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St Peter
is at the heart of the Saints, and what a
bleak heart it can be on a winter's day!
Narrow lanes thread across flat fields;
whichever way you cycle seems to be into
the wind. In summer, the sky is wide over
the hedgless barley fields, but the road
drops away beyond the church to cross a
bridge over a stream. Here you find most
of the parish's seven houses, because in
terms of population this is one of the
smallest parishes in East Anglia. This is a pretty
little church, mainly of the 13th and
14th centuries. On previous visits I had
to go and get the key, but today, like
all the churches in this big friendly
benefice, St Peter is kept open. This is
just as it should be, for any church in
such a tiny parish needs to be there for
more than the Sunday club. St Peter
fulfills its role as a welcoming home to
strangers and pilgrims admirably. In the
porch there is what appears to be a
brick-lined charity dole table. As with
several of the Saints, you step through a
Norman south doorway into a
Victorianised, rural interior.
The Tasburghs have
left slight marks here; one tomb is
hidden by the organ, and this must have
been the Lady Chapel in those days,
because that was where he asked to be
buried. There are cusped image niches
either side of the chancel arch, and the
late medieval font has a Jacobean cover.
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| The loss of the two young
men named on the war memorial must have
made a considerable impact on such a tiny
parish. Other than the churches,
there are only two buildings of note in
the South Elmhams, and one of them is St
Peter's Hall, on the road from this
church to South Elmham St Margaret. It is
a large 16th century building, the
origins of which are uncertain. It was
the home of the Tasburghs, and was
probably built by them. But it looks
ecclesiastical, and there are devotional
symbols in the window masonry. However,
there was never a Priory or an Abbey
here. The great windows and other stone
may have come from Flixton priory, three
miles away, after the dissolution. Some
may even have come from the now-vanished
church of St Nicholas. The Tasburghs are
gone now, and, after many years as a
farmhouse, the building has a new lease
of life as St Peter's brewery and
restaurant. Back in 2000, when I had last
come this way, I stood taking a
photograph of it. Out of the corner of my
eye I saw a stoat leapt the gap from the
adjacent field and scutter across the
road in front of me. I looked, and it
turned, bared its teeth, and then
disappeared into the furrows. What a
brave little fellow! I still think of it
often.
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Simon Knott, July 2008
See also a general introduction to the Saints
    
   
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