As
I have observed elsewhere, Orford people are
fiercely independent, as befits their tiny, smoky
town, where the wind always seems to blow from
the great river up between the towers of the
castle and the parish church. Jean Carter and
Stewart Bacon, in their fine little hymn of
praise to the place Orford Suffolk, published in
1978, recalled
the words with which George II was greeted on his
visit to Orford in 1727:
If the King
ask "who are you then?"
We humbly answer "Orford Men".
Who else dare ask, we answer bluff:
"We're Orford Men, and that's enough".
Orford's methodist
church is tucked away in a side road, an
imposing sight with the ruined tower of
the castle rising behind it. It is a
perfectly Edwardian building, the
foundation stone laid on the 29th October
1901. The style is very much that of
Anglican and Methodist churches of the
period, a large perpendicular window
above an entrance portico, the red brick
banded with white. The pinnacles create a
deliciously independent faux-classical
effect. Two corbel heads either side of
the window grin and scowl in turn. All in
all, this is a fun building.
It
replaced an earlier Primitive Methodist
building of 1837. At the time of the 1851
census of religious worship, Orford
Methodist Society had a membership of 18,
and was served by William Dolman, the
Minister at Kelsale, who had a fair
journey each Sunday. The old building
held just 150 people, so was probably
much smaller than its 20th Century
replacement. It seems to have been nearly
full every Sunday. However, given that
Orford had a population of 1,100 at the
time, it is perhaps surprising that there
were no other independent congregations.
Simon Knott, December 2009
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