Visitors Book - St Nicholas - Oakley, Suffolk
Posted by: 
SMacB
N 52° 21.115 E 001° 09.961
31U E 375091 N 5801764
A visitors book in St Nicholas' church, Oakley.
Waymark Code: WMZTRB
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/05/2019
Views: 1
A visitors book in St Nicholas' church, Oakley, near the font opposite the south entrance. The earliest entry is June 1988.
"In the heart of East Anglia the gentle, tolling hills give churches such as St Nicholas a platform to shine. As it stands on the brow of a hill with just one house in its vicinity, it does just that. The church seems bigger than it actually is; the tower and porch are familiar to hundreds of other churches in the region. However, it is a simple church made to look grand by the enthusiasms of confident ages.
For many years Oakley has been a joint parish with nearby Brome, the history of these two churches closely linked over the centuries. The rector of both these churches for 40 years in the 19th century was George Paterson, who at the time was contributing large sums of money on restoring the church at Brome. It is interesting to note that the 1851 Census of Religous Worship reveals that the combined parishes had a population of 650, and a regular Sunday morning attendance of just over one hundred. That means about one in six of the population were attending the parish church on a Sunday morning which is well above the East Anglian average at the time.
George Paterson's influence here can be seen in many of the features inside the church. Some of the more personal touches include the faces given to the figures in the windows, some of which are members of his family."
SOURCE - (
visit link)