THE ESSEX CHURCHES SITE
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Norfolk
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All Saints, Inworth
Click on the 'play' symbol in the second image to see all my photographs of this church as a slide show, then click on any image in the slideshow to see it large in a new page.
Alternatively, if you don't have flash enabled, you can go straight to the set for this church on flickr.
The road from Great Braxted was a narrow one, but it was also a short cut into Kelvedon, so I was constantly pursued and harassed by fast cars, before fortunately the lane reached a bridge over the A12. I veered away from the main road and carried on northwards, and suddenly the countryside changed. The cars disappeared, hedges encroached and grew over the road to form a tunnel, the narrow lane straightened and climbed, the fields widened. Something had happened, and it took a moment for me to realise what it was. I was re-entering East Anglia.
Three miles more or so brought me to Windmill Hill; no windmill now, but a steep descent into Inworth and its church. Locked, no keyholder. Set on a horrible road (Kelvedon to Tiptree) but a pleasing climb up a hill to a large church at the top. Fascinating, early Norman (late Saxon?) chancel in puddingstone, a late medieval nave and an imposing tower and porch in red brick of the 1870s. Finding it locked was the one real annoyance of the day, as it is supposed to have wall paintings and medieval glass inside.
I met an old boy wandering around the churchyard pretty much like I was. He told me how he loves visiting old churches, and usually finds them open, so he was a bit disappointed here. He spoke movingly about the quiet of a churchyard, and how it meant a lot to him, being alone. I saw the wedding ring on his finger and thought he was probably recently widowed. I told him about Inworth church (from the outside, obviously) - he did ask, I didn't just launch in. I also told him about Little Braxted, less than five miles off but he didn't know it. And then I headed ever northwards to Messing, and the delight of its lovely unspoiled village, with medieval and 17th Century houses.
Simon Knott, April 2013
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