Frostenden

All Saints, Frostenden

On a bright Spring day, one of Suffolk's oldest towers.

All Saints is one of my favourite Suffolk churches. You find it a short distance from the A12, not far short of Kessingland and the industrial/caravan-site belt of Lowestoft and Yarmouth. But here, sheep graze gently in the churchyard, the little round tower sits contentedly, and this church is in no particular hurry about anything.

You step into an immaculately kept church. It has a feel of being loved. It has been carefully restored over the last ten years or so, and secured for future generations.

This is one of Suffolk's oldest round towers, almost certainly Saxon, and the church against it, although much newer, is still mainly 13th century. Mortlock detected some quern-stones, used for grinding corn, built into the lower tower. Something similar may be seen in the Anglo-Saxon section at Ipswich museum. A super sundial over the south door exhorts us to Watch and Pray. We step into a porch built into the body of the church.

This church has a good deal of stone carving worth looking at, including animals, mythical beasts, and humans. There is some good Victorian glass, and beautiful rood loft stairs that turn back from within the chancel. Their wooden treads are still in place.

Most of the fixtures and fittings are modern, and most of them donated by or in memory of parishioners. The 13th century piscina and sedilia, however, are in very good condition. The visitors book is worth a look - it dates back to the 1950s. Also, note the two biers, one with the spelling 'Frossenden' on it.

Outside, the ditch marks the route of the former river that served this village when it was a port. At Domesday, there were two churches here, and a thriving community. Now, only the sheep will keep you company.

All Saints, Frostenden, sits beside the A12, just to the west of Wrentham. It seems to be kept open during the day. See MAP

Victorian sentiment beside the roodloft stairs.