Long Melford windows

Boxted, Suffolk

The unprepossessing exterior of Holy Trinity contains an astonishing interior with an array of monuments and ledger slabs to the Poley family. Both the nave and chancel are light and airy and contain roof angels, hatchments, wooden corbels, box pews and the north aisle has a gallery.

It is hidden behind a screen of trees but from the car park, and churchyard, you get the reverse view across the valley to Glemsford, with the big house nestled at the bottom of the hill - it is a glorious view.

A palimpsest brass to Richard Poley (1468-1547) and his wife Ann, on the north side of the chance}, is the oldest surviving Poley monument. There are also many floorstones and seven hatchments (1756-1849) to the Poley and Weller-Poley family.

On the south side of the chancel is the tomb chest, with what I thought were stone but are actually oak, effigies of William Poley (d. 1587) and Alice his wife (d. 1577). He is dressed in armour, with his head on a helmet. She has a prayer book with the arms of Poley and Shae, and rests on a pillow inscribed "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord", A.D. 1579. The figures were restored and the black paint removed from the stonework in 1992.

HOLY TRINITY. The church lies in the grounds of the house, an ancient timber-framed mansion made to look too new. The church is above the house and separated from it by a wide expanse of grass. Flint and stone. Low arcade with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. Interesting hammerbeam roof in the chancel, interesting because Jacobean. Attached to the N E an C18 brick chapel. In it the most interesting feature of the church, the Poley MONUMENTS. There are notably two, Sir John d. 1638 and Dame Abigal, the latter erected in 1725. Both have standing efligies in arched niches and crowning pediments with rounded centres. In all else they differ characteristically. Sir John’s monument must be of the ending C17 and is certainly the work of an outstanding sculptor. Mrs Esdaile has attributed it to Bushnell. Sir John stands with one hand on his hip, in a self-assured and a little mannered attitude. The costume is that of his day, not of that of the sculptor. To the l. and r. standing putti pulling away a big drapery which seems to hang from the top of the monument. The top of the niche has a shell pattern. All the decoration is rich and lively - garlands, foliage borders, etc. Dame Abigal’s monument is demonstratively less demonstrative. It is of alabaster (Mrs Esdaile says the last English monument in that material), and has only flanking pilasters; the head of the niche is undecorated. - An earlier Poley monument in the chancel: William d.1587 and his wife. Two recumbent effigies, a late example of oak carving for a funeral purpose. - PULPIT. Jacobean, with tester. - POLEY PEW. Jacobean parclose screen with balusters carrying arches and achievements on top. - COMMUNION RAIL. Three-sided, with twisted balusters. - STAINED GLASS. Some original glass in the E window of the Poley Chapel, e.g. the figure of a king. - PLATE. Almsdish ?1674; Cup, Paten, and Flagon 1708.

 

 

BOXTED. For six centuries it has been the home of the Poley family, whose gracious house can be seen from the church, enshrined in a wooded valley, and with a Tudor bridge across its moat. The 15th century flint church has an elaborate panelled porch and splendid original roofs. Many old treasures are sheltered here: rails on three sides of the altar, a fragment of glass with a crowned head, a 15th century font, and a Jacobean pulpit with a canopy.

Two imposing monuments have wooden figures of William Poley and his wife, rare treasures, for there are not more than a hundred ancient wooden figures in the land. Here they are with their jewels. William, who built the hall and died the year before the Armada sailed, is in armour with his bare head on a helmet, and his wife has three necklaces. In richly carved niches stand figures of Sir John Poley who died in 1638, in armour with his gauntlets at his feet. His wife has golden ear-rings, and John is shown with a gold frog hanging from an ear, the symbol of a high Danish order bestowed on him.

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Glemsford, Suffolk

St Mary is stunning, with commanding views over the surrounding countryside - both the building and the location are outstanding. Sadly the interior, whilst beautiful, suffered a visitation from Dowsing in 1643 so it is light on monuments but does have a very good octagonal 15th century decorated font.

ST MARY. Dec W tower and Dec nave arcades (octagonal piers, double-chamfered arches, the N side apparently earlier than the S). Perp aisle walls and windows, chancel chapels, clerestory, and porches. The S aisle, S chapel, S porch, and N chapel have flushwork panelling, the N aisle and N porch have not. Large three-light windows, mostly transomed. S doorway with tiny canopied niches in one arch moulding. Money was left for a S window in 1447, a N window in 1454, N clerestory windows in 1474/5 (‘according to the design of the first one newly made in that wall’). Good N aisle roof with carved beams. - FONT. Octagonal. Panelled stem with four small figures. Bowl with two Signs of the Evangelists, head with crown, head with mitre, angel with shield, and Virgin of the Annunciation (?). - SOUTH DOOR. With tracery and a scroll along the edge. - (REREDOS in the S aisle C18. LG)

GLEMSFORD. It is the village (a wandering place with a great church and a glorious view) where Wolsey’s faithful servant came to end his days far from the glamour and peril of the Court. It has a fine house with an overhanging storey which may have been here in his day; one of its upright posts is carved with a figure of the Archangel Michael, who has his sword uplifted to sly the dragon. Below St Michael is an angel which gives its name to the neighbouring inn.

Most of the church, with its lofty aisle and porch, is 15th century, but the chancel has an arcade with slender pillars 700 years old. There is a huge iron-bound chest ravaged by the death-watch beetle, and a Jacobean pulpit with grapes and strange birds on the brackets of its book-rest. The oak reredos, with its carving of the Annunciation, was set up in memory of George Coldham, vicar here for 54 years last century. The treasure of the church is the 15th century font, its bowl carved with a fierce winged lion, a dragon, and four heads (a bishop and an angel, a king and a queen), with a curious little figure supporting the bowl.

Here sleeps George Cavendish without memorial, though indeed he has no need of one, for his life of his master, Cardinal Wolsey, is his everlasting monument. As we see Wolsey in Shakespeare, noting the firm bold lines in which the character is drawn, following his speeches and sighing over the tragic greatness of his fall, we feel that here is the authentic man, body and spirit; and it is almost certain that Shakespeare derived his details from Cavendish’s manuscript. Cavendish knew the cardinal better than anyone else, in his public life and in the secrecy of his chamber. Son of a Court official, he married a niece of Sir Thomas More, but at the age of 26, as Wolsey said, "abandoned his own country, wife, and children, his own house and family, his rest and quietness" to serve him as gentleman usher. He was with Wolsey in his greatest triumphs; he remained with him, constant, solicitous, loving, and loyal, to the tragic end. On Wolsey’s death Cavendish was strictly examined as to the acts and sayings of his master, and though in peril of his life he answered with such valiant candour that the hostile council declared he had served the cardinal like a just and diligent servant.

Retiring to Glemsford, Cavendish wrote the beautiful story of Wolsey’s life and conversation which stands as one of the earliest great biographies in our language. It remained in manuscript for a century, and then, in 1641, a garbled version of it was printed. Not until 1810 did it appear complete. Shakespeare had the manuscript, and we know that the words he makes Wolsey speak are the words George Cavendish wrote down.

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Today's Visitation

Glorious sun and clear blue skies inured me to the bitter north easterly as I set off on a route planned late last night - and it turned out to be one of the most successful of recent times.

The planned trip was mainly, in fact I think all, South Suffolk and ran as follows:

Boxted, Stanstead, Glemsford, Pentlow, Poslingford, Clare, Stoke by Clare, Ashen, Wixoe and, maybe, Birdbrook.

The trip didn't go quite as planned but was well worth it - updates as the photos are processed.

Margaretting, Essex

Having driven round in circles I finally stumbled across St Margaret down a tiny lane and stranded across the other side of a mainline rail crossing - the crossing gates seemed to close every two minutes.

After doing exteriors I was somewhat underwhelmed but decided I had time to collect keys and do interiors, and thank goodness I did.

There is a bit of everything here from a Flemish east window to old corbels via the remains of the rood screen passing by John Tanfield's monument of 1625 with a sprinkle of an unknown brass and a dash of hatchments.

As a whole St Margaret left me feeling a bit cold but, as they say (or perhaps not in this case) the Devil is in the detail and the details here are wonderful - and that includes the railway crossing.

ST MARGARET. The church should be visited by all for its splendid C15 timber W tower, on ten posts (like Blackmore). The free-standing posts are connected from N and S by three pairs of arched braces. From E to W between posts two and three and posts three and four on both sides there are also arched braces, but lower and smaller. Cross-strutting above these. Outside, the tower has a vertically weather-boarded ground floor, the roof is hipped on N, S, and W, but straight on the E and higher than the nave roof. The bell-stage is straight on again and on it sits a broach spire. Bell-stage and broach spire are shingled. The two-light W window with a little tracery is original, the N and S windows renewed. The N porch also is of timber and contemporary. Four-centred doorway with traceried spandrels, cusped barge-boarding and one-light side openings. The rest of the church is also essentially C15 and early C16, but all windows are renewed. The S arcade has first one bay, then piece of wall and then another three. The piers are of four shafts with deep hollows between them, and the arches four-centred with double-hollow-chamfered moulding. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with quatrefoils carrying flowers, a crown, a mitre, a head with tongue put out. - SCREEN. Only the dado remains, with elaborate blank tracery. - STAINED GLASS. In the three-light E window the Tree of Jesse, much restored, but yet impressive as a complete C15 composition: four medallions with two figures each in the side lights, Jesse, three medallions and the seated Virgin in the centre light. - PLATE. Large Cup and Paten of 1563. - BRASS. Knight and Lady, mid C15, the figures c. 22 in. long.

MARGARETTING. The timber belfry with four bells four centuries old, and a rare Jesse window, give renown to this little village on the Roman road. No lover of beauty passes it by. The church is surrounded by trees. The thick wall of the nave is Norman, but most of it is 15th century. The timber walls of the porch have lovely open tracery and the door has its original wood and iron. The medieval masons rivalled the woodcarvers; every corbel in the nave is their work, the lion of Mark, the angel of Matthew, the eagle of John, and the ox of Luke, sharing their task with grotesque heads. More delicate are the symbols they carved round the font, rose, crown, mitre, acorns, leaves, square and compass, and a face with a protruding tongue.

The wooden screen must have been very beautiful; the few panels left have five-leaf traceried heads and spandrels with owls and leopards and roses. The two doors still hang on their old hinges, bringing us into the chancel with an east window brilliant with colour and human appeal. It represents the Tree of Jesse, and there runs up through three divisions a vine-stem encircling 12 round panels with 24 figures. Flying freely above Jesse is an angel, in the middle division all wear golden crowns, in the bottom panel are David with a harp and Solomon with his temple, and at the top are the Madonna and the Child. In the side panels are Old Testament figures, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph and the rest, all with their names.

But the most interesting thing about this group is the record it gives of the life of the time. It was the work of Flemish artists 500 years ago and the men of Jesse’s line might very well be burghers of Antwerp or any other town in the Low Countries. Cloak and hat and every detail reflect the life the artists knew, and in pose and colour remind us of the lovely paintings of the golden age of Art.

There is a hint of the rich costume women wore in the 15th century in a brass on the chancel wall, where, resplendent in jewelled headdress, with a pomander box hanging from her girdle, a lady stands by a man in armour, with their seven children below. Farther along the wall in the nave is a family group of 1600, kneeling figures of the Tanfields painted on a small tablet of alabaster.

A door in a 16th century brick arch at the end of the nave leads us to the belfry, with its gigantic timbers. Three posts to right and three to left are linked by arches and made firm by slanting beams, and above go great braces to support the bell-chamber and the shingled spire. In the tower are four bells which rang at all the weddings of our royal Bluebeard.

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Galleywood, Essex

St Michael was locked with no keyholder listed and is nearly impossible to decently photograph surrounded as it is by trees and cables - I did my best and went for a walk through the wooded common.

Mee is circumspect, so I suspect I didn't miss anything of interest here.

ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS. 1873 by St Aubyn (GR). In the Dec style, with a stone spire. 

GALLEYWOOD COMMON. A scattered village on the high ground south of Chelmsford, its glory is in its wild common, which we found a mass of living gold. The modern church stands on this wonderful gorse carpet, and its spire rises 127 feet high. A racecourse encircles the common and the church as well - an odd assemblage, though races were held at Galleywood long before the church came. Eight bells ring merrily in the steeple, which looks down on a churchyard beautiful with trees and flowers.

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West Hanningfield, Essex

If I thought nearby Woodham Ferrers was a hotchpotch, SS Mary & Edward is a veritable smorgasbord of restoration  but I loved the porch and tower, particularly the tower which has a New England feel to it.

However my faith in humanity was restored by finding it open and welcoming. Whilst it's not overly exciting I did find some relations, in the shape of Clovilles and an Alington, here.

ST MARY AND ST EDWARD. The timber W tower is built on a Greek cross plan with the square upper part provided with an odd W oriel. Broach spire. On the ground floor to the S two Gothick windows. The construction inside is specially interesting, with arched braces in all four directions, buttressing struts in the arms of the cross, and on the upper floor of the centre arched braces diagonally across like ribs and meeting in a centre key-block with a grotesque face. The church itself has a Norman nave, as witnessed by the rear-arch of a N window, the remains of a C13 chancel (see the traces of E windows) a C14 S arcade and S aisle, a C15 timber porch, and an early C16 chancel. Most of the windows are probably of c. 1800: Gothick. The S arcade of five bays stands on octagonal piers and has double-chamfered arches. The chancel has two- and three-light N windows of brick, probably C17. - FONT. Perp, octagonal, small. - COMMUNION RAIL. Late C17 with alternatingly heavily twisted and turned balusters. - CHEST. Of the dug-out type, 8 ft long, heavily iron-bound. - PLATE. Cup of 1709; Paten on foot of 1709. - BRASS to Isabell Clouvill d. 1381, demi-figure. 

WEST HANNINGFIELD. The long grass of the churchyard was aglow with primroses when we called to see the treasure of the village, the amazing dug-out chest which has been here 600 years. It is bound with iron and has two lids, both very hard to lift, and is over eight feet long. It would come here about the time the new font was set on the Norman base, the carvers giving it trellis work and roundels on the stem and ballflowers and quaint heads round the bowl. There is a charming portrait in brass of 1361, the oldest brass but one of a lady in all Essex. It shows the head and shoulders of Isabel Clouville in the delightful veiled headdress of her time. There is a shield of the family arms in 15th century glass and an altar tomb in which lie a 16th century John Clouville and his wife. In the window above the tomb are two little heads of women with a Tudor rose between them.

A very curious feature here is the 15th century wooden belfry at the end of the nave; it is planned like a cross, each arm two stages high, the centre rising a stage higher and crowned with a spire. The interior is a medley of old beams and, mounting a rough 16th century ladder, we find the curved braces meeting at a grotesque face. It is all a little like some goblin barn rather than a belfry.

(I very often wish I could have Mee's untrammelled access after reading his entries.)

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