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St Mary, Langham

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Langham is one of the attractive villages of the Dedham Vale, but its church is reached along narrowing lanes almost two miles to the north, set away from the road down a long track beside the Hall. We are a stone's throw from the Suffolk border here, the River Stour still in its gentle winding stage. The church sits away from the Hall in a wide churchyard, the usual mixture of materials and hotch-potch of building projects over the 13th and 14th Centuries that are familiar from this part of the county. The tower seems taller than it is as it rises above the low roof of the nave, the imposing south aisle looking stark beneath it. The red brick pinnacles are charming and idiosyncratic, an early 16th Century adornment perhaps. A square structure sits in the north-west corner of the churchyard with a cast iron sign on it telling us that this building is designed for the daily instruction of the poor girls of this parish in the principles of the Church of England. Another, more famous cast iron notice is up in the timber porch, removed here from the steep hill up from Dedham and Stratford St Mary. It is known as the Dumb Animals Humble Petition, and it implores us to Rest, drivers rest, on this steep hill, dumb beasts, pray use with all good will, Goad not, scourge not with thonged whips, Let not one curse escape your lips. On my first visit here back in 2012 I'd been greeted by Jerry the church cat, and what I took to be his brother, or perhaps it was one of his wives. The cats were obviously well used to greeting hikers through the Dedham Vale who stop here to eat their packed lunch. A sign on the door asked me to make sure that Jerry was not stuck inside when I left the church, as 'he can't reach the handle'. Coming back in 2018 Jerry was nowhere to be seen, but the sign was still up and so I hoped it was the furnace heat of the August day which had made Jerry decide to hole himself up somewhere else for the duration. This church is open every day, and it really is lovely inside and out. Nothing terribly exciting perhaps, just a feeling of its own 19th and early 20th Century past, and the crispness of a restoration in 2000. A sense of simplicity and beauty pervades. This church was very much in the patronage of Darling family of the Hall who were known for their philanthropy, and it is interesting that Mayer & Co's east window depicts Faith, Hope and Charity, subjects more ordinarily relegated to a nave window. The best of the glass is a window in the south aisle from the turn of the 20th Century, depicting two angels, at once powerful and sensual. Two brass plaques remember local boys killed in the Great War. Henry Dove was 22 years old when he gave his life for his country before Ypres in 1916. Harold Haddon was 26 years old when he was killed on Christmas Eve 1915 in the military disaster that was the Siege of Kut. From earlier times, an 1833 memorial nearby to Margaret Eleanor Maude shows her levitating from her tomb up to heaven, as if this might be an entirely natural thing to do in this remote, peaceful spot. Simon Knott, December 2021 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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Norfolk churches - Suffolk churches
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