St Mary, Brome
St Mary should be much better known than it is. This is partly a consequence of the fact that the Suffolk volume of Pevsner's Buildings of England is almost entirely useless for church visiting. Despite a perfunctory revision in 1974, when little was added and less was taken out, the book on sale in shops and on Amazon today is substantially the work of 1961, coincidentally the year I was born. Pevsner was alway suspicious of the 19th century anyway, and the restoration here brought him little pleasure. The entry for the structure of this church reads simply Norman round tower with a top of 1875. The rest mostly of 1863. The stained glass gets a brief mention - Much of the 1860s - the plate and the paten, and a paragraph on the monuments. And that's it. He doesn't even mention an architect, and neither does the similarly useless 19th century churches supplement to the 1975 revision of Cautley's Suffolk Churches and their Treasures.
How times have changed, especially with regard to our understanding and appreciation of what the Victorians did! For the church here is the work of none other than Thomas Jekyll, now recognised as one of the most innovative designers of the 19th century. He is best known in East Anglia for his remarkable Holt Methodist church, which ironically receives high praise in Bill Wilson's 1997 revision of Pevsner's volume for Norfolk. Jekyll almost completely rebuilt St Mary between the 1850s and the 1870s, and it would seem that little expense was spared. All that survives from the earlier church is the lower part of the tower, the font now beneath it, and a magnificent late medieval south porch which now acts as a vestry. Suspiciously, Pevsner does not even mention this beautiful structure, which can't be seen from the road, leading one to the suspicion that this was one of the churches where he didn't even bother to get out of the car.
Jekyll's work was augmented by the largest known collection of the work of the Ipswich sculptor James WIlliams, whose workshop produced the long stone reredos, altar rails, prayer desk and now sadly battered pulpit. The project was bankrolled by two millionaires: Lord Kerrison, whose name is inescapable in this part of Suffolk, and the Rector for forty years, George John Mapletoft Paterson. Lord Kerrison's wife produced some of the windows, and others are the work of Heaton, Butler and Bayne.
To start in the east, the great window is a sumptuous depiction of the Last Judgement, a rather unusual choice of subject. Christ sits on his orb near the top, flanked by Disciples laying down their crowns and angels holding open the books of judgement. Below, there are two images of St Michael, one of Mercy, showing him with his sword killing a dragon, and one of Justice, showing him with his scales. On the left, a smiling angel ushers the saved into Heaven. On the right, a frowning angel directs the damned into the mouth of hell. It is a remarkably early work for the style, rendered with great confidence.
In the north chancel aisle, Lady Kerrison produced a set of the Works of Mercy, whch are charming and naive. I think that Christ carrying his cross flanked by the Blessed Virgin and John the Baptist is also hers. She is also supposedly responsible for many of the nave windows depicting incidents in the life of Christ, but surely they must be the work of a professional workshop? The Baptism of Christ scene in particular is lovely. The window beneath the tower of Christ with the children is by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, and is Lady Kerrison's memorial.
The major irritation of this church being effectively inaccessible back in the 1990s was that it was impossible to see the Cornwallis tombs. The Cornwallis family was one of the most powerful in East Anglia towards the end of the medieval period, having no doubt taken full advantage of the old feudal order coming to an end as a consequence of the Black Death. Thomas Cornwallis was Comptroller of the Royal Household under Mary I, and was held in such high regard that Elizabeth I asked him to stay on to help oversee her cultural revolution. He is said to have replied that he was perfectly happy with the religion he already had, which was the religion of his ancestors, and had served them well; instead, he retired to Brome, to raise sheep, and pay the occasional extortionate fine imposed by the local Anglican jobsworths. He survived Elizabeth by a year, and died in 1604 at a time when many memorials reflect the Puritan temper of the time. However, Cornwallis's father Sir John Cornwallis, who had died as long ago as the reign of Henry VIII, lies with his wife on a glorious late medieval tombchest, and Thomas's tomb is a near copy of it. Other Cornwallises are also remembered in this corner.
I was so glad that I'd come back to Brome. I wandered around the graveyard, finding the elaborate memorial to George Paterson immediately to the east of the church. Thomas Jekyll would eventually go mad and die in a lunatic asylum, but not before pioneering the Chinoiserie revival in England. Lord Kerrison remained one of the most significant figures in Suffolk politics until his death, and his mark has been left all over the north of the county. If the three of them could come back to St Mary today, they would immediately recognise it. This is a wonderful church, so poorly served by what I had written before and what others have written elsewhere. It is an extraordinary labour of love, one of the finest documents in East Anglia of the piety and energy of mid-Victorian Anglicanism.
Simon Knott, 2007
The church is always open so please have a look inside
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If anybody would like to expand this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.comso he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”