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Ringsfield is a rather
suburban village between Halesworth
and Beccles,
all bungalows and 'modern family homes'.
But the church sits some way to the
north, and the churchyard is a delight. I
first came here in Easter week of 2000.
Easter was late that year, and the whole
churchyard was ablaze with yellow
celandines and pink and white blossom. I
came back in early October 2009, and at
this very different season the ground was
just as verdant and deliciously
overgrown. On
the north side of the church, tucked into
the angle between the nave and the
transept, is a flamboyant angel, looking
for all the world like a French war
memorial. This is not so far from the
truth, for here is the grave of Princess
Caroline Murat, the great-niece of
Napoleon Bonaparte and a grand-daughter
of the King of Naples. It seems that she
married the local squire, and in her
dying she injects a note of the surreal
into the setting.
Apart from the tower and the
western end of the nave, the church is
almost entirely Victorian, the work of
the great William Butterworth in the
1880s. He was also responsible for the
refurbishment of nearby Ellough and
Redisham. The church appears sunken
within the graveyard, perhaps as a result
of the importation of earth over the
centuries to enable further burials. You
have the impression of walking between
green and yellow banks to reach the south
door on the far side.
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Here,
on the south side of the church, there is another
splendid sight, for a great brick memorial to
Nicholas Garneys, who died in 1599 was reset here
at the time of the Victorian restoration. A great
arch encloses a terracotta mermaid. The memorial
has that great rarity, a surviving external
brass. Oddly, a modern gravestone nearby also has
a brass inscription.
Butterworth's
extension of the nave and rebuilding of the
chance accentuates what is a common feature of
churches around here, the sense of being in a
long tunnel. This sense is increased further at
Ringsfield by the dimness of the interior,
punctuated as it is by jewel-like windows.
Butterworth took out the box pews and even a
western gallery, and so this interior must have
been very cramped indeed.
We
arrived the day before the Harvest Festival, and
so the interior was suffused with the evocative
fragrance of apples and blackberries, a perfect
accompaniment to the coloured glass, a feast for
the senses. Probably the best of the glass is the
Annunication scene under the tower, which Sam
Mortlock says is the only work in Suffolk by the
Bell & Beckham workshop. There is an
excellent series of Saints and Old Testament
figures by Clayton & Bell along the north
side.
| To the south, there are two
outstanding pieces of continental glass,
probably dating from the 17th century and
installed here as the gift of a
collector. One depicts the Adoration of
the Magi in haunting detail, and the
other is a delightful and simple roundel
of Mary and Joseph looking for the infant
Christ. Unseen to his parents, he is
glimpsed through a doorway, standing on a
table in the temple, preaching. A
great curiosity is the Laudian screen of
the early 17th Century. Did it come from
here originally, I wonder? It is coloured
gold and black, with Latin texts and
carving. The finials are jaunty pyramids,
and I do not think there is another one
like it anywhere in Suffolk. Beside it is
the contemporary pulpit - or, at least,
what is left of it. Pulpits of this
period are rather more common than
screens, of course, but what survives
here apart from the back boards is the
octagonal tester, a sounding board placed
above the minister so that his sermon can
ring out. It is octagonal but small,
perfectly in proportion, and the whole
piece must have looked very elegant.
Beyond, in Butterfield's chancel, are
some contemporary stalls. Presumably the
lost box pews and west gallery were of a
similar date. You can't help thinking
what this interior must have looked like
before Butterfield got his hands on it.
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Simon Knott, December 2009
   
     
   
  
   
  
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