St Mary's, Walsham le Willows
St Mary's at Walsham le Willows is an impressive edifice of mainly 15th century date that would look at home in the centre of a town as much as a village, its wide nave flanked by aisles and a veritable lantern in stone, rows of windows lighting the clerestories above and larger Perpendicular openings the aisles and chancel below. The handsome pinnacled west tower calls us over from the road, and a beautiful porch on the north side adorned with chequered flushwork beckons us inside.
It was clear that I was not alone though as I entered to the sound of children running around and people talking loudly, a couple of families were standing in the middle of the nave discussing plans for a wedding. It made me feel a bit of an intruder (especially being armed with a camera) so I did my best to keep out the way and skulk about in corners until they'd gone.
Within the initial impressions are all about light and space (especially after having visited smaller or narrower churches nearby), so spacious in fact that it can feel a little empty at first, but the eye is soon drawn to the crowning glories here which are the late medieval nave roof and the rood screen. The roof would have most likely originally had a few angels adorning it but these have long since been lost to Protestant iconoclasts, but it some frills remain in the star-shaped foliate bosses and the sunbursts adorning the spandrels of the roof braces. The 15th century chancel screen retains some of its colourng but bears no figurative painting, though some of the lower panelling has some quirky carving in the spandrels and rosettes beneath.
In the chancel east window are collected some fragments of the original medieval glass, alas not much survives of note beyond a few angels (half figures in the head of the lights, which originally would have looked down on larger saintly images). Nearby however is a fine modern window designed by former parishoner and noted modern stained glass artist Rosemary Rutherford, who sadly died in 1972 before this window was completed, thus it was installed here as her memorial after being completed by others.
St Mary's is a grand building well worth seeing, and happily appears to be normally open to visitors.
St Mary's, Walsham le Willows
St Mary's at Walsham le Willows is an impressive edifice of mainly 15th century date that would look at home in the centre of a town as much as a village, its wide nave flanked by aisles and a veritable lantern in stone, rows of windows lighting the clerestories above and larger Perpendicular openings the aisles and chancel below. The handsome pinnacled west tower calls us over from the road, and a beautiful porch on the north side adorned with chequered flushwork beckons us inside.
It was clear that I was not alone though as I entered to the sound of children running around and people talking loudly, a couple of families were standing in the middle of the nave discussing plans for a wedding. It made me feel a bit of an intruder (especially being armed with a camera) so I did my best to keep out the way and skulk about in corners until they'd gone.
Within the initial impressions are all about light and space (especially after having visited smaller or narrower churches nearby), so spacious in fact that it can feel a little empty at first, but the eye is soon drawn to the crowning glories here which are the late medieval nave roof and the rood screen. The roof would have most likely originally had a few angels adorning it but these have long since been lost to Protestant iconoclasts, but it some frills remain in the star-shaped foliate bosses and the sunbursts adorning the spandrels of the roof braces. The 15th century chancel screen retains some of its colourng but bears no figurative painting, though some of the lower panelling has some quirky carving in the spandrels and rosettes beneath.
In the chancel east window are collected some fragments of the original medieval glass, alas not much survives of note beyond a few angels (half figures in the head of the lights, which originally would have looked down on larger saintly images). Nearby however is a fine modern window designed by former parishoner and noted modern stained glass artist Rosemary Rutherford, who sadly died in 1972 before this window was completed, thus it was installed here as her memorial after being completed by others.
St Mary's is a grand building well worth seeing, and happily appears to be normally open to visitors.