St Mary, Worlingworth

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The writer Simon Jenkins famously described the parish churches of England as a vast folk museum, and he might well have been thinking about Worlingworth in particular. Here, there is a real sense of the life of ordinary people in this parish over six centuries or more. But perhaps the most interesting survivals here are the more recent. In the south aisle, a large painting shows the Worlingworth Feast on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of George III in 1810. The church you are standing in can be seen to the left. If you look closely, you'll see an ox being roasted on a great spit. Turning to the north west, you can see the spit itself leaning up in the corner. The painting has now been joined by another, depicting the Golden Jubilee feast for Elizabeth II in 2002.

In front of the spit is the famous Worlingworth fire engine, dating from the year of George III's accession, 1760. Once these were a common sight in churchyards or in the yards of stately homes. Mortlock says that this one was last used on Guy Fawkes Night, 1927. On it is the name of the makers, Newsham and Ragg of Cloth Fair, in the city of London. Sir John Betjeman spent the most creative years of his life living in a house in Cloth Fair, so I wonder if he knew of the Worlingworth fire engine?

Worlingworth's 15th Century font is in the typical East Anglian style of that century, with angels holding shields interspersed with the symbols of the four Evangelists. At the base is a dedicatory inscription asking for prayers for the soul of Nicholas Money. Local tradition has it that the font came originally from Bury Abbey, although you can't help thinking that the font there would have been less run of the mill. The towering Perpendicular font cover is contemporary and reminiscent of those at Ufford and Sudbury St Gregory. The painted decoration is mostly later. Whatever the origins of the font it is hard to imagine that the cover came from anywhere else. It must have been designed for the space it now fills.

On the north wall, part of the St Christopher wall-painting survives. The figure of the saint is now lost, but the fish still go about their business around his feet. The 15th Century saints remain in glass in some upper lights of the nave, albeit fragmentary. They include St Apollonia, St Catherine, St Mary Magdalene, St Margaret and St Anne with the young Blessed Virgin, an unusual survival. Two reset heraldic shields are contemporary, one of them supported by angels.

There are some interesting fragments of 16th Century glass below, unusual crowned figures that include a majestic Blessed Virgin and Christchild as well as some other figures, all English I think but showing a Flemish influence. Among them is a panel with a paraphrase of Proverbs 10:9, He that walke playnly walketh safely. A very similar panel is in one of the side chapels of Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, and they were likely produced in the mid-16th Century by a Norwich workshop.

Memorials include one in Coade Stone to Dame Anne Henniker of 1792.The Henniker arms is in glass above the chancel, and another memorial is to Sir John Major of 1780. The Henniker-Majors are most familiar to us from their many memorials not far off at Thornham Magna. John Bacon's memorial to Elizabeth, Dowager Duchess of Chandos is striking.

The royal arms of George III consist of nothing other than the charged shield, with no supporters, crest or motto. From the same century there are some charming and poignant ledger stones at the west end of the nave. The grandly named William Nelson Buckle, second son of the Rev. Charles Buckle, died on the 6th of August 1787, aged just five months, Relieved from Woe, Disease and anxious Care, with all those Passions which perplex us here... Next to him, James Barker to his dearest wyfe Susanna doth this last office of love, for she was Religious, Chaste, Discreet, Loveing... underneath, added almost as an afterthought, he observes that Her rest gives me a rest-lesse life, because she was a vertuous wyfe. But yet I rest in hope to see that Daye of Christ, and then see thee.

A more recent century has given brass plaque memorials to two men of the French family, rich patrons of this parish, who were killed in action during the First World War. Reverend Frederic French had been the rector of this church in the years before the War, and he lost a son and a grandson, less than a fortnight apart. Noel Lee French, the only son of the Rector's oldest son, Edward, who might one day have been heir to the French family fortunes, was killed in Egypt on the 27th of February 1915. As if this was not unbearable enough, the Reverend French's youngest son, William Cotton French, was killed near Neuve Chapelle thirteen days later, on the 12th of March. The plaques are set apart in the chancel, a large medieval consecration cross keeping one of them company. One of a number of brass plaques set beneath windows in the nave remembers James Clayton who died in 1912, who was for 47 years a faithful servant and friend of the late Reverend F French.