e-mail: simon@suffolkchurches.co.uk

All Saints, Wordwell

    There is no village here, just the name, which seems to have stepped out of the pages of Finnegans Wake. Decriers of Victorian restorers should come here, however, because, as so often in Suffolk, the church was saved from ruination by a reasonably sensitive and articulate restoration. The architect here was the great Samuel Teulon.

Looking very Victorian from the gate. But ancient surprises await.

This church, one of three in the joint parish with Culford, had fallen almost into disuse by the early 19th century, but in the 1850s it was time for it to join the great liturgical movement sweeping the Church of England, and Teulon was called in to preserve as much as was possible, while restoring a sense of catholicity. The first part of the restoration was carried out exactly to his plans. The second part, in the late 1860s, wasn't.

 

Wordwell is predominantly a Norman church, and Teulon, who was more delicate here than at nearby Ampton, retained this sense of antiquity without reinventing it, as happened at Wissington. The sad and laughable 'Norman' pulpit dates from the later restoration, and replaced a Stuart pulpit that had arrived from elsewhere. But you don't come here to feed your sense of the ridiculous; what you come for are some of the most interesting carvings in Suffolk, in both wood and stone.

The first thing you see as you enter the rustic little south porch is a tympanum above the door. This is a flourish of foliage, with two dogs at the base barking. The branches seem to grow from their tails. It is a work of great craftsmanship. But below it to the right, at the capital of the door post, is something more interesting; a primitive carving of a man. He wears a head-dress familiar from those worn by farmworkers in medieval illuminated books of hours.

 

Primitive man on the capital at Wordwell.
 

St John the Baptist and St Edward the Confessor?

  Beside him, a decorative flourish looks as though it was intended to match a facing one. The other capital, however, is bare. It is not likely that the tympanum and capital were executed by the same person, or at the same time.

As you enter the door, an even more extraordinary carving faces you in the internal tympanum of the north door. Here, two primitive figures stand.

One holds a ring; the other's arms are open wide in surprise, or in a gesture of revelation, perhaps. Some have interpreted this as the story of Edward the Confessor giving his ring to a beggar, who reveals himself as St John the Baptist.

 
   
    If this is the case, than the carving must be pretty much contemporary with the legend, which was popular in England in the 12th century.

There is another primitve face on one of the legs of the font, but once you are inside the building it is the woodcarving which will most strike you. There is a mixture of benches in here, and some have been heavily restored. But the armrests are super, with their mythological beasts, and you can see the candle holes in some. However, it is the bench backs which you should look at closely, especially that nearest the door. Here, dragons and creatures with human heads chase and roar at each other, as if illustrating some long-forgotten children's tale. My 6 year old had great fun making up a story for it.

A dragon (or perhaps a cockatrice?) harries a man emerging from a snail shell. Meanwhile, an ox looks on. Out of shot behind the ox, a rat with a man's head chases another dragon.

This is a lovely church in a beautiful churchyard, despite its proximity to the horrible Bury to Brandon road. And, I am afraid, it is now redundant, although it is inevitable that some of the churches in this area should fall into disuse - in the same parish is the redundant church at Culford Heath. I counted 16 within a 5 mile radius, and here, on the edge of the Elveden forest, one of the most densely populated areas of England in early Saxon times, the population has fallen dramatically in the last 100 years. The Churches Conservation Trust are excellent custodians, though, and thanks to Mr Teulon, there is much worth conserving.

  The font at Wordwell, with a mans face at the top of the facing leg. Note behind the fine original Norman arch, the alcoves for medieval nave altars, and the shameful pulpit, because of which Samuel Teulon is still spinning quietly in his grave.












All Saints, Wordwell, can be found on the B1106 Bury to Brandon Road, just to the north of Culford Park. The church is kept locked, but the key may be obtained at the nearby farmhouse. See MAP