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St James the Less, Little Tey

gabled apse

Little Tey Little Tey Little Tey

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  This is a charming little church, but it is to its considerable misfortune that it is set not far back from the hellishly busy A120 Colchester to Stansted road, making it a difficult visit for cyclists and walkers. It is worth knowing that it is also possible to approach the church from the road to Great Tey that runs to the north, along the side of a field and then a muddy footpath, but this route is not clearly marked and it is not cycleable. Whichever way you approach, though, a visit is worthwhile because this small 12th Century church has undergone few structural changes over the centuries since, and it retains its curved apse as at Copford and Little Braxted, neither far away. A curiosity at the east end is that the roof is gabled above the apse, a striking juxtaposition and an unusual one.

You step into a simple interior filled with the light falling through clear windows cut through the thick Norman walls. It is a perfect setting for two extensive sequences of wall paintings of the 13th and 14th Centuries, many indistinct now but their subjects are identifiable in the right light.

St Anne teaching the Blessed Virgin to read (14th Century) wallpainting: Christ washes the feet of the disciples Christ Child on the shoulders of St Christopher (14th Century)
wallpainting: St Anne teaches the Virgin to read? wallpainting: Blessed Virgin and child Last Supper (St John leans his head), 13th Century

The earlier paintings form a Passion sequence. Christ washing the feet of the Disciples and the Last Supper with St John leaning his head in front of Christ are both clear. The later paintings are perhaps more moving, including a scene in a window splay of St Anne showing the Old Testament prophecies to her young daughter the Blessed Virgin, and then the Virgin herself holding the Christchild. There is also what appears to be part of a scene of St Christopher carrying the Christchild across a river, indistinct now. They are haunting details, and standing here the noise from the busy road outside and the 21st Century in general fall away.

Simon Knott, December 2021

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looking east Little Tey

               
 
               
                 

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home - index - latest - e-mail
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Norfolk churches - Suffolk churches
www.simonknott.co.uk