Saturday 8 October 2011

Saturday.

Had a pleasantly busy weekend so far. On Friday afternoon we pottered round a couple of churches in nearby villages, and both showed evidence of different periods within the one building. The photo below indicates 14th century building work (especially the oak crown post in the roof). The photo below that shows the rather earlier round tower to the church, probably of 10th to 12th century date; but the first photo (top above) shows part of a grave slab now built into the church wall with celtic strapwork which is even earlier. I'm told that the other half of this slab is built into the tower of the church, but I've not seen it.






We took the below two photoes in the church of a village a mile or two further away from us. The photo of the inside of the porch again points to a 14th/15th century date, although there's also evidence of earlier Norman work. To either side of the doorway there is evidence of a rather more recent harvest festival.


The wall below has three window apertures of different date, the two to the left of 14th/ 15th century date , and the filled in one to the right is of Norman style, and is of 12th/13th century date. Makes me wonder when the walls of the church were originally built, certainly no later than the 1200s, probably a little earlier.

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3 comments:

Crowbard said...

Looking at the porch's outer wall and the interior view of the windows, the church appears to be stone-built to the tops of the windows and timber framed above. Is that the norm in Suffolk, or was and ealier timber framed church jacked up and stone walls built to replace the lower timbers?
That bricked in window arch has a very early Norman look to it; and from the Celtic masonry the site has been sacred from long before the Normans came... a bit of dendrochronology might prove interesting. How early did they use crown-posts?

Unknown said...

Sorry Crowbard. I've misled you. The first three photos are of a church about three miles from us by road, just over a mile as the crow flies; and the two next photoes from another church about three miles further on. The crown post, and the celtic work are in the first church. That crown post probably dates from the first half of the 1300s. The filled in arch in the second church could date from late saxon to (as you say) early norman. The timber above stone (also second church) was probably done to raise the church roof a few feet in the 15th century.

Unknown said...

P.s. Should have said :- The timbered wall above stone is fairly unusual, but I've seen several others in Suffolk on a similar plan.