Wetheringsett

All Saints, Wetheringsett

This is a beautiful village, just off the A140 but sunk in wooded lanes, with old houses looking very agreeable. It went straight on my Lottery-winning wish list.

Open mouthed All Saints, with its pretty flushwork and niches.

And it has a beautiful church, although I was all ready to be terribly rude about it, since it is kept locked, and I could find details of no keyholder.

However, someone contacted me, calmed down, and pointed me in the direction of the key, so I will go back, and take some photographs inside. Otherwise, I might have shouted my big mouth off, and my name in Wetheringsett would be anathema. I have a small but growing list of Suffolk villages where I'm no longer welcome, and I think it would be a mistake to add one to it where I'd actually like to live.

My friend Jo and I called here on our trans-Suffolk expedition of December 1999. In her saintly way, she tolerated my need to stop at every medieval church, as if they were the passions of a sane man.

She stood on the icy bridge over the stream that borders the churchyard, pretending not to notice, as I flounced about the frosty grass, rattling gates, banging on doors, cursing the day on which the PCC was born, and generally making an exhibition of myself.

What appears at first to be a huge west door is, in fact, an open archway; smaller than the one at Cotton, and obviously not in use; the metal grill was all rusty. Above, three niches probably contained a rood group; one is directly above the arch, and the others flanking it are on the buttresses. The tower is very much Suffolk Perpendicular, but the church is earlier, retaining, as you'll see in the picture above, Decorated windows.

Militantly Perpendicular, though, is one of the county's finest clerestories; as Mortlock observes, it is almost all glass.

Peering through the window, I could see beautiful arcades; this is not a church famous for its treasures, but it is a very beautiful one.

Wetheringsett is a twin parish with adjacent Brockley, where you'l find a splendid museum dedicated to 'The Middy', the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway, at one of its former stations.

A shimmering clerestory...

...and a padlocked door.

Meanwhile, back at the church, I was comforting myself that I could, at least, take some cool and atmospheric external photographs in the fading light. But I was aghast to discover that the battery in my camera was too low. Without as much as a sigh, Jo unscrewed her bike's front light, removed the batteries, and handed one to me. I may be a grumpy old sod, but I have travelled with angels.

All Saints, Wetheringsett, is located just to the east of the A140, near Mendlesham. I found it locked without a keyholder, but I have since been told that the key is at the post office.