St Mary, Brettenham
www.suffolkchurches.co.uk - a journey through the churches of Suffolk
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St Mary, Brettenham |
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www.suffolkchurches.co.uk - a journey through the churches of Suffolk |
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Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.
| Externally this is rather a jolly
building with a bold south tower in an intimate
churchyard set in one of those little villages among the
woods and hills of that great wild quadrilateral between
Bury, Sudbury, Ipswich and Stowmarket. Unless you count
Lavenham this area is devoid of busy roads and towns.
Most of the villages have characters of their own, as if
this remoteness allowed them to get on with quiet but
interesting lives. As with a number of churches in this part of Suffolk the tower is built against the south side of the church, and you enter the building beneath the bells. Church bells were not rung in Britain throughout World War II, for the simple reason that they were being saved up as a warning of German invasion. We forget now how close they came to being rung for this purpose in the late summer of 1940. One imagines that the bellringers of Brettenham would have been more ready for this than most, for another preparation for German invasion was the removal of place names from road signs and railway stations, thus confusing an invading army. Signs were also removed from outside churches, but the parish here took this precaution one stage further, and obliterated the village name on the charity boards hanging at the west end of the church. No doubt Nazi determination would have crumbled in the face of such meticulous resistance, and it is good that the boards have not been restored, an interesting relic of a terrible and uncertain time. You can see the same thing not so very far off at Gestingthorpe in Essex.
Arthur Blomfield was responsible for the 1860s restoration here, and it was criticised at the time for its overwhelming nature, but it has mellowed with age and this feels a lovely rural interior, a testimony to loving attention in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, though not without earlier survivals. Will evidence tells us that the medieval dedication here was to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, and from that time comes the 14th Century font with its elegant tracery. There are no aisles, but the nave is wide and there is a feeling of space and light. Most of the coloured glass is in the chancel, but the most striking window is on the north side of the nave, Christopher Webb's 1937 depiction of the Risen Christ. This window is not often credited to Webb, and neither the Buildings of England or Mortlock's Suffolk Churches include it. John Edwards, Webb's biographer, suggests that this is because neither the cartoons or preliminary sketches survive, though Webb mentioned it in a 1939 list of recent work for the British Society of Master Glass Painters.
The oldest glass is in the north side of the chancel, fragments of medieval glass that include a shield of the Holy Trinity. The 19th Century glass is by Ward and Hughes, mostly in their usual plodding style but some elegant and characterful. The best is signed by Henry Hughes in 1866, one window depicting the Feeding of the Five Thousand, St Philip indicating that 'there is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes'. Another of Hughes's windows remembers Alice Harriet Betham who died at the age of 16 in 1865. It depicts the Parable of the Lilies and Mary of Bethany seated at the feet of Christ. A brass inscription below remembers her sister Etheldreda Betham who died in 1881 at the age of 23. The murals either side of the east window are painted on slate. The work of Powell & Son, the Buildings of England volume for West Suffolk credits their design to Miss HL Beale of Brettenham Park. That to the left depicts the Three Magi, while across the chancel is Christ and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Outside in the churchyard Brettenham has a number of late 17th and early 18th Century headstones, fat as pillows with deeply cut skulls and cherubs. The former villagers wait patiently for Judgement Day in the quiet earth here, beneath the great tower they knew as well as we do. The churches around here are like well-fed cats, content and comfy in their villages. I felt I was in the presence of living, working communities, so unlike the commuter villages you find closer to towns. |
Simon Knott, September 2020
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