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The Saints are a group of
villages in north-east Suffolk, in the
area between Bungay and Halesworth. They
are all styled either South Elmham or
Ilketshall. The area is wide, remote,
scattered and traditionally lawless.
Between them, South Elmham and Ilketshall
have eleven medieval churches, and the
shadows of two more. Thirteen altogether,
as many as Ipswich, and more than
Cambridge, Chester or Leicester. Here, in
the wild flatlands of north east Suffolk,
there is the opportunity to see how a
great medieval city grew up from an
agglomeration of villages, by exploring
one that didn't. Perhaps it is not
impossible to compare the Saints with
Norwich, 15 miles to the north. Norwich
has 36 medieval churches, more than any
other city in Britain. Some of these are
in the tight-knit heart of the old city,
its parishes 'packed like squares of
wheat'; others are clearly former village
churches, within the outer wall of the
city, but serving long-subsumed
communities. If one of the Saints had
been a port, or a defensive fortress, or
had become a busy market, then the same
thing might have happened here. The
four Ilketshall churches are St
Andrew, St
John, St
Lawrence and St
Margaret. The first three
are to the east of the Roman Stone
Street, now the A144. St Margaret is to
the west, among the South Elmhams. There
are eight South Elmham churches. These
are All
Saints, St
George, St
James, St
Margaret, St
Mary, St
Michael, St
Nicholas and St
Peter. One of these, St
Nicholas, has now gone, its site marked
by a cross, and the parish combined in
modern times with that of All Saints. St
George's village is called St Cross, a
corruption, perhaps, of the medieval St
George Sancroft, or perhaps a reminder of
the dedication Holy Cross, found across
the border in Norfolk. St Mary is in the
village of Homersfield.
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| South Elmham takes its name
from the Deanery of South Elmham (North
Elmham is in Norfolk) which was,
coincidentally, all land owned by Almar,
Bishop of East Anglia. Usually, Deaneries
had a variety of land owners, and their
villages took on a variety of names.
Later, the Bishops of Norwich had their
summer retreat here, and seem to have
found the area more attractive than,
perhaps, it is today. The
churches of the Saints have a subtle
charm, one that is not at all apparent to
some people. Here, there are no famous
monuments, no historic rood screens and
few other medieval survivals. Fragments
are scattered; an Easter Sepulchre and
dado panels at St Margaret, the
castellated roof brace that must have
been part of the canopy of honour at St
John, the bells at St Peter. There is
also the ruin of what is usually referred
to as South
Elmham Minster, a
church in the woods in the parish of St
Cross, half a mile from the nearest road.
It is an amazing place, set in the middle
of an ancient, possibly Roman,
fortification. It was probably not a
Minster, but its origins are shrouded in
mystery.
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Apart from the churches,
there are only two buildings of note;
these are South Elmham Hall in the parish
of St Cross, part of the former summer
retreat of the Bishops of Norwich, and St
Peter's Hall, former home of the
Tasburghs, a local landed family, in the
parish of St Peter. The beauty of the
Saints is in their bleakness, their
remoteness. There are no shops, no pubs.
Only three of them have proper villages
at all. Instead, we find scatterings of
modest farmsteads, 19th century cottages,
farmworkers' council houses. And entirely
rural village churches, of which only
one, incredibly, has been made redundant.
There is something trainspotterish about
visiting them all, I suppose; it is a
challenge at once both physical and
mental, since a decent OS map is
essential if you are to find them all. I've
now visited the lot of them in a single
go three times. When I first did it ten
years ago, I found most of them locked,
and some with no keyholder. Today, thanks
in no small part to the energy and
determination of Richard Thornburgh, the
Rector who holds most of the Saints in
his care, they are virtually all open.
Only Ilketshall St Andrew is still kept
locked, and even that is accessible.
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| However, two are way off the
road, and the roads themselves don't
amount to much, being prone to flooding
and soil drift. In winter, the landscape
is unfriendly; and this is a lonely
place, with few people outside of the two
St Margarets and Homersfield. The wide
parish of St Peter has just seven houses.
The narrow lanes can become ratruns, as
the occasional local finds a shortcut to
Bungay or Halesworth. Cycling the Saints
could not be described as a pleasure; but
it is an adventure. Setting
out from Bungay, a tour of all the 13
churches may be made by bicycle or car as
follows: St John, St Andrew, St Lawrence,
St Margaret Ilketshall, St Peter, St
Michael, St James, St Nicholas, All
Saints, St Margaret South Elmham, South
Elmham Minster, St George, St Mary - and
then back to Bungay via Flixton. This is
a journey of about 30 miles. About two
miles of this will need to be done on
foot. The distance will be reduced by a
third if you miss out St Lawrence and St
James. Take waterproofs, wear sensible
shoes, and be aware that you will always
be cycling into the wind.
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Simon Knott, July 2008
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