Our Lady of Uggeshall: the Blessed Virgin and the Christ child (Rachel Thomas, 2001)
St Mary, Uggeshall, Suffolk
I have always thought this a special place. St Mary is a little church in one of the tiny villages east of Halesworth. Even in Suffolk, few people will have heard of it. A few houses edge the churchyard, but that's about all there is to this place. The church itself is rather squat, with an unusual roofline. The chancel is higher than the nave. A 19th century clapboard belfry surmounts the base of a tower which was struck by lightning and fell in the 18th Century. On the western side you can still see the dedicatory inscription to its donors. It says Orate pro animabus, Joh'is Jewle et Marione ux' ejus ('Pray for (our) souls, John Jewel and his wife Marion'). They were probably a local couple, from the village, certainly not nobility. The inscription is punctuated by the symbols of a stonemason. The Norman arch to the blocked north door is still visible. The softness, the combination of thatch, flint, whitewash and wood make this, for me, one of the loveliest buildings in north-east Suffolk. There's nothing else quite like it.
Internally, the hand of the Victorians has fallen hard. And yet, they did a wonderful job. The east end is Victorian high camp, and yet restrained, as if respectful of its elders. The east wall features eight apostles on a gold background. It was restored to its original state after being blown out in the great storm of October 1987, as at Newbourn in the south of the county. The east window, probably by William Hudson who was responsible for the glass at neighbouring Sotherton, was repaired and also restored to its place. To look at it today, you couldn't possibly tell.
Dorcas, probably also by William Hudson, is an excellent piece in a north side lancet. Is it possible that the memorial window to Laura Whiting is also his? It shows her dispensing charity, and working in the village school, and was given by her sisters, as was the organ. Perhaps the most memorable glass is that in a window towards the west end of the south side of the nave. This is a Madonna and child, surrounded by imagery from the parish. It is by Rachel Thomas, and was installed in 2001, and so was one of the first examples of 21st century stained glass work in Suffolk.
A 19th century delight is the pipe organ, which sits up in the long chancel. Everything is just as the Victorians left it. Recent repairs have exposed a fragment of wallpainting facing the south entrance. It is probably part of a St Christopher. Above it, a wingless angel gazes down mournfully, looking a bit fed up with the heating plug and socket that hems him in. In the walls of the nave, some image niches were uncovered at the same time. They go with a canopy of honour to the rood which you can still make out where the nave becomes the chancel. There are several others of these surviving in Suffolk, but none in such a little church. Along with the dedicatry inscription of John and Marion Ewes they are a testimony to the liturgy and practice of late-medieval Catholicism as it was experienced in a typically tiny east Suffolk village.
Our Lady of Uggeshall: the Blessed Virgin and the Christ child (Rachel Thomas, 2001)
St Mary, Uggeshall, Suffolk
I have always thought this a special place. St Mary is a little church in one of the tiny villages east of Halesworth. Even in Suffolk, few people will have heard of it. A few houses edge the churchyard, but that's about all there is to this place. The church itself is rather squat, with an unusual roofline. The chancel is higher than the nave. A 19th century clapboard belfry surmounts the base of a tower which was struck by lightning and fell in the 18th Century. On the western side you can still see the dedicatory inscription to its donors. It says Orate pro animabus, Joh'is Jewle et Marione ux' ejus ('Pray for (our) souls, John Jewel and his wife Marion'). They were probably a local couple, from the village, certainly not nobility. The inscription is punctuated by the symbols of a stonemason. The Norman arch to the blocked north door is still visible. The softness, the combination of thatch, flint, whitewash and wood make this, for me, one of the loveliest buildings in north-east Suffolk. There's nothing else quite like it.
Internally, the hand of the Victorians has fallen hard. And yet, they did a wonderful job. The east end is Victorian high camp, and yet restrained, as if respectful of its elders. The east wall features eight apostles on a gold background. It was restored to its original state after being blown out in the great storm of October 1987, as at Newbourn in the south of the county. The east window, probably by William Hudson who was responsible for the glass at neighbouring Sotherton, was repaired and also restored to its place. To look at it today, you couldn't possibly tell.
Dorcas, probably also by William Hudson, is an excellent piece in a north side lancet. Is it possible that the memorial window to Laura Whiting is also his? It shows her dispensing charity, and working in the village school, and was given by her sisters, as was the organ. Perhaps the most memorable glass is that in a window towards the west end of the south side of the nave. This is a Madonna and child, surrounded by imagery from the parish. It is by Rachel Thomas, and was installed in 2001, and so was one of the first examples of 21st century stained glass work in Suffolk.
A 19th century delight is the pipe organ, which sits up in the long chancel. Everything is just as the Victorians left it. Recent repairs have exposed a fragment of wallpainting facing the south entrance. It is probably part of a St Christopher. Above it, a wingless angel gazes down mournfully, looking a bit fed up with the heating plug and socket that hems him in. In the walls of the nave, some image niches were uncovered at the same time. They go with a canopy of honour to the rood which you can still make out where the nave becomes the chancel. There are several others of these surviving in Suffolk, but none in such a little church. Along with the dedicatry inscription of John and Marion Ewes they are a testimony to the liturgy and practice of late-medieval Catholicism as it was experienced in a typically tiny east Suffolk village.