Simon Jenkins' Suffolk churches
www.suffolkchurches.com - a journey through the churches of Suffolk
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Simon Jenkins' Suffolk churches |
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www.suffolkchurches.com - a journey through the churches of Suffolk |
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In his book England's Thousand Best Churches, Simon Jenkins awards stars out of a possible five to all his chosen churches. These are his ratings, and his stars, not mine! He selected forty-one Suffolk churches. Forty of them are Church of England parish churches, roughly one in fifteen of the total in the county. There has been some controversy about the Suffolk churches chosen for the book. While Long Melford is certainly the most impressive church in Suffolk, some of his other choices look distinctly eccentric. The most glaring absence is Westhall of course, although the seasoned Suffolk church explorer might also wonder where Badley, Hawstead and Redgrave are, not to mention Stowlangtoft, Norton, Badingham, Gazeley, Iken, Hawkedon, Monk Soham, Ipswich Unitarian or Cowlinge, all of which are at least as good as the churches in his two star category, if not better. For many people, the best church in Suffolk is Blythburgh, and it is not clear what excludes it from being in the four star category at least. In fairness to Sir Simon, he told me that Westhall was not accessible when he tried to visit it, and he only visited two thousand churches to whittle them down to a thousand, and these were chosen on the recommendation of friends. If he couldn't gain access to a church within an hour he didn't include it. I felt a bit sorry for him, as presumably he has a conversation along similar lines several times a day. Remember, these are his ratings,
and his stars, not mine. *****5 stars: ****4 Stars: ***3 Stars: **2 stars: *1 Star: |
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