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St Ethelbert, Belchamp Otten

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A small, characterful church set in the narrow lanes running through the rolling landscape towards the Suffolk border. This is basically a Norman church with a 14th Century chancel attached, the porch being added and the nave windows replaced at about this time. James Bettley notes that the curious belfry which rises from the west end of the nave is a 19th Century creation but using the timber of its 17th Century predecessor. It is rendered with cement and looks a little like a miniature Perpendicular tower, albeit with a discernible and slightly alarming lean to the east. You step into a sweetly atmospheric interior, its small scale accentuating the openness of the chancel beyond. On a sunny day the church is full of light, the only coloured glass being in the east window. Walking eastwards and looking back, the west end of the nave is most odd. The 17th Century timberwork supporting the belfry is carved with wheel patterns and formed into pointed archways that have a touch of the gothick about them. The tympanum above the main beam creates a kind of separated baptistery space to the west about the imposing 15th Century font, and supports a small carved Hanoverian royal arms. Above the north-west corner of the nave is the tiniest gallery, no larger than a box pew. Presumably it dates from the early 19th Century, so was it intended as a musicians gallery, or possibly for an important local family? Or was it part of a larger plan which never came to fruition, changing liturgical fashions intervening? The 17th Century also brought the pulpit and the altar rails which march across the chancel from wall to wall as if they were a fence.The 19th Century glass in the east window appears to be of the 1850s, and depicts the Crucifixion flanked by a sweet Nativity and the angel greeting the three Marys at the empty tomb. It is on a small scale and might possibly be early work by Clayton & Bell. The 13th Century coffin lid set in the brick floor of the chancel was discovered during early 21st Century restoration work. All in all, the different building and furnishing dates here conspire to create an atmospheric interior which is at once pleasing and memorable. Simon Knott, January 2022 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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