Mellis is one of several
villages in north Suffolk which are scattered
around a wide, open common, and the common at
Mellis is the biggest of all of them. At one end,
the Norwich to London railway line cuts a swathe,
its high speed trains slicing through every
fifteen minutes or so. A furniture factory was
built beside it, and other buildings, for there
was a junction here, with the branch line to Eye
heading off through Yaxley. All finished with
now, I'm afraid. The former railway buildings are
all in use for other purposes, and the trains no
longer stop here. Only the Railway Hotel still
tells of a former age, although the cluster of
industrial buildings are something of a surprise
to come across if you didn't know about them.
The church is at the other end of the Common from
the industrial bit, set back among old cottages,
and looking very pretty, if slightly unorthodox.
The two buttresses at the west end are obviously
built of old tower rubble, for Mellis church lost
its tower in 1730. The collapse seems to have
stirred the parish into action, a thing rare for
the Church of England in the mid-18th century,
because there are other repairs from around the
same time, including two further buttresses, this
time of brick, at the east end as well. The
squaring off of the porch only accentuates the
curious overall feeling that the church is, in
fact, melting. The church appears small and
rather huddled among its crowding churchyard
trees, and you step through the tall south porch
into the surprise of a wide nave with a long
chancel beyond.
Mellis church has a number of early survivals
which are outstandingly lovely and give great
character to what was necessarily a substantial
restoration. The first of these is the font, a
fine example of the 15th Century East Anglian
style, with characterful lions around the stem.
Another is a grouping of medieval glass in the
south side of the nave. This is also 15th
Century. The upper lights depict saints, mostly
fragmentary, and the two lower lights are also
fragmentary, but include two angels standing on
wheels. All of it looks to be glass of the
Norwich school, although it is now in very poor
condition. A third is the beautifully carved rood
screen. It has been repainted, but the lions in
the spandrels are a delight.
Coming closer towards us in time, the Royal Arms
are a rare set for Charles I, dated 1634, which
is a touch ironic considering something that
happened outside on the Common, which I'll come
to in a moment. The glass in the east window is
the work of Surinder Warboys, who has her
workshop here in the village. It is in her usual
light-stroke style, although the daisies in the
top lights are somewhat bolder. All in all, this
is a pretty church, a well-loved and cared for
place.
Outside into the secretive little churchyard it
is easy to think of this as a remote place, for
how peaceful it is here, out on the edge of
Suffolk. But then, from the other side of the
wide Common, comes the freeeeeeeesfroooooong
of an express train hurtling relentlessly towards
London. The Common itself is now under the
management of the Suffolk Trust for Nature
Conservation, who have returned it to its
original state after decades of neglect.
The Common is most famous, perhaps, for being
where Suffolk sustained its only casualties of
the English Civil War. During a muster, a gun
went off by accident, and two volunteers were
killed. Not a single shot was fired in anger in
Suffolk. The only Royalist stronghold, Lowestoft
(trust them to be different) gave up without a
fight as soon as they heard that Cromwell was on
his way. Given what happened here in Mellis,
that's probably just as well.
Simon Knott, September 2018
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