St Mary's Church, Redgrave facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St Mary's Church, Redgrave |
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| St Mary the Virgin, Redgrave | |
St Mary's Church, Redgrave, from the south
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| OS grid reference | TM057782 |
| Location | Redgrave, Suffolk |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Website | Churches Conservation Trust |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | redundant |
| Heritage designation | Grade I listed |
| Designated | 29 July 1955 |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Perpendicular Gothic |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Flint with ashlar dressings, and some brick |
| Bells | 6 |
| Tenor bell weight | 7 long tons 2 cwt 25 qr (16,600 lb or 7.53 t) |
St Mary's Church is an old Church of England building in the village of Redgrave, Suffolk, England. It is no longer used for regular church services, but it is a very important historical building. It is listed as a Grade I listed building, which means it's considered to be of exceptional interest. The Churches Conservation Trust looks after it. You can find the church on a small hill about 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles) east of the village.
Contents
History of St Mary's Church
The first parts of St Mary's Church were built a long time ago, between about 1280 and 1350. More changes and additions were made in the 1400s. A room called the vestry was added in the late 1500s. The church's tall tower, also from the 1500s, had its outer layer redone in the late 1700s.
Small repairs happened in 1850. More changes were made later in the 1800s and into the 1900s. A famous person named Cardinal Wolsey was the rector (the main priest) of this church in 1506. He later became a very powerful advisor to King Henry VIII.
Church Design: Outside Features
The church is built mostly from flint stones. It also has smooth, cut stones called ashlar and some red brick. Some parts of the walls are covered in a smooth finish called stucco. The vestry and the tower are made of red brick. The tower has also been refaced with white brick.
The roofs over the side sections (called aisles) are made of lead. The rest of the church roofs are covered with slate. St Mary's is a large church. It has a main central area (the nave) with windows high up (a clerestory). It also has north and south aisles, a south porch (an entrance area), a main altar area (the chancel) with a vestry on its north side, and a tall tower at the west end. Its main style is called Decorated Gothic.
The Tower and Windows
The tower is tall and has two main levels. It stands on a strong base called a plinth and does not have buttresses (supports). At the bottom of the tower is a rounded doorway. Higher up, there are small, rounded windows. The very top level has rounded openings with wooden slats (called louvred bell openings) on all sides. These let the sound of the bells out. The top edge of the tower is flat (a plain parapet), and there are stepped pointy decorations (called pinnacles) on the corners. Next to the tower on the north side is a small, two-level stair turret.
Along the high walls of the clerestory, there are ten windows on each side, each with two lights (sections). The south aisle has a fancy top edge (a battlemented parapet) with carved stone figures (called gargoyles). The porch is on the south side, leading to the main entrance. This doorway is from the 1300s and has detailed carvings.
The church has many different types of windows from various time periods. Some are from the 1300s, with two or three lights. Others are from the 1500s, in a style called Perpendicular. The chancel has a very large east window from the 1300s with seven lights and complex stone patterns (called tracery). The vestry is built with a special brick pattern called English bond.
Church Design: Inside Features
Inside the church, you'll see tall arches that separate the nave from the aisles. These arches are supported by columns (called piers) that have a special shape like a four-leaf clover (called quatrefoil). The roof in the nave is from the 1400s and is a special type called a hammerbeam roof. The chancel roof is from the 1800s. The vestry roof, from the 1500s, has a large hanging decoration in the middle.
In the chancel, there's a small basin (a piscina) and a fancy set of three seats (a triple sedilia) used by priests. These seats are in the Perpendicular style and have angled tops (called canopies) with special ribbed patterns (called lierne vaulting). There's another piscina in the south aisle.
Font, Paintings, and Furniture
The north aisle has an eight-sided stone font from the 1300s, used for baptisms. On the wall of this aisle, you can see a re-set piece of a decorated screen (a reredos) from 1709. There's also an 18th-century painting of the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph). You'll also find beautifully decorated boards with the Ten Commandments written on them. These boards have paintings of Moses and Aaron on either side.
On the floor below these items, there's an old school desk with carvings on it and a 19th-century bier (a stand for carrying coffins). Above the south doorway, you can see the Royal Arms of King Charles II in an oval frame. In the nave, there's a large iron-bound chest from the 1400s. The seating, the Gothic-style pulpit (where sermons are given), and the brass lectern (a stand for reading) are all from the 1800s. The colorful stained glass in the east window was made in 1853.
Organ, Bells, and Monuments
The church has an organ with three manuals (keyboards) at the west end. It was built in 1889 and fixed up in 2007. The west tower has a set of six bells. Five of them were made in 1736, and a sixth bell was added in 1785.
St Mary's Church is famous for its "fine collection of hatchments and monuments." These are mostly for members of the Bacon, Holt, and Wilson families. Hatchments are special painted boards that show the coat of arms of someone who has died. This church has thirteen of them, which is more than any other church in Suffolk!
At the east end of the north aisle, there's a large tomb made of black and white marble. It has statues (called effigies) of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who died in 1624, and his wife Anne Butts. This tomb was made in 1616 by a famous sculptor named Nicholas Stone. Nearby, there's a wall tablet for R. Bacon from 1652. The west end of the north aisle used to be the private chapel for the Bacon family. It has four black and white marble wall tablets, also designed by Nicholas Stone.
On the north wall of the chancel, there's a big monument to Sir John Holt, who was a very important judge (the Lord Chief Justice) and died in 1710. It's made of white, grey, and black marble with some gold parts. It was made by Thomas Green. In the middle, there's a seated statue of a judge, with statues of Justice and Vigilance (being watchful) on either side. All of this is inside a beautifully carved frame (an aedicule).
There are also other tablets and floor slabs for important people, including Anne Butts and former rectors.
Recent History and Community Use
On April 1, 2004, the church was officially declared "redundant." This means it was no longer needed for regular church services. After this, the Churches Conservation Trust took over its care. They started major repairs and restoration work. The first part, fixing the outside, finished in 2006. The second part involved replastering and painting the inside, fixing the church's furniture, cleaning the memorials, and preserving the hatchments.
In 2005, local people formed the Redgrave Church Heritage Trust. Both trusts have worked together to make the church useful for the community. They've added a toilet and a small kitchen. Now, the church is used for many different things! Church services are still held there sometimes, but it's also a place for concerts, plays, and other events.
The Hidden Vault Discovery
In 2010, something exciting happened: a hidden burial vault (an underground room for burials) was accidentally found! This happened during a rehearsal for a musical called Quasimodo. An actress, Kathy Mills, accidentally moved a marble floor tile near the altar. Underneath it was the entrance to the vault! It led down steps into a tunnel with a chamber containing coffins. In February 2011, the vault was opened for a few hours so the public could see it. Since then, the entrance has been sealed up again to keep it safe.
Churchyard Memorials
In the churchyard (the area around the church), there are three memorials that are also listed as Grade II buildings, meaning they are historically important. To the south of the church, you'll find two similar chest tombs (stone boxes) for members of the Cay family from the early 1800s. Also south of the church is the chest tomb of R. Symonds from 1766. To the northwest, there are two more chest tombs for members of the Birch and Billingform families.
See also
