St Botolph's Chapel, Botesdale
The chapel is set back from the road on a slight rise, with a small grassed area in front. Intriguingly, it is semi-detached from a contemporary house on the west side.
The juxtaposition of flint and Suffolk pink wash is an attractive one. The most interesting thing about the church is an inscription above the south doorway, a survival from a dramatic epoch in English history. The Black Death, which visited and revisited East Anglia in the middle years of the 14th century, radically altered the political and economic complexion of the country. It also altered the priorities of the Church. The rising Middle Classes, who had come to prominence in the consequent boom years which were a legacy of the Black Death, became obsessed with ensuring a swift escape from purgatory after their own deaths. The best way of making this happen was that the living would say prayers for the souls of the dead, and this was achieved by those rich enough to do so by the foundation of chantries. A chantry is a type of bequest, usually in the form of land, the income from which was to pay for a Priest in perpetuity, who would lead Masses and devotions for the health of the soul of the dead donor. That one was established here at Botesdale is immediately apparent as you walk up the path, because above the door, and still discernible despite a later window having been cut through it, you can read in Latin Pray for the Souls of John Shrive and Juliana his wife. Pray for the soul of Margaret Wykys. This was probably set in place in the 1470s.
Unfortunately, the very members of the Nouveau Riche who made chantries popular would all too soon embrace one of the radical ideas from the continent which was a precursor of emergent capitalism - in this case, Protestantism. The protestant advisors to the young Edward VI would energetically break the link with England's Catholic past by outlawing chantries, and prayers for the dead in general - ironically, a Priest caught saying prayers for the dead could now be put to death himself. And so, Anglicanism was born. However, the new congregational liturgy brilliantly devised by Thomas Cranmer had no need for the multiplicity of vast churches which the years of Catholic devotion and bequests had left behind. Inevitably, the Botesdale chapel was sold off, and for many years was home to Botesdale Grammar School, founded in the 16th
Century by Sir Nicholas Bacon, who you can still see lying in considerable splendour across the fields at St Mary.
You step into a church which is broadly late 19th century in character. The school had seen its best days by the time of the Restoration of the Monarchy in the late 17th century, but soldiered on in various guises as private anc commercial schools until finally closing in 1878. The building was sold off, the old chapel being conveyed to a trust for use as an Anglican place of worship. As this was still Redgrave parish, and as Botesdale was still a thriving settlement, the building once again assumed its role as a Chapel of Ease, as it had been 350 years before.
A lot of the woodwork came from other churches, and thus predates the 1880s. The chancel area is rather curious, being a result of a 1980s reordering. It must have seemed the very thing at the time.The loveliest feature of the interior is the west gallery, a big one which houses the organ, and from which you can see some primitive, carved faces in the roof, which are presumably 17th century. Clearly, the gallery was intended to enhance the capacity of the interior, and because of this it lends the western end of the building the air of a non-conformist chapel, which is not a bad thing.
By contrast, the east window glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne is spectacular in such a setting. Curiously, the mother church of St Mary at Redgrave was declared redundant in 2003, and so today this little chapel is the principal place of worship in the parish, along with the mission room at Redgave, recently reinvented as All Saints.
“If anybody would like to expand this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.comso he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”