church micro 1769 St Andrew, Sotherton Traditional Geocache
church micro 1769 St Andrew, Sotherton
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St Andrew, Sotherton
you are looking for a small camouflaged tube.
This charming litle church was completely rebuilt by the Victorians. But they reused the old materials, and at any rate this is a church worth visiting. It is a fine example of good 19th century rural work. The architect was Henry Ringham, most familiar from his superb wood carving in the Ipswich area, particularly at Woolpit and Great Bealings. He built the fabulous Gothic House in east Ipswich, but went bankrupt before he was able to take up residence. However he was still considered a significant enough Ipswicher at the turn of the century to have a road named after him
Quiet and unassuming, without a tower or a prominent position, St Andrew does, however, have one great treasure. Two surviving panels of the roodscreen are attached to the vestry door. Although they have clearly been overpainted, they retain their 15th century gessowork (plaster of Paris attached to wood or stone, and then painted). More remarkably, St John is accompanied by his symbol of an eagle. This is one of only two times this symbol is known to survive on a roodscreen panel in East Anglia.
There are other medieval survivals. The font is a good example from the eve of the Reformation, with a hint of the elegance which the English Renaissance might have brought if we had not chosen the Puritan path instead. The blocking early 17ty century font cover is a rustic contrast.The surprising survival is the 13th Century effigy of a knight, sleeping soundly in a recess on the north wall. The matching recess on the south side is empty, but is was probably simply a Victorian affectation to have two of them.
The 19th Century glass is singularly good. Some of it is in the familiar style of Ward & Hughes, but the rest is more interesting, and Sam Mortlock thought it was the work of Charles Hudson and Edward Baillie. He was somewhat less enamoured of the stone pulpit. Munro Cautley was generally rather harsh about St Andrew, and of course it is insignificant compared to the remarkable treasure of nearby Westhall. But I think this church is lovely, and worth visiting if only for all the Victorian sentiment alone.
Coming here in August, I was just ahead of the Historic Churches Bike Ride a few weeks later, and I had been wanting to find a copy of the leaflet listing churches that would be open. I found that St Andrew had a little pile of ten of them, and reasoning that this was probably more than the number of the people on the electoral roll, I didn't feel too guilty about taking one.
Simon Knott, November 2008
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Onfr bs ohfu ng raq bs jnyy.