Newton Green, Suffolk

Just as I was beginning to think that this was going to be a locked church trip along came All Saints. In an unusual arrangement the chancel is managed by the CCT and the nave is run as a community centre by the village; the two are separated by a glass screen. In the chancel is a fine monument to Margaret Boteler d. 1410 and in the nave is an earlier one to an unknown wimpled lady.

The two true glories of All Saints, a fine pulpit and very good wallpaintings, are also in the nave. On top of all this throw in a Norman north door, some old glass and a picturesque setting and you end up with a very fine church indeed.

ALL SAINTS. Norman N doorway. Two shafts with scalloped capitals. Zigzag in the arch and the hood-mould. Nave of c.1300, see the S doorway and the windows. Chancel Dec with reticulated E window. Dec also the Sedilia, simple, but with a pretty ‘two-light’ Piscina. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, simple. - PULPIT. Perp, with tracery. Inscription referring to its being a gift of Richard Modi and his wife Leticie. - LECTERN. Handsome C17 piece, with mostly consciously used Gothic motifs. - MONUMENTS. Nave s side. Lady of the early C14 in low early C14 recess. - Chancel N. Lady of c. 1400. Under an ogee arch with straight cresting.

NEWTON. The village is spread about a splendid green half as big as St James’s Park, and from the green a lane runs off to its church. The flint tower is 500 years old, but the nave has a Norman doorway with zigzag ornament, now blocked and framing a window. Some of the windows have fragments of ancient glass with heraldic shields and foliage. The 15th century pulpit, with lovely panelling and a trumpet stem, has an ancient inscription with the names of its donors, Richard Modi and his wife Letticie. The font is also 15th century, the wooden lectern 17th. In the nave, under an arch, is a 14th century lady in a wimple, wearing a long dress from which her tiny feet peep out like mice. The chancel has another woman’s figure under an arch, resting calmly here since the 15th century in her long gown and corded cloak, her head on a tasselled cushion, her hands in prayer, a little dog at her feet.

Flickr.