There and Back

Despite having worked in the area for a number of years, I had never been inside All Saints Church in Hitcham. So I was looking forward to this, my first time. My first observation was that the church has a massive tower, built around the 15C, with a rather good looking South side entrance. The south porch entrance. And so into a lovely light and airy interior.  Unusually, the church has not a single piece of stained glass. The nave is seperated from the two outer aisles by the simple octagonal pillars of the five bay arcades that probably date from the 14C. Hitcham Church features a significant "Adoration of the Magi" painting, a copy of a work by Rubens, which is located in the south aisle. This painting, a reverse copy of the original at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, is a notable feature of the church. The painting is said to have come from the palace of the Bishop of Bath & Wells and was described as a copy of an old master. The fine double hammerbeam roof T...

To quote the web site of    Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity :  We are proud to be the official NHS charity of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which provides hospital and community health services to around one million people and in 2022/23 was the second largest NHS organisation in the region. When you make a donation to the Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity , you help take care of patients and staff at your local hospitals and healthcare centres – providing those extras that go above and beyond what the NHS can provide, and which make such a difference to happiness and healing. You’ll help improve patients’ lives by bringing some good into a difficult time, such as making sure there’s tea and coffee in the waiting room for patients receiving chemotherapy or providing the slippers that keep older patients safe from falls. Your kindness can also help provide the hospitals with the life-saving equipment, cutting-edge technology, resea...

Having walked past the woods some days earlier, I realised that the bluebells were really showing. A few days later and a visit to the Grove with camera was the day`s mission.  From the road, these are the first two images I took - this was before we even entered the woods!   Walking down the side of the wood to reach the only pathway through, we disturbed a deer! Once in the wood, these images were taken from the pathway. Absulutely beautiful! Every year I think the same - I never tire of nature`s beauty. Besides bluebells there was other forms of life of course. This being, so my wife informs me, a Cleopatra Beetle. Then a couple of images of a Small White. Not forgetting the image at the top of this post of the deer we disturbed as we arrived on scene! Overall,  a beautiful area to spend time in.    Index of posts   

Another church I have not seen before was Great Waldingfield`s St Lawrence. Having been warned that it is kept locked, I was pleased to find on arrival that it was in the process of being made ready for a funeral. The people involved were very welcoming and so was able to get a photograph of the main point of interest. Like many churches in this part of the world, the Victorians really `went to town` on the restoration.It was a gentleman by the name of John Hakewill, whose major restoration of the nave was made in the 1870s. He was the brother of the more famous Edward Hakewill, but he had often designed the furnishings for his brother's restorations. His work here was enthusiastic and overwhelming, replacing not only the furnishings but also the roofs and the window tracery. The Victorians certainly `had  a thing` about their churches! The great architect William Butterfield turned up here to rebuild the chancel. Butterfield was a great enthusiast for encaustic tiles, using them ...

This post was originaly made in August 2020 but I was not able to go inside the church due to the dreaded Covid. Now, some five years later, I was able to go inside. So, same post with some interior images added! On the River Deben in Suffolk sits the tiny village of Ramsholt, a place I had never visited. From a book of photographic walks by local photographer Gill Moon , we picked this one for a walk with our cameras, on a very bright sunny day. I took a Nikon lens with a circular polarising filter, as I thought it would help with the bright sky. However, having not used the filter for some time, I had forgotten that I have ruined a number of images using a polariser, as the filter often made the sky far too dark. I almost managed the same today! However, it did help on some images. What a position to sit and have your evening meal! By the time we had finished our walk, the front terrace was getting quite full. According to the advertising blurb:  "The Ramsholt Arms is a popular ...

Today was divided between Playford Church, one which I had never visited, and a revisit to St Mary at Capel St Mary to bring up to date my record of this local church. So firstly, a drive to Playford, a small village just north of Ipswich. On the outside initial impressions are that nothing stands out. Then I noticed that it had a south tower, as opposed to the normal West. However, there are a few in Suffolk apparently. Shelley, near home, has a North tower! An interior view, with the lovely east window. The east window is a triple-lancet design, meaning it features three narrow, pointed arches. T his memorial obelisk in the churchyard was erected in 1857 to commemorate Sir Thomas Clarkson of Playford Hall (died 1846). Clarkson, who lived at Playford Hall in the latter years of his life, was instrumental with William Wilberforce in the abolition of slavery. Clarkson is said to have thought out his opposition to slavery while riding from Cambridge to London in the summer of 1785. H...