Wednesday, 13 August 2025

St Nicholas, Oakley

 Just a mile along the road and then up a narrow lane from Brome, the last church mentioned on here is the church at Oakley. Oakley and Brome have long been joined for parish purposes and share a village hall etc.

Like Brome, Oakley church has a Lychgate, and inside it says................. 


Agnes Lady Bateman erected this lytch gate 1908. I wonder why whoever carved this put in the letter T that we don't usually use in the word.



A very typical Suffolk church with a very neat and tidy churchyard




The porch once had an upper storey, but that has long gone.




Quite plain and typically a Victorian restoration.


They've even got a brass plaque which says "This Church of St Nicholas Oakley was restored and bells rehung AD 1876-1879 at the joint expense of the Patron Sir Edward Clarence Kerrison, Baronet, The Rector the Reverend George Mapletoft Paterson MA and the Parishioners."



The font is very plain


But the Reredos behind the altar is quite unusual, being tiled with a picture of the Last Supper included.


This is also a memorial, this time to Captain John Worth and his wife Catherine, and put here by their daughter Dame Mary Catherine Sinclair Walker in 1882.

Alongside the banner for the long gone Mothers Union is an unusual feature - some sort of memorial?


The East window


This plate was high on the wall and I couldn't see what it was, but with enlarging it's showing the 7 churches in the Benefice. Brome, Oakley, Burgate, Wortham, Thrandeston, Stuston and Palgrave. (Stuston and Thrandeston are two I've not visited yet.) These villages are all along the Suffolk/Norfolk border, much nearer to Diss and Norwich in Norfolk than to Suffolk main towns.


These two niches are odd - I wonder what they once housed.



More information is as usual on Simon Knott's Suffolk Churches website

Back Soon




12 comments:

  1. Plain and simple, but the tiled reredos is most interesting.

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    1. Very unusual and must have cost a lot of money at the time

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  2. It is amazing how much it looks like the church in Dallinghoo

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    1. I must get to Dallinghoo and Charsfield soon. I know Dallinghoo is unusual.

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  3. I wonder if there was a dispute about the spelling of lych gate. Maybe it's an alternate, but not one I've seen.

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    1. It's odd. Maybe the spelling has changed over time

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  4. Interesting details despite the plainness.
    Alison in Devon x

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    1. Just a simple Suffolk church. A very out-of-the-way place

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  5. The stone work on the front of the church has lots of fine detail. Stone work always fascinates me. I will look for a photo of the original second story porch.
    The lych gate is large and makes a grand entryway. It is interesting that some gates are rather small and simple and other gates are more grand.
    (Unfortunately, US churches have no lych gates.)
    Is the isle between the pews blue carpet? That seems unusual.



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  6. Do you think there are services here every Sunday?

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  7. Ohhh, I love the entrance to the church.

    God bless.

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  8. Looks like another lovely church. I really like the Lychgate

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