Church Chest - St Ethelbert - Hessett, Suffolk - Wooden Church Artefacts on Waymarking.com

A wooden church chest, or strong box, in St Ethelbert's church, Hessett. Looking rather unremarkable at the east end of the north aisle, and often overlooked. But it has an interesting story.....

.... it is no different from many you would find in many parish churches. It has three separate locks just like many. The idea was that the Rector and two Churchwardens would each have a key, and it would be necessary for all three of them to be present for the chest to be opened. They were usually used for storing parish records and valuables. Now, at some point long past, one of the keys was lost.

There is a tale that the iconoclast William Dowsing (visit link) turned up here and demanded that the chest be opened. Unfortunately, on account of the missing key it couldn't be [ref. (visit link) ]. However, this story isn't true, for Dowsing never recorded a visit Hessett (he kept very good records). The chest was eventually opened, sometime in the 19th century, and inside were found two extraordinary pre-Reformation survivals - a pyx cloth and a burse. The pyx cloth was draped over the wooden canopy that enclosed the blessed sacrament before it was raised above the high altar. The burse was used to contain the host before consecration at the Mass. It is basically an envelope, and features the Veronica face of Christ on one side with the four evangelistic symbols in each corner. On the other is an Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. They are England's only surviving examples, now on display at the British Museum, but there are photos of both either side of the tower arch.

That both survived is extraordinary.

Times available for viewing: Daytime hours Entrance fee (if applicable), local currency: 0 Approximate age of artefact (Year): Not listed Relevant website: Not listed

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