I've just spent three days in Suffolk, visiting my friend G who lives near Woodbridge; we went to stay in Aldeburgh to sample some well-reviewed restaurants and also to visit some churches. I have not done so before in Suffolk, nor had G, although I had learned from my elder brother (now deceased) years ago that some of the churches there were disproportionately large in relation to their host village: the reason being that they had been funded from the profits of the wool trade. G had recently heard the term Merchant Churches, which seems to apply to them; though an internet search turned up 'Wool Churches'.
We visited five churches: at Kelsale, Wenhaston, Blythburgh, Walberswick; and Leiston where the Victorian church by Lamb was locked. At Walberswick, only three quarters of the earlier Church remain - its vast size indicated by ruins. At Wenhaston, there is a Doom Screen ('disappointingly rustic' withers Pevsner) depicting the day of judgement on a large wooden screen which spanned the chancel. It had been whitewashed and only when thrown out into the churchyard and rained on was the fresco-like illustration revealed.
The most impressive, for me, was Blythburgh - huge and full of light because of the near-complete absence of stained glass in the windows; an absolutely magnificent building.
Although I'm not a person of faith, I nonetheless often feel tuned in to the accumulated history of prayer and community which seem almost to have soaked into the stonework.
We visited five churches: at Kelsale, Wenhaston, Blythburgh, Walberswick; and Leiston where the Victorian church by Lamb was locked. At Walberswick, only three quarters of the earlier Church remain - its vast size indicated by ruins. At Wenhaston, there is a Doom Screen ('disappointingly rustic' withers Pevsner) depicting the day of judgement on a large wooden screen which spanned the chancel. It had been whitewashed and only when thrown out into the churchyard and rained on was the fresco-like illustration revealed.
The most impressive, for me, was Blythburgh - huge and full of light because of the near-complete absence of stained glass in the windows; an absolutely magnificent building.
Although I'm not a person of faith, I nonetheless often feel tuned in to the accumulated history of prayer and community which seem almost to have soaked into the stonework.
- I have done a lot of voice recording of others though)
That 6" Scotch tape was pretty ropy by the time I found it among stuff intended for keeping or not when in 2004 I sold up and moved here, so I salvaged what was still listenable by transferring it onto a blank cassette, which I dig out from time to time, along with their photo albums, to remind myself what an odd family I emerged from!
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