St Peter's Church, Baylham

 

Not many small village churches have a transept or cross aisle and the south side at Baylham is quite big.

The transepts were added when the church was completely restored in 1870 although the tower dates back to the C14 and the font from the C15.

The East window is also from 1870

It's always interesting to find paintings of the church in a church, I couldn't see if there was a date on this one although it doesn't look as old as some.

The memorial on the north side of the sanctuary is for the Actons. This is what Simon Knott says on the Suffolk Churches Index

On the north side of the sanctuary is the late 17th Century Acton memorial. John and Elizabeth Acton face each other across a prayer desk, while behind them a skeleton bursts in waving a dart of death. There's something similar at St Nicholas, Kings Lynn. Beneath them are their children kneeling to mourn, three boys and two girls. The inscriptions for the main figures are odd. Elizabeth's records that she died at the age of 36 on the 27th of March, but omits to tell us which year. John's inscription has been left completely blank, but we know he died in 1695. The monument must have been erected before his death. In the great storm of October 1987 the chancel wall was destabilised, and this memorial needed to be reset. The local builder who carried out the work found that it came apart like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, and each piece had been pegged separately into the wall with wooden dowelling. It was put back in place using the same late 17th Century techniques.

The south transept has pews but the north has the organ and behind that a handy toilet has been added.

All the tiling dates from 1870 too. Once the church would have been heated by a boiler with water pipes providing a bit warmth coming up through the metal grill down the central aisle.

Just down the road from the church is the village school, it would have been part of the churches estate when built at much the same time as the church was restored but now long closed and turned into a house. 

I found this old photo of the school on line. It dates from 1910 and is taken just down the hill from my photo

St Mary's Church, Nettlestead

 Nettlestead is one of those villages that is very small, just scattered houses and farms along small lanes with a population of around 100 and tucked away a few miles south-west of Needham Market. I'd certainly never been there before.

There is a plaque in the church marking the night of 12th August 1940 when the church was seriously damaged as German bombers, returning from bombing raids on the industrial Midlands, unloaded their remaining bombs over the Suffolk countryside

The font is the only thing inside that has survived from the medieval period and has some unusual carvings and many cracks. ( I have no idea what those things are, poking out from behind the font . I didn't notice them when I took the photo)

Very strange animals and creatures on each face of the font

There is no stained glass - it was destroyed by William Dowsing in 1644 on his journeys around the east, ridding churches of anything the Puritans considered too decorative. He wrote a journal of all his journeys around Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. 

When you read of his instructions it's a wonder anything survived in any churches. Often items were plastered over or removed  and hidden before he got to the churches.

In December 1643 the Earl, as their captain-general, appointed him "Commissioner for the destruction of monuments of idolatry and superstition".^[2][6] He was to carry out a Parliamentary Ordinance of 28 August 1643^[7] which stated that "all Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry should be removed and abolished". These were specified as "fixed altars, altar rails, chancel steps, crucifixes, crosses, images and pictures of any one of the persons of the Trinity and of the Virgin Mary, and pictures of saints or superstitious inscriptions." In May 1644 the scope of the ordinance was widened to include representations of angels (a particular obsession of Dowsing's), rood lofts, holy water stoups, and images in stone, wood and glass and on plate.

A 17th century memorial was destroyed by the bombs and just the top half remains and was put on a shelf in the Sanctuary. It remembers Samuel and Thomasina  Sayer 

Brass memorials on the floor have often been removed but there is one remaining here

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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