IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Wetheringsett, STOWMARKET, IP14 5PP

Brockford is a hamlet of Wetheringsett which straddles the A140. The sign depicts the church tower and leaning against it are two men famed for very different reasons. Dressed in red is Richard Hakluyt. A Renaissance scholar, diplomat and spy he became friendly with Francis Drake and Humphrey Gilbert and chronicled their voyages. A year after the defeat of the Spanish Armada he wrote “Principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation.” The work was superseded by another work which contained one and a half million words and was written while he was the rector at Wetheringsett. He went on to become Archdeacon of Westminster in 1604 and never ventured further than Paris. The second figure is George Ellis who falsified documents and became the rector at Wetheringsett from 1883 to 1888, and despite being unordained, baptised, buried and married couples, and was the cause of an Act of Parliament. In fact the only one of its type in England. Briefly the Act said that any marriage solemnised by a person falsely pretending to be an ordained clergyman of the Church of England, despite the marriage being legally invalid, should be deemed valid by order of the Queen, under The Marriages Validation Act 1888. He served time in prison for his crime and was warmly welcomed when he revisited the village after his release. https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4381670

The public footpath leading past here can be seen in the background.

The church of All Saints, Wetheringsett Suffolk for more info see http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/wetheringsett.html

Sign seen attached to the organ in the church of All Saints, Wetheringsett Suffolk.

The lovely flushwork and niches on the six tower buttresses are striking. The west end of the tower is open to the elements as at nearby Cotton. Not a galilee, but perhaps originally serving a similar purpose. The clerestory has 16 windows which illuminate the elaborately carved timbers of the lovely nave roof. Simply carved tie-beams support king and queen-posts; the chancel roof is panelled. The tower and nave were built at different times, but it is not certain which came first, probably the nave. The 13th century south doorway is earlier than any part of the tower. In the chancel, a very small piscina is flanked by sophisticated triple seat sedilia. There is an earlier and unusual angle piscina in the vestry of all places, north of the chancel. Perhaps indicating that this was once a chapel.

Off Church Street

Off Church Street

Off Church Street (Close up)

Off Church Street (Close up)