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Painting of Armenian motif of a cherub's head surrounded by folded wings, inside the main prayer hall of Vank Cathedral (Holy Savior Cathedral, Church of the Saintly Sisters), in Isfahan, Isfahan province of Iran.
The cathedral was established in 1606, dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Armenian deportees that were resettled by Shah Abbas I during the Ottoman War of 1603-1618.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
During the autumn season, Kiyosato Lake becomes a favored spot as the foliage transforms into vibrant hues, creating a stunning display of colors.
© yohanes.budiyanto, 2013
2012 was another phenomenal year. It was a year of travel, so much travel indeed that it has disturbed my daily jobs; my time with family and friends back home; and most importantly, it has severly postponed the completion of my current pet project: my own residence!. The 1,400m2 built structure has remained an unfinished project, while the designer items (Chairs and sofas by Antonio Citterio, Poltrona Frau, Marc Newson, Carl Hansen; Phillipe Starck sanitary fittings; Iconic lamps by Tom Dixon and Arco by Castiglioni; et al) are currently on their way through the Indian Ocean directly from Europe at the risk of being homeless.
That said, the amazing time I took flying over Asia seemed to have paid off as I finally stayed at 3 hotels that have been on my dream list for years: The Lalu in Taiwan by Kerry Hill; Plateau Spa in Hong Kong by John Morford; and I.sawan Residential Spa & Club in Bangkok by Tony Chi. They have proven to be some of my most favourite hotels of all time, with I.sawan Spa actually reigns supreme on my list this year.
I was also extremely excited to finally stayed at some of the year's most eagerly awaited hotel re-openings after an extended period of closure for a complete refurbishment, which included these grande dames: The Peninsula Hong Kong, Shangri-la Singapore's iconic Garden Wing, and The Palace Hotel, Tokyo and the Park Hyatt Sydney. Unfortunately, the results have been a mixed bag. Park Hyatt Sydney started with a bang and it delivered. The newly refurbished interiors are modern, luxurious and elegant, yet it is quite subtle not to compete with the million dollar (Opera) view outside. I love the hotel so much that I paid 3 separate visits in less than 2 months.
On the other hand, both Peninsula Hong Kong and Shangri-La Singapore's Garden Wing fell short of my expectation, although Peninsula collectively still scored high on the list. The biggest surprise was actually the unveiling of the newly rebuilt Palace Hotel in Tokyo as it brings glamour back to the city with its beautifully decorated guest rooms, magnificent public spaces and uninterrupted views over the Imperial Palace next door.
Last year, I managed to stay at 3 Amanresorts (Amankila, Amanjiwo and Aman Summer Palace); and this year I visited another 3, including a stay at one of its oldest and pioneering properties: Amandari in Bali, which was spectacular. I was most impressed with the fact that it ages well, although no one ever suspected it being 25 years old now.
The trips this year would not be complete without my annual visit to my #1 favourite place on earth, Tokyo; But there is a twist this time as I made it special: Tokyo 777 as a sequel to my Shanghai 777 trip in the past; and this time it involved 7 Hotels, 7 Designers and 7 Michelin Restaurants, which included key players such as Park Hyatt, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton and Mandarin Oriental; and fine dining institutions from the kitchens of Joel Robuchon, Alain Ducasse, Michel Troisgros and Paul Bocuse. My clear favourite? Joel Robuchon and the Palace Hotel Tokyo.
The most memorable stay this year? Without a doubt, the Aussie outback experience at the 6-star Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in the Blue Mountains. It is truly out-of-this-world; and it is absolutely one of the places that you must visit before you die!. It scored very high across my 13 categories of assessment with seven perfect score of 100 (Only eclisped by I.sawan Bangkok with eight). Here, the all-inclusive food and activities were absolutely phenomenal; the natural surrounding was breathtaking; each villas even have its own fireplace and indoor/outdoor swimming pool; and best of all? You get to see Kangaroos, Wallabies and Wombats so close to you that they could almost be your pet; plus you get to see the Southern Cross stars by your naked eyes at night. After checking-out, it did not get better than this: flying back to Sydney on the cockpit of the helicopter that took me pass the greater Blue Mountains range and Sydney's beautiful harbor. It is truly a lifetime experience.
Pictured above is the breathtaking natural surrounding of the 6-star Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in Blue Mountains, Australia.
38 hotels stayed in 2012 and here are the best of the best:
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All Time Best Hotel:
Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong 95.38/100
#1 for the 7th consecutive year, since 2006
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1. Best Hotel
I.sawan Residential Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 93.92/100
2. Best Resort
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa 94.28/100
3. Best Room
Spa Cottages (I.sawan Residential Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok) 100/100
Plateau Deluxe Room (Plateau Spa, at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong) 100/100
Opera Deluxe Room (Park Hyatt, Sydney) 100/100
Vivienne Tam Suite (Hotel Icon, Hong Kong) 100/100
Junior Suite (Keraton at the Plaza, Jakarta) 100/100
4. Best Bathroom
Four Seasons Hotel, Guangzhou 100/100
I.sawan Residential Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 100/100
St. Regis, Singapore 100/100
W Taipei 100/100
Palace Hotel Tokyo 95/100
5. Best Bed
I.sawan Residential Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 100/100
St. Regis, Singapore 100/100
W Taipei 100/100
W Hong Kong 100/100
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa 100/100
6. Best Service:
Amandari, Bali 100/100
Keraton at the Plaza, Jakarta 100/100
Amanfayun 95/100
Bvlgari, Bali 95/100
Palace Hotel Tokyo 95/100
7. Best In-room technology
The Peninsula, Hong Kong 100/100
I.sawan Residential Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 95/100
Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong 95/100
St. Regis Singapore 95/100
Palace Hotel Tokyo 95/100
8. Best In-room amenities
Amandari, Bali 100/100
I.sawan Residential Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 100/100
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa 100/100
Vivienne Tam Suite, at the Hotel Icon, Hong Kong 95/100
Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong 95/100
9. Best Architecture / Design
I.sawan Residential Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 100/100
The Vivienne Tam Suite, at the Hotel Icon, Hong Kong 100/100
The Lalu, at Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan 100/100
Plateau Spa, at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong 100/100
Sofitel So, Bangkok 100/100
W Taipei 100/100
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa 100/100
10. Best Hotel Food
St. Regis Bali 100/100
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa 100/100
Bulgari Bali 95/100
Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo 95/100
Four Seasons Hotel, Guangzhou 95/100
11. Best View
Vivienne Tam Suite, at the Hotel Icon, Hong Kong 100/100
Opera Deluxe, at the Park Hyatt, Sydney 100/100
Premier Suite, at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia, Singapore 100/100
Grand Deluxe Harbour View Room, at The Peninsula, Hong Kong 100/100
Plateau Deluxe Room, at the Grand Hyatt, Hong Kong 100/100
12. Best Pool
Amandari 100/100
Peninsula Hong Kong 100/100
Sofitel So, Bangkok 100/100
Bvlgari, Bali 100/100
Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong 95/100
13. Best Health & Spa Facilities
I.sawan Recreational Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 100/100
Grand Hyatt, Jakarta 100/100
Plateau Spa, at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong 100/100
The Lalu, at Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan 100/100
Emirates Wolgan Vallery Resort & Spa 100/100
14. Best Location
Amanfayun 100/100
Bvlgari, Bali 100/100
I.sawan Recreational Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 100/100
The Peninsula, Hong Kong 100/100
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa 100/100
15. Best Value
Amandari, Bali 100/100
Four Seasons Hotel, Guangzhou 100/100
I.sawan Recreational Spa & Club, at the Grand Hyatt Erawan, Bangkok 100/100
Vivienne Tam Suite, at the Hotel Icon, Hong Kong 100/100
Plateau Spa, at the Grand Hyatt, Hong Kong 100/100
Emirates Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa 100/100
CHECK THIS OUT TOO:
The announcement made in October 2009 by General Secretary Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, to have built 100,000 apartments in Pyongyang by 2012 officially aims at facing the housing shortage in the capital city. But it also represents a challenge to give evidence of the communist regime overall prosperity. The Stalinian regime had already pretended to amaze the rest of the world in the 1950’s claiming its ability to construct an apartment for a family in 14 minutes only!
This time it might be a little different. Despite the university students’ conscription and the mobilization of the army, many observers doubt the ability of North Korea to complete the buildings by its founder’s 100th birthday in 2012. In fact, it is not only a matter of housing: the energy and water supply as well as transports for 100,000 families need the building of extra-infrastructure.
Lately, reports have emerged of construction projects having been downsized and sites idling due to materials shortages. By the end of 2011, only 500 units are built, which forces the authorities to reduce the target to 20,000 to 25,000 apartments in total.
© Eric Lafforgue
View of the magnificient frescos depicting Bible stories, inside the main prayer hall of Vank Cathedral (Holy Savior Cathedral, Church of the Saintly Sisters), in Isfahan, Isfahan province of Iran.
The cathedral was established in 1606, dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of Armenian deportees that were resettled by Shah Abbas I during the Ottoman War of 1603-1618.
The interior is covered with fine frescos and gilded carvings and includes a wainscot of rich tile work. The delicately blue and gold painted central dome depicts the Biblical story of the creation of the world and man's expulsion from Eden. Pendentives throughout the church are painted with a distinctly Armenian motif of a cherub's head surrounded by folded wings. The ceiling above the entrance is painted with delicate floral motifs in the style of Persian miniature. Two sections, or bands, of murals run around the interior walls: the top section depicts events from the life of Jesus, while the bottom section depicts tortures inflicted upon Armenian martyrs by the Ottoman Empire.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
The Roman Catholic church of St Charles in Gosforth was built in 1911 (replacing an earlier iron-built structure) and is a handsome building with two small west steeples flanking the main facade and a wide cruciform body culminating in a shallow apse. The interior is partially enlivened by marble-cladding, particularly around the sanctuary.
The outstanding features here however are in glass, principally the two large windows that dominate the north and south transepts, the largest windows in the church and both filled with gloriously rich stained glass by Harry Clarke Studios of Dublin and installed in 1945 (long after the death of Clarke himself and most likely designed by his successor Richard King). The south window depicts the Nativity, whilst that to the north represents the Deposition, with Christ's body being removed from the Cross. There is a further window by the same studio in the south nave clerestorey depicting Christ before Pilate, somewhat smaller and sadly less accessible.
This is a thoroughly rewarding church to visit for lovers of stained glass, though it is best to check with the church about access as it isn't always open outside mass times.
Buildings on Belgrade Waterfront new chapter in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. Belgrade Waterfront, known in Serbian as Belgrade on Water is an urban renewal development project.
Ahu Tongariki is the largest ahu on Rapa Nui Easter Island, Its moai were toppled during the island's civil wars and in the twentieth century the ahu was swept inland by a tsunami,it has been restored and has 15 moai including an 86 tonne moai that was the heaviest ever erected on the island
© Eric Lafforgue
Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada
In 1913 Louis Warren Hill Sr., chairman of the Great Northern Railway, visited Waterton and announced his desire to include a Canadian lodge in his expanding hotel and chalet development in Glacier National Park. What motivated Hill to proceed was the 1923 end of Prohibition in Alberta. A resort hotel in Waterton could lure American tourists to Glacier and then north across the U.S.-Canada border to Alberta so they could legally drink alcohol. Hill selected the Cardston contractors Douglas Oland and James Scott. A storm in December 1926 nearly tore down the half-built structure. Oland and Scott were also hampered by Louis Hill’s ever-changing vision of the final project. The Prince of Wales Hotel was originally supposed to look much like Many Glacier Hotel. A third of the way through the build, Hill decided to radically change the roofline and add three storeys. The hotel was opened on July 25, 1927, too much acclaim. Orignial estimated cost to build the hotel was $250,000 but final tab was $1,000,000. Funding was through Louis Hill's inheritance - the Canadian entity for the Prince of Wales Hotel was known as Canadian Rockies Hotel Company LTD with Hill as President. With 87 rooms on 7 floors under a steeply gable roof the hotel looked like a Swiss kings palace. (History provided by Glacier Park Foundation.)
The Prince of Wales Hotel was luxury in the wilderness with steam-heated rooms, hot and cold running water, electricity, a full service dining room, an elevator, laundry, beauty parlor and barber shop, all overseen by professional and uniformed staff. Rooms rented for $8 to $12 a day, American plan. A couple of weeks later, a tavern opened to serve beer to thirsty Americans.
The lake-side community of Waterton Park got a shock when the Great Northern didn’t open the Prince of Wales Hotel in 1933, with the railway citing the downturn in economic conditions caused by the Great Depression. The railway said it would not reopen the hotel until a more direct route was built between Waterton and Glacier, versus all bus traffic having to go via Cardston. Construction of Chief Mountain International Highway was undertaken as a work relief project and completed in 1936, when the railway kept its promise and reopened the hotel. The new highway saved 30 miles from the Many Glacier Hotel to Waterton.
During 1935 when the hotel was closed, Waterton townsite faced the threat of a forest fire. Great Northern sent its chief engineer, Ray Sleeger, and other staff to Waterton to protect the shuttered hotel. The fire was snuffed out before it reached the town, and despite not having a hand in battling the blaze, the wily Sleeger sent a telegram to his bosses saying: “I saved the hotel.” Great Northern president W.P. Kenney famously replied: “Why?” By then Prohibition had ended in the United States so there was no need for the hotel, and given the financial times, the purpose for keeping the hotel was dubious. The hotel would again be closed, from 1942 to 1945, due to the Second World War.
The longest term for a manager of the Prince of Wales Hotel was set by Harley Boswell. Accompanied by his wife Anna, who worked as head housekeeper, the Boswells oversaw the Prince for 23 seasons (1930-1958). They’d cut their teeth at Chateau Lake Louise and at the Banff Springs Hotel. An American citizen, Harley Boswell eventually landed a job as assistant manager at the prestigious Palmer House in Chicago. He managed to get summers off each year to work in Waterton.
Operation of the Prince of Wales Hotel is taken over by a Minnesota corporation headed by Donald Knutson from 1957 to 1959. Major upgrades are made to the hotel, including installation of a fire suppression sprinkler system, new exterior fire escapes, installation of a new lobby light fixture, closing of the tavern and opening of a liquor lounge, and remodelling of the giftshop.
The Prince of Wales Hotel and other Great Northern-owned lodges in Glacier are sold in 1960 to Don Hummel, his brother Gail, and Don Ford, who pay $1.4 million. They assume operation under the name Glacier Park, Inc.
Robert Hayes begins as manager of the Prince of Wales. His last summer was 1972. In 1981 Don Hummel sells Glacier Park, Inc. to Greyhound Corp. of Phoenix, Arizona - later known as Viad Corporation and now marketed as PURSUIT Collection. Chris Caulfield has served as General Manager at Prince of Wales Hotel since 2015. The staff all don royal tartans, or kilts, in homage to the hotel’s British namesake, Prince Edward.
Prince of Wales Hotel
Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada
I am indebted to John Fielding (www.flickr.com/photos/john_fielding/) for posting an aerial shot of Holy Trinity, and my interest was piqued by the timber-framed building with the triple gable at the east end. Turned out this was the Lady Chapel, and more of that later. So, on my way back home to Kent, I called in to see if it looked as remarkable in the flesh as in photographs.
I arrived at Long Melford, after being taken on a magical mystery tour in light drizzle from Wortham, down narrow and narrower lanes, under and over railway lines, through woods, up and down hills until, at last, I saw the town laid out beyond the church.
I parked at the bottom of Church Walk then walked up past the line of timber framed houses, the tudor hospital and the tudor manor house.
Holy Trinity sits on top of the hill, spread out, filling its large churchyard and the large tower not out of proportion.
Inside it really is a collection of wonders, from brasses, the best collection of Medieval glass in Suffolk, to side chapels, and behind, the very unusual Lady Chapel.
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The Church of the Holy Trinity, Long Melford is a Grade I listed parish church of the Church of England in Long Melford, Suffolk, England. It is one of 310 medieval English churches dedicated to the Holy Trinity.
The church was constructed between 1467 and 1497 in the late Perpendicular Gothic style. It is a noted example of a Suffolk medieval wool church, founded and financed by wealthy wool merchants in the medieval period as impressive visual statements of their prosperity.
The church structure is highly regarded by many observers. Its cathedral-like proportions and distinctive style, along with its many original features that survived the religious upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, have attracted critical acclaim. Journalist and author Sir Simon Jenkins, Chairman of the National Trust, included the church in his 1999 book “England’s Thousand Best Churches”. He awarded it a maximum of 5 stars, one of only 18 to be so rated. The Holy Trinity Church features in many episodes of Michael Wood's, BBC television history series Great British Story, filmed during 2011.
A church is recorded as having been on the site since the reign of King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066). It was originally endowed by the Saxon Earl Alric, who bequeathed the patronage of the church, along with his manor at Melford Hall and about 261 acres of land, to the successive Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmund’s. There are no surviving descriptions of the original Saxon structure, although the roll of the clergy (see below) and the history of the site extend back to the 12th century.
The church was substantially rebuilt between 1467 and 1497. Of the earlier structures, only the former Lady Chapel (now the Clopton Chantry Chapel) and the nave arcades survive.
The principal benefactor who financed the reconstruction was wealthy local wool merchant John Clopton, who resided at neighbouring Kentwell Hall. John Clopton was a supporter of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses and in 1462 was imprisoned in the Tower of London with John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and a number of others, charged with corresponding treasonably with Margaret of Anjou. All of those imprisoned were eventually executed except John Clopton, who somehow made his peace with his accusers and lived to see the Lancastrians eventually triumphant at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
The dates of the reconstruction of the church are derived from contemporary wills, which provided endowments to finance the work
In 1710 the main tower was damaged by a lightning strike.[3] It was replaced with a brick-built structure in the 18th century and subsequently remodelled between 1898 and 1903 to its present-day appearance, designed by George Frederick Bodley in the Victorian Gothic Revival style. The new tower was closer to its original form with stone and flint facing and the addition of four new pinnacles.
The nave, at 152.6 feet (46.5 m), is believed to be the longest of any parish church in England. There are nine bays, of which the first five at the western end are believed to date from an earlier structure.
The interior is lit by 74 tracery windows, many of which retain original medieval glass. These include the image of Elizabeth de Mowbray, Duchess of Norfolk, said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen of Hearts in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The sanctuary is dominated by the large reredos, of Caen stone and inspired by the works of Albrecht Dürer. It was installed in 1877, having been donated by the mother of the then Rector Charles Martyn.
On the north side is the alabaster and marble tomb of Sir William Cordell who was the first Patron of the Church after the dissolution of the Abbey of Bury St Edmund's in 1539. On either side of the tomb are niches containing figures that represent the four Cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.
The sanctuary also holds one of the earliest extant alabaster bas relief panels, a nativity from the second half of the 14th century. The panel was hidden under the floor of chancel, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, and was rediscovered in the 18th century.[6] The panel, which may be part of an altar piece destroyed during the Reformation, includes a midwife arranging Mary's pillows and two cows looking from under her bed.
The Clopton Chapel is in the north east corner of the church. It commemorates various Clopton family members and was used by the family as a place of private worship.
The tomb of Sir William Clopton is set into an alcove here, in the north wall. An effigy of Sir William, wearing chain mail and plate armour, is set on top of the tomb. Sir William is known to have died in 1446 and it is therefore believed that this corner of the church predates the late 15th-century reconstruction. There are numerous brasses set in the floor commemorating other members of the Clopton family; two date from 1420, another shows two women wearing head attire in the butterfly style from around 1480, and a third depicts Francis Clopton who died in 1558.
There is an altar set against the east wall of the chapel and a double squint designed to provide priests with a view of the high altar when conducting Masses.
The Clopton Chantry Chapel is a small chapel at the far north east corner of the church, accessed from the Clopton Chapel. This was the original Lady Chapel and is the oldest part of the current structure. After John Clopton's death in 1497, his will made provision for the chapel to be extended and refurbished and for him to be buried alongside his wife there.[10] The chapel was then renamed, while the intended Chantry Chapel became the Lady Chapel.
The tomb of John Clopton and his wife is set in the wall leading into the chapel. Inside, the canopy vault displays faded portraits of the couple. Also displayed is a portrait of the risen Christ with a Latin text which, translated, reads Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. A series of empty niches in the south wall most likely once held statues of saints. Around the cornice, John Lydgate's poem "Testament" is presented in the form of a scroll along the roof, while his "Lamentation of our Lady Maria" is along the west wall.
The Lady Chapel is a separate building attached to the east end of the main church. In an unusual layout, it has a central sanctuary surrounded by a pillared ambulatory, reflecting its original intended use as a chantry chapel with John Clopton's tomb in its centre. Clopton was forced to abandon this plan when his wife died before the new building was completed and consecrated; so she was buried in the former Lady Chapel and John Clopton was subsequently interred next to her.[12]
The stone carving seen in the Lady Chapel bears similarities to work at King's College Chapel, Cambridge and at Burwell Church in Cambridgeshire. It is known that the master mason employed there was Reginald Ely, the King's Mason, and although there is no documentary proof, it is believed that Ely was also responsible for the work at Holy Trinity, Long Melford.[13]
The chapel was used as a school from 1670 until the early 18th century, and a multiplication table on the east wall serves as a reminder of this use. The steep gables of the roof also date from this period.
The Martyn Chapel is situated to the south of the chancel. It contains the tombs of several members of the Martyn family, who were prominent local wool merchants in the 15th and 16th centuries, and who also acted as benefactors of the church. These include the tomb chest of Lawrence Martyn (died 1460) and his two wives. On the floor are the tomb slabs of Roger Martyn (died 1615) and his two wives Ursula and Margaret; and of Richard Martyn (died 1624) and his three wives.
Originally, the Martyn chapel contained an altar flanked by two gilded tabernacles, one displaying an image of Christ and the other an image of Our Lady of Pity. These tabernacles reached to the ceiling of the chapel, but were removed or destroyed during the English Reformation in the reign of King Edward VI.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford
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The setting of Holy Trinity is superlative. At the highest point and square onto the vast village green, its southern elevation is punctuated by the 16th Century Trinity Hospital almshouses. Across the green is the prospect of Melford Hall's pepperpot turrets and chimneys behind a long Tudor wall. Another great house, Kentwell Hall, is to the north. Kentwell was home to the Clopton family, whose name you meet again and again inside the church. Norman Scarfe described it as in a way, a vast memorial chapel to the family.
Holy Trinity is the longest church in Suffolk, longer even than Mildenhall, but this is because of a feature unique in the county, a large lady chapel separate from the rest of the church beyond the east end of the chancel. The chapel itself is bigger than many East Anglian churches, although it appears externally rather domestic with its triple gable at the east end. There is a good collection of medieval glass in the otherwise clear windows, as well as a couple of modern pieces, and a very mdern altarpiece at the central altar. Jacqueline's mother remembered attending Sunday School in this chapel in the 1940s.
The intimacy of the Lady Chapel is in great contrast to the vast walls of glass which stretch away westwards, the huge perpendicular windows of the nave aisles and clerestories, which appear to make the castellated nave roof float in air. An inscription in the clerestory records the date at which the building was completed as 1496. Forty years later, it would all have been much more serious. Sixty years later, it would not have been built at all. A brick tower was added in the early 18th Century, and the present tower, by GF Bodley, was encased around it in 1903. As Sam Mortlock observes, this tower might seem out of place in Suffolk, but it nevertheless matches the scale and character of the building. It is hard to imagine the church without it.
I came here back in May with my friend David Striker, who, despite living thousands of miles away in Colorado, has nearly completed his ambition to visit every medieval church in Norfolk and Suffolk. This was his first visit to Long Melford, mine only the latest of many. We stepped down into the vast, serious space.. There was a fairly considerable 19th Century restoration here, as witnessed by the vast sprawl of Minton tiles on the floor, although perhaps the sanctuary furnishings are the building's great weakness. Perhaps it is the knowledge of this that fails to turn my head eastwards, but instead draws me across to the north aisle for the best collection of medieval glass in Suffolk. During the 19th century restoration it was collected into the east window and north and south aisles, but in the 1960s it was all recollected here. Even on a sunny day it is a perfect setting for exploring it.
The most striking figures are probably those of the medieval donors, who originally would have been set prayerfully at the base of windows of devotional subjects. Famously, the portrait of Elizabeth, Duchess of Norfolk is said to have provided the inspiration for John Tenneil's Duchess in his illustrations to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although I'm not sure there is any evidence for this. Indeed, several of the ladies here might have provided similar inspiration.
The best glass is the pieta, Mary holding the body of Christ the Man of Sorrows. Beneath it is perhaps the best-known, the Holy Trinity represented in a roundel as three hares with their ears interlocking. An angel holding a Holy Trinity shield in an upper light recalls the same thing at Salle. Other glass includes a fine resurrection scene and a sequence of 15th Century Saints. There is also a small amount of continental glass collected in later centuries, including a most curious oval lozenge of St Francis receiving the stigmata.
Walking eastwards down the north aisle until the glass runs out, you are rewarded by a remarkable survival, a 14th century alabaster panel of the Adoration of the Magi. It probably formed part of the altar piece here, and was rediscovered hidden under the floorboards in the 18th century. Fragments of similar reliefs survive elsewhere in East Anglia, but none in such perfect condition. Beyond it, you step through into the north chancel chapel where there are a number of Clopton brasses, impressive but not in terribly good condition, and then beyond that into the secretive Clopton chantry. This beautiful little chapel probably dates from the completion of the church in the last decade of the 15th century. Here, chantry priests would have celebrated Masses for the dead of the Clopton family. The chapel is intricately decorated with devotional symbols and vinework, as well as poems attributed to John Lidgate. The beautiful Tudor tracery of the window is filled with elegant clear glass except for another great survival, a lily crucifix. This representation occurs just once more in Suffolk, on the font at Great Glemham. The panel is probably a later addition here from elsewhere in the church, but it is still haunting to think of the Chantry priests kneeling towards the window as they asked for intercessions for the souls of the Clopton dead. It was intended that the prayers of the priests would sustain the Cloptons in perpetuity, but in fact it would last barely half a century before the Reformation outlawed such practices.
You step back into the chancel to be confronted by the imposing stone reredos. Its towering heaviness is out of sympathy with the lightness and simplicity of the Perpendicular windows, and it predates Bodley's restoration. The screen which separates the chancel from the south chapel is medeival, albeit restored, and I was struck by a fierce little dragon, although photographing it into the strong south window sunshine beyond proved impossible. The brasses in the south chapel are good, and in better condition. They are to members of the Martyn family.
The south chapel is also the last resting place of Long Melford's other great family, the Cordells. Sir William Cordell's tomb dominates the space. He died in 1581, and donated the Trinity Hospital outside. His name survives elsewhere in Long Melford: my wife's mother grew up on Cordell Road, part of a council estate cunningly hidden from the High Street by its buildings on the east side.
Simon Knott, January 2013