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This parish is
part of the lovely town of Halesworth,
technically outside the boundary, but a
kind of industrial suburb nonetheless.
The name is to differentiate it from
Holton St Mary, away in the south of the
county, but in 19th Century directories
the parish here is refered to simply as
'Holton'. Nowadays, it is home to the
famous Bernard Matthews' turkey products
factory, the biggest employer for miles. The church is on the main
road, but set well back from it, at the
top of a sloping churchyard. St Peter
sits there, looking beautiful.The round
tower is in two stages, and one of
Suffolk's tallest, giving the impression
that this is a big church, which it
isn't. It's a dear little building, and
militantly open during the day. A sign on
the door says 'Welcome to your
church' - a lesson that would be usefully
learned by a few other churches I can
think of.
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A modern statue of St Peter
sits in the porch niche, and then there is a
beautiful Norman inner doorway, probably the age
of the lower half of the tower. Above it is a
most curious Norman stone carving. It shows a
mythical beast of some kind, apparently winged,
and holding something in its mouth. I have heard
it described as a winged bull, the evangelical
symbol of St Luke. For others, it may be a dragon
- and a dragon with a child in its mouth is the
symbol of St Martha, which would be unique in
East Anglia. But coming back to it having visited
Santon Downham, I think this is intended as the
same image as you find over the south doorway
there - a wolf whose tail becomes a tree of life
above its back, and not wings at all, and who is
eating the leaves of another tree. A symbol of
resurrection, perhaps?
| Coming here in
2008 after almost ten years since my last
visit, I had no memory at all of what I
would find within, but immediately
recognised the pleasant and sentimental
Victorianised interior. There's a grand
window by Kempe & Co depicting the
Blessed Virgin and St Peter flanking
Christ in Majesty, one of their lushest
works in the county. The nineteenth
century north aisle gives a sense of
squareness. I remembered now that my last
visit had been during Easter Week, and
there had been a gorgeous scent of Easter
lilies, suffusing the air and
overpowering the mustiness of ancient
buildings. Looking
up this Parish in White's 1844
Suffolk, I was pleased to discover
that the Rector at the time was the
splendidly named Reverend Worship. He
must have been one of those who
transformed St Peter into the church we
see today.
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Simon Knott, November 2008
  
 
 
   
 
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