♫ Claire ♫
St Andrews Church, Covehithe, Suffolk
St Andrew at Covehithe is a ruin now, and all that remains is a vast curtain of walling, which is almost complete. It dwarfs a tiny 17th Century church built against the tower within the shell. The eastern end of the ruin is especially impressive, with the rood loft stairs in the north wall still accessible, and what was clearly a vaulted crypt in the chancel.
This is not an ancient ruin. This church was rebuilt in the 15th Century at about the same time as Southwold and Blythburgh. As at Blythburgh, an earlier tower was incorporated. This tower still survives today. But the rest of the church was derelicted by the local people in 1672, less than two hundred years after it had been built. This was not out of any malicious intent; rather, the upkeep of such a great church placed too great a burden on such a tiny village at a time when public worship was a low-key and rather sober affair. So the parish got permission to remove the roof, and then built the much smaller church against the west tower. The same thing happened at Walberswick.
The tower is a very fine one, and was once an important landmark for ships at sea. Trinity House once ensured its survival, but nowadays the tower is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, as are the ruins.
When the new church was built, two inscriptions were placed in the north and south walls to remember the churchwardens Enoch Girling and James Gilbert, who put it out, that is to say the contract for the work.
St Andrews Church, Covehithe, Suffolk
St Andrew at Covehithe is a ruin now, and all that remains is a vast curtain of walling, which is almost complete. It dwarfs a tiny 17th Century church built against the tower within the shell. The eastern end of the ruin is especially impressive, with the rood loft stairs in the north wall still accessible, and what was clearly a vaulted crypt in the chancel.
This is not an ancient ruin. This church was rebuilt in the 15th Century at about the same time as Southwold and Blythburgh. As at Blythburgh, an earlier tower was incorporated. This tower still survives today. But the rest of the church was derelicted by the local people in 1672, less than two hundred years after it had been built. This was not out of any malicious intent; rather, the upkeep of such a great church placed too great a burden on such a tiny village at a time when public worship was a low-key and rather sober affair. So the parish got permission to remove the roof, and then built the much smaller church against the west tower. The same thing happened at Walberswick.
The tower is a very fine one, and was once an important landmark for ships at sea. Trinity House once ensured its survival, but nowadays the tower is in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, as are the ruins.
When the new church was built, two inscriptions were placed in the north and south walls to remember the churchwardens Enoch Girling and James Gilbert, who put it out, that is to say the contract for the work.