St Ethelbert, Herringswell |
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www.suffolkchurches.co.uk - a journey through the churches of Suffolk |
Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter. Herringswell is not a place you'd be likely
to pass through. The village street runs off a quiet back
road between the Cambridgeshire village of Kennett and
the Suffolk village of Tuddenham St Mary. That is to say,
of course, that it is not particularly on the way to
anywhere. The village has that pleasing combination of
large houses set back from the road and Victorian
terraced cottages, all close together. The church is in
the village street, but there is a farmyard beside it and
fields with horses beyond the churchyard wall. And yet,
the church presents a very curious aspect to the street.
For a start, there is an overwhelming south transept, and
the tower has three massive buttresses, one in the middle
of the west face, the other two forming stair turrets to
north and south. These idiosyncrasies are a result of the
church being largely rebuilt after being destroyed by
fire in 1869, so that what you see today is almost
entirely the 1870s work of our old friend Sir Arthur
Blomfield. The other striking curiosity is the huge
memorial outside the south porch. It remembers Herbert
Davies, and he lies beneath a column being garlanded by
what Sam Mortlock described as a lush young maiden.
Davies was responsible for remarkable things, as we shall
see inside. Of the other two 1902 windows in memory of Davies, one is by Jasper Brett, depicting Christ enjoining four figures to come unto me all ye that are weary. Indeed, everybody looks very sleepy. But the best of the four is by Paul Woodroffe, depicting for of such is the Kingdom, a glorious tangle of vines entwining the children being suffered to come unto Christ, one carrying a rag doll. Other later glass includes two grand nature scenes by James Clark with a hint of the Japanese about them. They depict the countryside around Herringswell in Spring and autumn, Suffolk forests and fields populated by rabbits and pheasants. Mortlock felt that they were intensely romantic concepts that skilfully avoid sentimentality, although I'm sure they would not be to everyone's taste. Clark's also is the rather alarming St Francis in the north-west corner of the nave. Two later windows have been added to this Arts and Crafts firmament, although, as James Bettley politely notes, they struggle to continue the pictorial tradition. The most striking, even garish, is Herbert Luxford's 1954 window depicting St Hubert, the hunter who allows a stag to live and then sees the light of a crucifix shining between its antlers. The dog seated at the saint's feet is memorable. The most recent window is Cambridge Stained Glass's 1992 depiction of nature springing to life around Herringswell church, politely tucked away around the corner in the transept. The jewel-like simplicity of the nave is a
lovely setting for two World War One memorials, one to
Harry Addison who fell on the Fields of Flanders,
adding that among the first to volunteer from this
village, he was the first to fall. The other
remembers Leslie Ballance, killed in the Battle of the
Somme Performing a dangerous duty for which he had
volunteered. A memorial from the next war remembers
Mostyn Davies, who died while performing outstanding
services in enemy occupied territory. Simon Knott, April 2019 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter. |
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