St Mary's Church, Walsham le Willows, Suffolk UK
“When was the church built?”, The answer- “during the last thousand years”. When William the Conqueror ordered a written survey of England in 1086, Walsham (the Saxon name) already had a church. A church was here when that Domesday Survey was made in 1086. Walsham already had a church. Many pre–conquest Suffolk churches were built of flint, the natural stone of East Anglia. That building has long gone, though the materials have been used and reused over the centuries. A recognisable fragment from the late 1100s can be seen in the north aisle. The tower and the font belong to the 1300s, but the church had its greatest make-over from about 1400, when the builders were busy, on and off, for a century. Eight-sided pillars or piers frame the nave, the people’s section, and our eyes look up to the oak roof, one of the finest in a county famous for its church roofs. The beams that go right across the nave are called tie-beams because they tie the walls together. These alternate with the stubby hammerbeams which take the thrust from above, and originally they were decorated with carved angels. The basic roof was finished by 1450, but the scaffolding was up again in 1475 for additional decorations. This was the year that John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, became Lord of the Manor. The King, Edward IV was his brother-in-law, and as a loyal gesture he nailed up the King’s favourite badge, the “rose en soleil”. This device, a rose at the centre of spiky sun-rays, can be seen on most of the roof-braces. The paint too, now beautifully faded, dates from 1475. John de la Pole also fixed four stone beasts from the King’s heraldry to the top of the old tower. Similar stonework is at Royal Windsor, but this is medieval, not an expensive modern replacement. The carved angels on the hammerbeams were removed by the churchwardens in 1538, acting on the orders of Edward IV’s grandson, Henry VIII.
Size: 4368px × 2912px
Location: St Mary's Church, Walsham le Willows, Suffolk, UK
Photo credit: © Peter Evans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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