St Mary's Church, Willisham

 Simon Knott creator of the Suffolk Churches Index has been here twice and never found it open and it wasn't open for me either but he wrote  a good story about it HERE

The church sits high and can be seen from half a mile away through the little lanes of this bit of Suffolk. Just a shame that it's always locked apart from the occasional service.

That's Parish Church  number 142 that I've visited (out of approx 500 in Suffolk), thankfully only a handful have not been open to see inside.

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Thank you for comments yesterday.

St Mary's Church, Barking (The One in Suffolk not Essex!)

 St Mary's Church Barking is at the end of  the aptly named Parsons Lane, a narrow road a mile from Needham Market, and is Huge, yet the actual village of Barking is over a mile away, set around a large green or Tye and has a population of just 400.

The reason the church is so big is because it once also served Needham Market which has always been a town. Later a Chapel of Ease was built in Needham to save the population the long walk. I wrote about St Johns Needham Market HERE way back in 2019.

A very wide central aisle, side aisles, Clerestory windows and side chapels, both with parclose screens This church has everything you would expect in a large  town church.

Including a Rood Screen still standing

The South side chapel has matching parclose screen

and on the other side chapel too, with remnants of colour

This could be the coffin bier that had to be pushed all the way from Needham Market along a causeway (corpse way?) for burials in Barking churchyard. The line of the path across fields out of Needham Market can still be seen on overhead views of the town.

The font has a Very fancy carved wood cover

Beautiful stitched altar cloth and interesting reredos set on the window sill of the East window.

It looks as if there was once a window here on the north wall of the Chancel.

Just one stained glass window in the church  - in the bell tower, seen through the bell ropes.

Huge old chest for all the parish treasures and records - three locks was quite common, therefore needing three key holders to be present.

It really is a surprise to get to the end of the narrow dead-end lane, turn a corner and find this huge church.

 

Churches That Are Locked

Three churches that I've found locked recently. I've linked them to Simon Knott's Suffolk Churches website as he was lucky at visiting several years ago.

The first is Hunston ,in the small lanes north of the busy A14 between Stowmarket and Bury St Edmunds

The church is still in use for one service a month but otherwise locked. 

 Simon Knott was able to get into this small thatched church below which is at Harleston not far from Stowmarket, in 2019, but now it's kept locked except for the occasional service.

Finally, Thwaite, a church not far from my village  that isn't used at all but still stands looking sad and neglected. Simon Knott found a keyholder in 2011 and the back story but nothing has been done since.

These faces - headstops - are in the porch, the only bit open to see.

This small building stands closer to the road, it was once used as a Parish Room for the villagers but now boarded up and unused. 

 

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All Saints, Beyton

 One of Suffolk's 38 round tower churches, this has two huge butresses. 

A newer vestry and hall for villagers use has been added to the side, built to match in rather well.

A very plain font

Through the nave to the chancel, it is a small church and has a north aisle

There are two newer stained glass windows. This commemorates a farmer who lived in The Grange in the village for 48 years.

The second is the memorial to those from the village who died in WWII.

There is also a First World War memorial

The East window is typical Victorian as is most of the church interior which was rebuilt in the 1850s, before that the church had been in a very poor state.

The reredos shows the last supper

There are a few carved bench ends in the chancel mostly from C18. I thought I'd taken photos of the others but it seems I didn't.

This is church number 137 in Suffolk that I've visited. I started linking the individual church posts to the A-Z Suffolk churches post. It's taking ages, I'm only back to 2024 and getting RSI!!

(And bother to Blogger which still isn't updating posts properly in my reading list in the sidebar - annoying)

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St George's Church, Stowlangtoft

 This church was locked when I've visited a couple of years ago so I was pleased to see the 'Church Open' sign.

When Simon Knott [Suffolk Churches website] visited here in 2018 he was told by the lady who let him in that the church was heading for redundancy, to be taken over by the Historic Churches Trust as it wasn't being used for services . But it seems this didn't happen and the church is now open at weekends and has a once a month service.

Opposite the door into the church is the WWI War memorial

Above it is the huge remains of a Medieval wall painting of St Christopher carrying the Christ Child over the water.

Octagonal font with seven saints and Christ carved in the panels

Every window has some stained glass, mostly Victorian

A very bad photo of a  drawing showing who's who in the East window glass

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People come here specially to see the Flemish wood panels of the reredos. They were given to the church by an owner of Stowlangtoft Hall and date from the 1480s. But in 1977 they were stolen and disappeared for five years until the were found in an Amsterdam gallery. Legal proceedings to get them back failed but luckily they were bought and all costs paid by a Dutch businessman and returned to the church. Now the Sanctuary and the panels are alarmed so hopefully they won't be stolen again.

Like the last church I visited at Framsden, Stowlangtoft also has misericord seats with carvings that survived better than Framsden.

There are lots of excellent carvings on the pew ends too

There's an online church brochure HERE for more information.


Back Tomorrow