Needham Market

[mossie]

Having a nice day to play with a visit to the little Suffolk town of Needham Market called me.



I suppose its chief claim to fame is that the discoverer of oxygen, Joseph Priestley, was minister of the Congregational Church at one time.



The 15th century parish church is a little further up the main street



Strangely this was built as a “chapel of ease” for the main parish church at Barking about 1½
miles away. This was, while Barking was out in the sticks and when it needed a market the market became established on the main Ipswich to Bury St Edmunds road, hence the name.

As one enters the town the first significant building is this pub, the Lion



Because that is in the parish of Barking it is known to all locals as “The Barking Lion”

The town was well supplied with pubs although several have closed over the years but animal names are common for pubs



And birds



Odd names have crept in in recent years



But that is a fraud, being an Asian type restaurant.

A break is called for, but there is more to come.

[Deleted]

It looks like a very tidy place so far!

[htmb]

Fun, but where's the dreary English weather?

[mossie]

The town grew up in the medieval period, this house is dated 1480



The habit of dating houses was common for some time, here is a later example, which has a Masonic symbol in addition to the date



Here is another, note how there was a fashion to hide the timber framing under plaster rendering. It is just possible to see the woodwork grinning through



Old buildings fascinate me, experts can date them by their style, I just guess. As my wife used to say "What he doesn't know he makes up".
The Church service was on as I walked up the street so I will have to go back one day. However I did walk round and fancied I could see Roman bricks having been reused in the walls, certainly those odd bricks are very old.



The church incidentally has no graveyard, as it was originally a chapel to Barking Church. Burials from Needham took place in Barking churchyard and the coffin was pushed on a cart the mile and a half up to Barking via this alleyway. Victoria prudery changed the original name of Corpseway to Causeway



The town lies on the main London-Ipswich-Norwich railway and has this fine old Victorian Station, now only served by local trains, the main line trains no longer stop there.



The main road was a coaching route and this may have been a coaching inn, Bugs Bar is an annex to the The Limes hotel. Here incidentally we had our wedding reception, this was while I was still in the RAF. The bill for the event is still in the back of our wedding album, and would you believe it, the drinks cost more than the meal.



Here is another good old building, what amused me here was that the near part is a hairdressers with the rather unfortunate name of "Loose Ends"



And that is a good place to end for today

[htmb]

Such interesting architecture, Mossie. Thank you for pointing out the bricks in the side of the church wall.

[tod2]

Ah Mossie that was magic! I love old buildings, old pubs, and that was a lovely tour!

[mossie]

I said I would return to Needham Market church



What I really wanted to show you was the roof construction. This is one of very few "hammerbeam" braced roofs, and shows the real art of carpentry. All done without mechanical aids or our old friend "elfin safety" to erect it.



Here is the actual hammerbeam



Note the angels to accompany the congregation in the hymns



Moving now to the hamlet of Barking, just up the road. Here is the Church in which we got married where previously my wife had been christened along in due course with our first two children. All these ceremonies had been performed by the same vicar.



The font



and behind it the little belfry from where the six bells are rung. note the coloured grips, called sallies, on the rope for the ringer to catch and grasp when he rings the bell



I mentioned carting the coffins up from Needham to Barking for burial. Here is the bier on which they had to be pushed





A view down the nave, showing the delicate rood screen seperating the nave from the chancel. Nave, from which the words navy, navigation etc are derived, is where the congregation worship and they are responsible for its upkeep.



The chancel is the vicars responsibility and he has his own private entrance directly to it



In common with many churches of this period the nave is decorated by "hatchments" of prominent men from the parish, normally knights.



here is Parsons Lane which is the only vehicular access, just wide enough for cars

[htmb]

Oh, Mossie! I'm in awe. Both of the churches are spectacular and your photos just perfect. I'll have questions later after I've looked over the pictures again, I am sure.

[fumobici]

This is super. For some reason London doesn't draw me but the more bucolic side of S and middle England does. I love the wooden roof of the church, I saw a beautiful wooden roof inside a church in Zurich (there's a photo in my Zurich post) and it really surprised me after seeing so many stone roofs in Italy. I always wonder how much of the wood is original to construction. I've had locals swear some amazing wooden construction like a stair or building beams were original, but how would one know? That said you can see huge exposed beams in the centro in Bologna that look both near impossible to replace in situ and fully 500 or whatever years old.

[Deleted]

Those spectacular wooden beams are becoming so rare because so many of these places have a devastating fire sooner or later, even if they have to "wait" 500 or 700 years for it to happen for lightning to strike or, in more recent times, the electrical wires to rot or be gnawed.

[htmb]

Mossie, that's quite an elaborate baptismal font. Does the top part lift off? It looks like it might be a two person job.

[mossie]

Htmb, yes it has to be lifted off but some have a cord or chain attached to the top and run over a pulley. I did not examine that one but looking at the photo I think there is an eye in the top and a cord to suspend it from. There would be the most horrendous splintering sound if it were dropped, that is an outstanding bit of wood carving. The detail and love incorporated in these old churches is tremendous and would have involved countless hours of painstaking work, all done for a pittance or simply to show devotion.

[htmb]

Yes, I can see the workmanship, which you have done an excellent job of capturing in your photographs. The detail in these old churches is really quite interesting.

[Deleted]

What an interesting, intriguing glimpse of Medieval architecture Mossie!
The old bricks sent me.So beautifully crafted along with the aforementioned woodwork.
The only thing that I don't like is the color of those "sallies".
They seem so out of place with the overall Medieval effect.

Also, as noted, how very tidy the village looks.
It almost looks like a Disney replication of a Medieval village.

Where are the inhabitants of this lovely place?
No one in sight that I can see.

Thanks for sharing this with us!