Barningham, Suffolk

St Andrew, open, is on the face of it a fairly run of the mill building...and then you step inside to an astonishing collection of bench ends. Although it would be easy to dwell on these there's also a good screen, VR arms, a good pulpit and a fine brass. Also some there but not there silhouettes were installed and the 1918-2018 Armistice remembrance day was to be a major theme of the day.

ST ANDREW. Dec W tower* and chancel. The chancel E window has flowing tracery. On the S side a low-side window with an embattled transom. The nave has tall Perp two-light windows. Inside it should be noticed how the rood-stair ascends in the window. - FONT. Octagonal, Dec. With tracery patterns, e.g. a rose of eight radiating arches, and a wheel of three mouchettes. - SCREEN. Very good and well preserved. One-light ogee arches with panel tracery; cresting. Of the former rood beam the cut-off ends remain in the walls. - PULPIT. The tester looks mid-c 17, the body later. - BENCHES. A whole set. With tracery panels against the ends, carved backs, and poppy-heads and animals on the arms, also birds, monsters, one kneeling figure. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup and Paten; Flagon 1762. - BRASS. William Goche, rector of Barningham, d. 1499; a 13 in. figure.

* However, Mr Adrian R. Allan has found wills of 1439 and 1440 which leave money to the fabric of the tower, the latter specifying that it is new (‘ad fabric’ nov‘ campanil’ ibid’ . . .’).

BARNINGHAM. Its modest 14th century flint church is enriched by fine woodwork on every side. Medieval craftsmen gave the once gilded and painted screen, and the small nave is lined with old panelling. The 29 benches are a joy to see, carved back and front and at each end, in infinite variety. There are birds, lions, a kneeling soldier, and many other devices, and at each we pause to recognise and revel in the vigorous imagery. In the clerk’s bench below the pulpit James Wright, a faithful servant of God’s house, filled his office for 52 years of last century. Above the plain mouldings of the pulpit is a decorated canopy. The black oak font cover is carved. Of special interest is the oak reredos, given by the rector in 1877, holding a painting of the Last Supper, the work of his sister, Eliza Evelyn Edwards. The Ascension in the east window is in memory of their parents. A corner piscina has a graceful pillared front; and at the foot of the rood stairway someone has carved a smiling face of much beauty. A brass portrait of a priest is in memory of William Goche, ministering here in 1499, and a fragment of an early oak altarpiece hangs on the wall.

Flickr.