THE ESSEX CHURCHES SITE

home - index - latest - e-mail
links - small print - about this site
Norfolk churches - Suffolk churches
www.simonknott.co.uk

St Peter, Boxted

Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

This is a curiously remote spot considering that Boxted is a fairly large village, but the church sits in a rolling landscape with a small group of older houses about a mile to the north. The tower is an odd thing, a patchwork of puddingstone and river rubble below rising into red brick apparently organically, but the two parts are perhaps four hundred years apart, the Norman tower being repaired and finished in red brick as late as the early 16th Century. This date probably brought the dormer windows that would have lit the rood. The attractive mixture of materials throughout the whole structure is not unusual in this part of Essex, and despite several rebuildings and restorations over the centuries Pevsner was able to indicate a number of features surviving from the Norman church. This becomes more apparent as you step inside, for the pointed arcades to the 14th Century aisles are cut directly into the thick Norman walls. The interior has as much character, the tall, open chancel arch leading the eye from the wide nave into the intimacy of the chancel with its boarded ceilure painted with stars. James Bettley points out that when the ceilure was restored in 1999 the Haile-Bopp comet of the previous year was added, as was 1999's total eclipse of the sun. The painting on the fine reredos is the work of Christopher Webb, better known for his stained glass designs. Stepping back through the chancel arch, the Georgian gallery on its iron columns is crammed into the narrow space at the west end of the nave, and the canted seating beneath it creates something of the effect of looking out at the audience from the stage of a small theatre. The elegant little font bowl in a Perpendicular style sits on a tall column in the south aisle. The stone pulpit is perhaps less successfully accommodated, but in any case this is an idiosyncratic space. An 18th Century memorial to Elizabeth Bacon depicts an angel with a dart and a winged skeleton apparently arguing over her fate. James Bettley thought it was probably not in its original context, presumably forming part of something larger. A flaming heart rises above the memorial to Mrs Sarah Bridges, who died in 1777. Her inscription tells us that though she lived in the latter days, her wisdom and piety would have adorned the purest ages of the church. Nearby, William Blewitt of Pond House died fighting on Green Hill, Mateur, N Africa the night of 5th January 1943. He was 20 years old. Simon Knott, December 2021 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

The Churches of East Anglia websites are non-profit-making, in fact they are run at a loss. But if you enjoy using them and find them useful, a small contribution towards the costs of web space, train fares and the like would be most gratefully received. You can donate via Paypal.

 

home - index - latest - e-mail
links - small print - about this site
Norfolk churches - Suffolk churches
www.simonknott.co.uk