is incredibly detailed

The font is nicely carved too

Up above the font on the North wall is this huge Decalogue - The 10 Commandments

And also huge is this life size tomb to Sir Nicholas and Lady Anne Bacon from the early C17. I meant to go up the steps to take a picture from above but the man took me off to look at something else and I forgot to go back!

The man uncovered this brass for Anne Butts in the floor of the sanctuary for me to see. The inscription says

The weaker sexes strongest precedent
Lies here belowe; seaven fayer years she spent
In wedlock sage; and since that merry age
Sixty one years she lived a widowe sage
Humble as great as full of Grace as elde,
A second Anna had she but beheld
Christ in His flesh who now she glorious sees
Below that first in time, not in degree

Around the walls are 13 hatchments -  or coats of arms for the deceased - for many Suffolk families, more than any other church in Suffolk.  The one below was once thought to have some connection to the beginning of the US flag because of the stars and stripes.

Please have a look at all the details on Simon Knotts website HERE for some information about the lady who accidently discovered the opening to the vault beneath the church!

I have a favourite large church - Blythburgh, a favourite small church - Thornham Parva and now Redgrave is my favourite Heritage Church!

More sport tomorrow - probably.

Back Soon

Sue