Wetherden is an attractive west Suffolk village beside the sprawl of Haughley Park in that area north of Stowmarket which is the county's agricultural heartland. The church sits in the centre of the village, and is a noble sight, not particularly large but, in Mortlock's words, lavish. There are good views from the east on the road from Haughley, but you enter the churchyard from the west, the tower with its reticulated windows and image niches rising imposingly above you. Peter Northeast and Simon Cotton transcribed a bequest of 40s to the building of the tower in 1420, and then in 1433 Robert Maggys left 6s 8d to the new bell, suggesting a date for the tower's completion, although it must be said that it looks earlier than this. The east window is also in this earlier style, and thereafter there are bequests for furnishings. But in 1487 Sir John Sulyard of Wetherden Hall asked in his will to be buried in the new aisle on the south part of the church. Sir John was Chief Justice to Richard II, a man of some consequence and considerable wealth, as we will see.
The churchyard path leads round to the south side of the church revealing the Sulyard aisle, and this the most spectacular part of the building. When it was finished it would have been a riot of flushwork symbols, monograms and shields, and although much of the flintwork has now been lost it is easy to get a general idea. The aisle was not completed until the early 16th Century, and in 1517 the will of Dame Anne Bourgchire, Sulyard's widow and widowed again since, asked for her to be buried in the south aisle against the chancel before an image of St Anne, standing at the south end of the said aisle. She also asked for 1000 masses to be sung for soul within 8 days of burial, and a secular priest to sing in the church of Wetherden in the new aisle for 10 years at £6 per annum. A porch is built into the west end of the aisle, its flushwork including pots of lilies representing the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin suggesting a probable medieval dedication of the church, and it is through this that you enter.
The first impression is that this is a church of quality. The benches with their traceried backs, some late medieval and others good Victorian copies, spread eastwards, and echoing them high above is a fine 15th Century double hammerbeam roof. The slightly later and more intimate aisle roof with its angels beyond the delicate and soaring arcade is intricate and beautiful.
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The above information is from Simon Knott's Suffolk Churches website which also has some fantastic pictures.
Now for the cache:
The listed coordinates take you to the Grave of Corporal C.W Robinson of the Suffolk Regiment.
15th March ABCD Age EF
N52 A(B/E).(D-C)(A-C)D E000 (F-E)(D-C).(C+E)BA
Check Sum = 40
The cache is a short walk away with a different view of the church.
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