St Mary - Great Blakenham, Suffolk - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

"The rather plain tower, with its Norman lower stages, gives no hint of what we will find within, but the fifteenth century wooden porch begins, perhaps, to suggest that here is something quite out of the ordinary. It is a wooden construction; above the arch, where we would expect to find a niche for a statue, is a wooden effigy of the Blessed Virgin carved directly onto the beam.

It has been weathered by 500 years of Suffolk wind and rain, and looks rather like one of those pieces of driftwood you find on the beach at Aldeburgh after a storm. Cautley thought it had been mutilated, but Mortlock thought not. Dowsing did come here in 1644; he doesn't mention the porch, but gave orders for the font to be cleansed of imagery - that wasn't done properly, either.

St Mary has one of Suffolk's few Early English chancels, and the magnificent set of triple lancets surmounted by a splayed round window is all offset in soft pink. These windows were actually blocked off in the 17th century, but the restoration of the 1870s restored them to their original state, and placed the medieval IHS roundel in the top one. You'll notice that it is upside down; in any case, it may not have come from this church originally. The nave's thick walls and splayed windows betray its Norman origins.

The church was closed for 18 months for the restoration, which was carried out by Cory and Ferguson of Carlisle, who also did Earl Stonham. Part of the restoration involved the moving of the pompous Swift memorial into the space beneath the tower. The font is remarkably fine, bearing the instruments of the passion which outraged Dowsing. The person he commissioned for their removal was either very brave, or not up to the job, since they survive to this day.

Looking up the church, we see the fine Stuart pulpit, with the roodloft stairs behind, unblocked in the 1870s. The ceilings were also removed at this time, and at the top of the walls you can see mortice cuttings which were probably for the rood beam.

So, three cheers for the Victorians, then, for an excellent restoration!

If there was a prize for the ugliest village in Suffolk, people everywhere would throw up their hands in despair at the impossibility of wresting the honour away from Great Blakenham. But this church is nothing less than a little jewel."

SOURCE - (visit link)

Building Materials: Stone

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