THE COORDS GIVEN ARE FOR THE CAR PARK BESIDES THE CHURCH.
THE CACHE IS LOCATED AT :-
N52 BA.CDE
E000 FG.HIJ
THE INFORMATION CAN CLEARLY BE FOUND IN THE CHURCH YARD.
#1)HERBERT BAKER DIED AGED AB(-2)
#2)BEATIE CADGE DIED AGED C2
#3)KATE STUTTERS DIED ON THE 28TH JANUARY 19IJ (+10)
#4)RACHEL FROST DIED ON 28TH JUNE 19FG (+7)
#5)WILLIAM COLDHAM DIED AGED 7D (+2)
#6)ELIZABETH LAMBERT WAS BORN ON 20TH JULY 1H15
#7)URSULA WELLER-POLEY DIED 24TH JULY 197E (-4)
Despite its location, All Saints is one of the better known
parish churches of Suffolk, and we will see why in a moment. But
from the outside it does look unfamiliar, for to the north side of
this pretty medieval church is a large, boxy red brick aisle and
chapel, with few windows, and the curious domed smokestack of a
chimney rising from one corner. Flint in the walls suggests that
there was an earlier north aisle here. What on earth has happened?
Well, this is the early 18th Century work of the Poley family, the
Booxted Lords of the Manor. At the moment of swapping time for
eternity, they have become frozen in time here. If you go inside,
we can see them. When I first came this way I was young and fiery,
and rather dismissive of grand monuments. I have grown to admire
much of the post-Refomation work in East Anglia's churches; but I
suppose that I still feel a bit uncomfortable with the way that,
from the mid-16th century onwards, our churches were usurped for a
show of family power, often with monuments that are the height of
vulgarity. Of course, there were grand memorials before the
Reformation, particularly in brass. But these seem to have retained
a sense of piety, an acknowledgement of the family's participation
in the economy of grace, as well as that of land and money. In the
18th Century in particular, memorials intend to demonstrate secular
power, and are often wholly pagan in character. Medieval churches
often had chantry chapels for local landed families, where they
could be buried and have Masses said for their souls in what they
believed would be perpetuity. These chapels often became the
mausoleum or private aisle for the family once the Reformation had
declared prayers for the dead to be useless. Occasionally, the
churches where these great families remembered themselves became
entire private chapels - Hengrave, for example, which became a
mausoleum for a recusant Catholic family. But most often, as at
Helmingham, Framlingham and here at Boxted, they continued as
Parish churches after the Reformation. But Boxted is slightly
different. What makes Boxted remarkable is that the family that
glorified itself here, the Poleys, did so rather late, and in the
late 17th and early 18th centuries seem to have attempted to
recreate a 16th century mausoleum church by building a fake
pre-Reformation chantry chapel. Why did they do this? Probably, to
try and make it look as though they were a more established family
than they might have appeared otherwise. So they built the north
chapel to the chancel, certainly the only one built in the whole of
Suffolk in either of those centuries. Probably, the attempt to make
it look like an ex-chantry chapel is based on the same (but
genuine) thing at nearby Somerton. At this time, antiquarians were
beginning to rediscover a fascination with the past; late 16th and
17th century church architecture normally reaffirms and celebrates
the Reformation and its break with the past. As I say, at the
Reformation the chantry chapels often became family mausoleums; and
so, the Poleys created their own. Apart from the extensive late
17th/early 18th century work, this church was thoroughly restored
again during the 19th century. There's never been a shortage of
money here. Virtually all the woodwork is 19th century, although
the pulpit is older, and so is the chancel roof. From the 16th
century is Boxted's earliest tomb, on the south side of the
chancel. This is most striking, and it is only when you get up
close that you see the jet black effigies are not marble at all,
but wood. The oak has blackened with age. This is a rare revival of
the wooden effigies popular in the 13th century, and found in
Suffolk at Heveningham and Bures. This one is to William and Alice
Poley, and was made after 1587.
If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I
would just ask that you could let
Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church
numbers and names to avoid duplication
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