The information shown below about St Mary's is taken from the Church
Guide compiled in 1998 by Josephine Gibson.
St. Mary’s is the Parish church of Haughley. There has been a church in
Haughley since Anglo-Saxon times, and many generations of Haughley villagers have
worshipped together in their Parish church . The building that you see today is a
compilation of architectural styles from the 12th century to the present day. It owes much
of its appearance to medieval stonemasons and Tudor and Victorian carpenters.
Nevertheless, it would be a neglected monument without today’s congregation, who pay
for repairs, arrange the flowers, mow the churchyard, ring the bells, sing in the choir,
sew, mend, clean, polish, paint......
The early history of Haughley Church
Haughley is a Saxon place-name which probably means
‘a high clearing in the woods’. The name is first mentioned in an 11th
century Anglo-Saxon will in which Haughley belonged to a lady called Leofgifu. The
Domesday book tells us that before the Norman conquest in 1066 Haughley and its church
belonged to Guthmund. Its first Norman lord was Hugh de Montfort, and the present church
building lies in the outer bailey of Haughley Castle, which was destroyed in 1173. The
‘duckpond’ near the church is part of the moat around the inner bailey. The
castle gave Haughley a special status, which resulted in the church’s history taking
a slightly different course from other local churches. Unlike Wetherden, the church never
belonged to the abbey at Bury St. Edmunds. Henry II took the manor of the ‘Honour of
Haughley’ into his hands when one of its owners (Henry D’Essex) was defeated in
a duel and became a monk (see the banners in the nave). It then passed to various people
favoured by the crown, including Ralph de Broc, who had a hand in the murder of Thomas
Becket. In the early 13th century it was given to Richard, Earl of Cornwall (and brother
of King Henry III). Richard was lucky enough to survive a shipwreck, and paid for a new
abbey to be built at Hailes (Gloucestershire) to give thanks to God. He gave Haughley land
and Haughley tithes to his new abbey, and from then until the abbey was dissolved (1539)
the vicars of Haughley were appointed by Hailes Abbey. This is of particular relevance to
the South Aisle.
The Reformation of the
1530’s brought enormous upheaval to Haughley church. Until then it had been a
Roman Catholic church, but the switch to Protestantism changed the way the church looked
and the way the congregation worshipped, and had a far-reaching effect on attitudes and
beliefs. The very name of the church (Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) represented
an incongruous Catholic belief (though it was usually just called ‘Haughley
church’ even before the Reformation). Protestantism scorned elaborate decoration,
coloured paint, gilding, saints and images, but it seems that the local population
hadn’t the heart to wreak wholesale destruction on the church. It is highly probable
that many local people simply kept a low profile, since the Lords of the manor at Haughley
park persisted with Roman Catholicism. The right to appoint vicars fell to local families
such as the Bells and Tyrells. The earliest surviving church registers (and other church
records) date from 1557, and they have been kept almost continuously to this day.
Puritan fervour in the
mid 17th century brought Haughley a minister dubbed ‘Decalogue Dods’ after a
very long sermon about the ten commandments.
List of clergy
Haughley has a
continuous record of vicars dating back to John de Monte Luelli in 1255. (He was probably
Italian: there was civil unrest in the 13th century about the number of Italian priests in
England). Our first female vicar, Deirdre Parmenter, was appointed in 1997.
Building materials
Suffolk is covered in a thick layer of clay, chalk or
sand, and for this reason we lack large building stones. Most of our medieval churches are
built of flint, and Haughley is no exception. Between the large mortared flints of the
inner and outer walls is a filling of flint rubble. A close look at the walls of the
church shows that flint was not used exclusively: other stones, tiles and bricks have been
incorporated. Given the early date of the tower, it is probable that any bricks in the
walls are re-used Roman bricks. The top of the tower has coursed brickwork. The corners of
the walls are built of large blocks of limestone from outside the county. Different
limestone has been used for different periods of building (you can tell by the kind of
lichen that grows there). We think that our oldest buttresses are on the north wall of the
nave and may date from the twelfth century, and it is interesting that one of these
buttresses contains a re-used piece of channelled limestone from an even older building.
Limestone has been used for our gargoyles on the tower and South Aisle, and there are tiny
gargoyles on the high windows on the north side of the church. A brick tunnel runs under
the church from the east end to the north-west end. Its entrance is near the pulpit. It is
probably a drain, but it may have had other uses. The large and small timbers of the roof
are oak. The nave and chancel are roofed with slate, and the South Aisle roof is made of
stainless steel sheets.
The Nave
The nave is the main part of
the church, and it’s probably the oldest part. Some sections of the north wall may
date back to the 12th century, but most of the visible structure is of a much later date.
The entire west wall was braced and reconstructed in the last century. The vestry was
added (by Andrews) and extended westward in the 1970’s. This extension was a
conversion of a former coal and coke house. The pews and the pulpit date from the
1870’s, when there was a major refurbishment of the church interior. The kneelers
(hassocks) that add so much colour to the church were made by parishioners in 1986. The
windows of the nave are of mixed styles, some Decorated and some Perpendicular. It is
worth pointing out that the height of the nave was raised sometime around the 15th
century. The small high windows of the clerestory were added for the purpose of
illuminating the nave’s most startling feature, the timber roof. Technically, the
roof has alternating oak arch-braces and cambered tie-beams, but it is the decorative
effect rather than the construction that is so striking. Everywhere there are carved
timbers and floral roof-bosses: the original timber has a silvery sheen, but the roof also
includes Jacobean and Victorian repair work. The roof that we see today is only a vestige
of the splendour that existed before the 1534 Reformation. Several pre-Reformation wills
describe the rood-beam and the rood-loft, which were timber structures at the east end of
the nave. We know that the rood-beam at Haughley had carved, painted and gilded figures of
Mary, John and at least two angels. A cross would have stood at the centre of the
rood-beam. The beam itself (or part of it) was still existent in 1865, when it was
mentioned in an architect’s report.
South Aisle
This is the most decorative part of the church with
its angel roof and stained glass windows. It’s joined to the nave by a five-arch
arcade supported by octagonal limestone pillars. Early 16th century wills leave money for “makyng
of ye Ele (aisle) in Haughley church”, and this is an appropriate date for the style
of the angel roof. There are eighteen angels on brackets at the ends of beams, carrying
such items as books or musical instruments. At the east end of the aisle there are some
smaller angels parallel to the wall, and the carved rafters also carry central floral
bosses. The hassocks of the south aisle have angels to complement the roof. The South
Aisle may have undergone a radical refurbishment in the early 16th century, but several
items show that it was built at an earlier date. The entrance is Early English (1300), the
window traceries (not the glass) and the piscina are of the Decorated period (about 1350).
Furthermore, a letter from the pope (dated 1393) encourages people to visit and give money
to a Chapel of St. Cross in Haughley church on the ‘Feast of the Invention and
Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and the Dedication’. At the time the vicars of
Haughley were appointed by the Abbot of Hailes (Gloucestershire), and (amongst many
relics) Hailes claimed to own a fragment of the True Cross. This may be the reason why
there was a chapel dedicated to the Cross in Haughley. (Hailes also claimed to possess a
sample of Christ’s blood, but at the Reformation there was some correspondence about
whether or not it was duck blood!) We do not know for certain that the South Aisle is the
Holy Cross chapel, but it seems probable. Fifteenth century wills describe an image
(Mary?) and a cross in the chapel. Today we use the South Aisle for early morning services
or other services when we expect a small congregation.
The
chancel
The chancel is at the eastern
end of the nave where the high altar and choir stalls are situated. The chancel at
Haughley dates back to the early 14th century, and has a small priest’s door in the
south wall. The windows are of the later Perpendicular style. Behind the altar-rail
is the sanctuary, where you will find a Jacobean holy table, an ancient wooden chest and a
‘bishop’s chair’. Much of the visual effect of the sanctuary is brought
about by the soft furnishings: the altar linen was made by Miss Dorothy Simmons. The long
altar kneeler is dedicated to the sufferers of Alzheimer’s disease: it was made by
several church members during 1996 through the initiative of former churchwarden Mrs Nesta
Taylor. On the floor behind the altar there are four black marble ledger slabs in memory
of the Ray and Tyrell families. Access to the Ray vault was beneath the entrance through
the altar rails. This is the ‘high status’ end of the church for a burial: lower
status burials were towards the back of the church. A ‘tunnel’ runs under the
chancel: its entrance may be seen outside the church below the east window. It may serve
as a drain, but it is bricked off from the tunnel under the nave.
The choir (a good SATB choir with up to 20 members,
formed in 1991 by Rev. David Burrell, with Martin Seymour as organist) bought the
choir-stall lamps in 1995, and Mr Dennis Spink made the fixings. The organ is a single
manual organ with a straight pedal-board. It was made by Alfred Monk of London and
installed in the newly-built organ chamber in 1878. In the same year the chancel roof was
fitted with its present barrel-vaulting to improve the acoustics. One of our
longest-standing organists was Kathleen Coe. She played for forty years, and a memorial
made by her son Richard (with carving by Rob Lewis) is displayed near the organ.
The Tower
At Haughley the tower is sited in an unusual
position: south of the nave rather than west. Its Y-shaped ‘Early English’
windows allow us to date it fairly precisely at 1300 A.D. Its diagonal buttresses
are only at the front, and it can safely be concluded that a pre-1300 chapel of some
description stood between the nave and the tower. The ground floor of the tower forms the
porch, which was traditionally the place for villagers to carry out financial or legal
transactions. Its secular role is illustrated by the pegs on the porch roof: they are for
the fire buckets described elsewhere. The magnificent doorway into the church is Early
English, and the south door is inscribed with the date 1699 (which may be the date of the
door or the date of a repair). The first floor of the tower is the ringing chamber, where
a resourceful team of bell-ringers gathers for practice on Monday evenings. Brick and
wooden stairs lead from the ground floor to the chamber. It has been suggested that the
moulded supports for the banisters are remnants of the rood screen, and that the moulded
timber of the porch ceiling may be from the rood beam. The bells themselves are two floors
above the ringing chamber. There are five of them, reputably the heaviest ringable five in
Suffolk. Four were cast from the pre-reformation bells in 1579 by Stephen Tonni of Bury
St. Edmunds, and are inscribed: “DE BURI SANTI EDMUNDI STEFANUS TONNI ME FECIT WL
1579 SUMPTUS NOSTRORUM SUNT HAUGHLYE VIVORUM”. The treble was made in 1702 and
recast in 1885 by John Warner of London in memory of local surgeon W. Ebden. It is
inscribed with the details of the recasting. The church also has a set of hand-bells. The
tower clock (which is wound twice each week!) was installed in 1903, a gift of the Bevans
of Plashwood.
The Font
At Haughley we
possess a wonderful example of a type of font produced in the eastern part of East Anglia
between the late 14th and 15th centuries. It’s known as an ‘East Anglian’
font, and because it features the symbols of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it’s also
called a ‘Four Evangelists’ font. The font consists of a pedestal and bowl
carved from limestone, the inside of the bowl being lined with lead. The bowl is octagonal
in shape and has eight carved panels. Four of the panels contain the symbols of the
evangelists:
The pedestal is carved with four lions and four naked
hairy wildmen or ‘woodwoses’. Three of the wildmen are carrying clubs. They may
symbolize the heathens of our community who have never been converted to Christianity.
Many of the figures on the font have damaged faces. This kind of destruction was carried
out by iconoclasts, who objected to seeing images in church buildings. Some damage was
incurred in the wake of the Reformation, but much was perpetrated by William Dowsing and
his followers in the 1640’s. There is no record that Dowsing visited Haughley, but he
destroyed an enormous amount of church property in the neighbouring village of Wetherden.
(Destruction of the Latin inscription on the Trinity emblem suggests that the damage
should be dated at the Reformation). The font cover was made in 1979 by churchwarden
Mr George Parry, using wood from HMS Ganges, a naval training base. The font is still used
today for christenings, although we place a container of water within the bowl rather than
fill the whole lead lining. We christen about a dozen children and adults each year,
mostly during church services.
Piscinas
Piscinas are basins built
into the wall near an altar: they are for washing the chalice (cup) used at communion. The
hole in the basin returns the water to consecrated ground. Haughley has two piscinas, both
belonging to the ‘Decorated’ period of the 14th century. The one in the chancel
is probably the earlier, and has a square head, a curved ‘ogee’ arch with
trefoils either side and a plain round recess in the basin.The piscina in the South Aisle
has an arched head with a cinquefoil decoration and a flower-shaped recess in the basin.Beneath
the window adjacent to the South Aisle piscina is a sedilia, which was a medieval seat for
the priest and two deacons who read the bible at services.
Hatchments
Hatchments are diamond-shaped boards painted with
the coats of arms of wealthy local families. From the late 17th century until the early
19th century they were displayed at the family residence to indicate a death in the house,
and they were also carried at the funeral. Many were transferred to local churches when
the custom died out. Haughley has five hatchments belonging to families at Plashwood and
Haughley Park.
Windows
Haughley has windows in three main styles: Early
English (1300) in the tower, Decorated (1300-1350) in the South Aisle and the Nave window
nearest the chancel, Perpendicular (1350-1500) in the chancel, clerestory and Nave. There
is medieval stained glass in the west window of the nave. The two shields represent:
Victorian stained glass is found in the south
windows of the South Aisle (annotated vines in both windows) and in the east window of the
aisle. The east window is an 1897 memorial to Arabelle Williams of Haughley Park. It is a
‘Dorcas’ window (respectable women/widows of Victorian times belonged to
Dorcas Societies). Dorcas, or Tabitha, was raised to life by the prayers of St. Peter.
(Acts 9)
Fire Buckets
Haughley
church possesses a collection of thirty-four 18th century leather fire buckets. They are
painted with their dates and ‘Haughley’, and some bear a white cross and five
red marks, the sign of the five wounds of Christ. Five of them now hang at the back of the
nave, but they were intended for the ceiling of the porch, where there are several rows of
pegs. Fires were a constant threat to a village with thatched roofs: £825 worth of damage
was incurred in a fire in the early 18th century.
The Sanctus Turret
Haughley church is notable for having a sanctus bell
turret in situ above the east end of the nave. The sanctus bell was rung daily when the
priest lifted the bread and wine at Mass. Those who were not able to attend could pause to
pray at this moment. The bell was removed at the Reformation, and the metal may have been
included in the 1579 recasting of the tower bells.
The War Memorial
The war memorial was erected in 1920 following the
First World War. It was originally inscribed with the names and regiments of twenty-eight
young men from Haughley who died fighting in France and Flanders, though some of the
fallen who died of wounds after the war are not on the memorial. The war memorial is a
statue of Christ on the cross with Mary on His right and John on His left. It is thus the
same imagery that stood on the rood beam before the Reformation. The war memorial fell
down in a gale in 1947. A plain cross was temporarily installed, but the original work was
found and restored in 1995 with financial help from the Parish Council. Mary and John had
broken off and had to be re-carved. The names of the fallen were re-inscribed (this
time without their regiments), and the names of the fallen from the Second World War were
also added. Villagers place wreaths of poppies at the foot of the memorial in the days
leading up to the 11th of November, and part of the Remembrance Sunday Service takes place
around the memorial.
