I tried to visit St Michael, locked, no keyholder, this time last year but, despite having a postcode, was unable to find it. This time, armed with exact directions gleaned from Google earth, I found it only to find it disappointingly LNK. The location and exterior are idyllic but the interior sounds even more interesting - Simon Knott's
entry shows this to be true. He gained access in July last year, so in the unlikely event that I'm passing by one summer's day I'll make a point of revisiting.
ST MICHAEL. Nave and chancel and W tower. In addition a remarkable S transept (cf. Pakenham). It is of the later C13 and has a W doorway with shafts, two lancets to the E, and a renewed group of three stepped lancets under one arch to the S. Inside, the entry arch is double-chamfered and rests on two corbels which turn into the wall like sections of stove-pipes. In the E wall between the lancets is a niche bordered by huge dog-tooth, a dog-tooth actually meant to be four petals. Between the petals is some small playful stiff-leaf. Hood-mould of stiff-leaf, or at least starting off as stiff-leaf from the l., and after two motifs turning for the rest into much prettier roses. Angle PISCINA on three shafts with pointed-trefoiled arches. The chancel is apparently of the same time. It has an E window exactly like the transept S window and a very curious semi-circular fully trefoiled-cusped window above the priest’s doorway. The chancel arch has shafts with two shaft-rings and primitive capitals with leaves on upright stems. Unbuttressed W tower of knapped flint.* - BENCHES. Four ends with poppy-heads and animals on the arms. - SCULPTURE. As evidence of the predecessor of the present church the decorated head of a small Norman window survives, built into the wall at the NE corner. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup and Cover; Cup, Cover, and Flagon of 1754.
* A will of 1472 leaves money towards the building of a tower, provided that work starts in that year (ARA).
HUNSTON. We wonder where the village can be. Here and there along the road a thatched roof peeps out from a tall hedge or hides itself with unconscious grace among a group of trees. A timbered cottage with an overhanging gable stands as it has stood for centuries, its garden sweet with every flower of Spring when we called. A path through pleasant fields brings us to the lonely church with a farmhouse near, and across the fields is Hunston Hall, home of the Heighams since the 17th century. A ring of very old trees surrounds the churchyard, and the stillness of the countryside is unbroken.
The church is 13th century with a 14th century tower. One priest’s doorway, though built up, has a charming trefoil head and decoration of fleur-de-lys. In the east window are three lancets below a corbelled arch. The chancel arch has capitals richly carved. An early hammerbeam roof is in the nave and the chancel roof is a fine reproduction of its style. There are two exquisite fragments of carved stonework. The 13th century double piscina has in each wall a trefoiled arch supported by rounded pillars; and a niche in the east wall is a lasting memory of loveliness, with bay and oak leaves in the outer moulding and roses and trefoils crowning the perfect elegance of a tiny masterpiece. In contrast with this delicate work is the plain Norman font.
There are two old benches with carvings of mythical beasts, and a well-preserved chest of unusual design. In two small windows of the chancel a lovely Madonna is in memory of a little child, and a stately angel reminds us of the five Hunston men who never came back.
Here hang two swords that have been drawn in our wars; they are swords of a father and son, among the memorials of the Heighams. The son served through the whole of the Oudh campaign and died at Lucknow.
Mistress Mary Page, who died in 1731, was surely an educationist in advance of her time, and a financial optimist who knew no Great Depression. She left £8 “for teaching three poor girls to spin and sew, knit and read and to the minister for instructing them in the Catechism and clothing them; the remainder to be distributed among those poor inhabitants who shall constantly attend public worship and for the purchasing of proper books for children, not only while in school but chiefly to be given to them when at the end of three years they shall leave school.”
A worthy record of Thomas and another Mary Page of 1664 states that “their ancestors have been inhabitants of this parish from the very beginning of the Reformation, dwelling in their own possessions with good reputation and esteem.”
In the churchyard sleeps Junion Juggins, who died in 1846. The artless verses on his stone begin with the lines:
It was so suddenly I fell,
My neighbours started at my knell;
Amazed that I should be no more,
The man they’d seen the day before.
