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Dunwich is a
place to visit in winter. Then, you can walk
along the lonely shingle beneath the cliffs, with
the wind coming in off the sea. It is easy to
imagine that a whole town could disappear, for
that is what happened here. It happened elsewhere
along this coast as well, of course, and many
churches were lost in villages from here to the
Orwell. The difference with Dunwich is that it
had six parish churches, as well as several other
ex-parochial ones; these disappeared over the
centuries one by one, until only All Saints was left, alone on a cliff
top. It was only used for baptisms and funerals,
and for nearly eighty years, Dunwich had no
parish church at all; this, at a time when it was
still electing two Members of Parliament! You can
read the story of these churches, and their
destruction, on the entry for All Saints. West of the church of All
Saints, and outside the limits of the town, were
the Greyfriars Monastery, and the leper hospital
of St James. As a consequence, ruins of these two
institutions survive today, and it was in the
grounds of the leper hospital that the Diocese of
Norwich built a new parish church for the area in
1832. It was in a grindingly classical style,
quite out of keeping with all Suffolk tradition,
despite the casual addition of a round tower. The
architect was Robert Appleton. Few pictures of
this church survive; over the next few years, the
awakening of interest in ecclesiastical history,
and the influence of the Oxford Movement, led to a complete
transformation of the new church; by the 1860s,
its tower had been replaced, and the body of the
church encased in flint. To look at it today, one
would never imagine that it had ever been
anything else.
In a
county not renowned for its 19th century
churches, St James is about as undistinguished as
it is possible to be. It is pleasant enough, and
has some interesting relics of its medieval
forbears in the town, including a brass rescued
from All Saints. But hardly exciting.
However, I have never visited it without finding
someone else looking around the church; it is a
welcoming church, the signs and literature aware
of the opportunities for evangelism in a tourist
spot. I've never found this church locked. The
19th century interior is typically neat, and the
glass is good. The plainness inherited from the
1832 church serves it well.
Outside,
the ruins of the leper chapel are now the Barne
mausoleum, so you can't go in, which is a pity.
But you can make out the liturgical apparatus at
the east end. Don't miss the buttress rescued
from All Saints; but perhaps the most
remarkable thing in the churchyard is a cast iron
pedestal and urn at the east end of the
graveyard, a product of the Leiston ironworks.
There is another nearby at Darsham.
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