St Andrews Church

This is a smashing church; full of delights, and yet little known. It is probably the best building of the Decorated period in all Suffolk.

You will find the church in this scattered village adjoining the larger Bacton, with which it is in a joint benefice. The roads twist and turn around the sheltered churchyard; it is a lush, secret place. The building seems relaxed, and slightly battered, compared with the rigours of Perpendicular to be found around and about. You will notice first the two niches in the east wall, facing the road, their crowning turrets rising either side of the gorgeous tracery.

The building unfolds before you as you approach the south porch. The bumpy, verdant graveyard is a cushioned setting for such a jewel. The Decorated windows of the aisles, with their reticulated tracery, are all slightly different.

Above them towers the Perpendicular clerestory, its windows picked out in brick. Typical for Suffolk; but, on this occasion, taking a back seat.

The porch itself also has two little turrets, and decorated tracery in the walls. Marian imagery decorates the outside, as well as some rather odd (and unfinished) Victorian patterns.

They seem intended to echo the 15th century flint work patterns in the clerestory. The porch contains one of the county's best 14th century doorways.

The arch consists of sets of three fluted columns, supporting elegant lines and fleurons, retaining much of their original paint. The door looks as if it might be original.

The porch also contains a stoup, which looks like a mortar set in the wall, but may also be original.

Before going in, however, walk around to the west side of the tower for a rather startling surprise. A great archway is cut in the wall, towering about thirty feet above the ground and enclosed by a wrought iron screen.

It contains the bell-ringers' chamber, as well as a bier, and a rather precarious ladder to the belfry. Above the arch, three large niches may have contained a rood group.

The tower is a chunky 15th century affair, buttressed only in the lower stages. large Decorated bell windows open beneath grotesques.

This tower was built to stand against this nave; notice the decorated west window in the interior wall of the archway. From within the church, it appears that there is no tower.

The graveyard at the west end is rich with bracken, angelica and primroses. It is very beautiful.

Suffolk Perpendicular has a way of looking younger than it actually is. Decorated reveals its age rather more easily, and as we return to the church and step inside, we enter a seemingly ancient space. The stark white walls and arcadesrise up into the shadows, surmounted by one of Suffolk's most beautiful double-hammerbeam roofs. The pillars in the north aisle in particular lean out most alarmingly.

The roof is a beautiful golden oak colour. It was built in the 15th century, at the same time as the clerestory. Simon Cotton no relation) tells me that a Thomas Cook, in his will of 1471, left a close called Garlekis towards 'the reparation and edification of the new roof of Cotton church.' And so, here it is.

The most easterly bay is panelled, to form a canopy of honour to the rood. None of the rood apparatus survives, but not only can one see how it cut into the chancel arch, the cutting away of tracery beneath the most easterly clerestory windows shows where the rood loft stood, and how big it was. The stairs come in from the chancel, and would have turned outside the chancel arch into the loft. It must have been a magnificent sight before the protestant vandals of the 1540s destroyed it.

In the chancel itself, a beautiful set of sedilia and piscine are crowned with decorated canopies (the middle two missing).

The more you explore, the more you discover, and the more you sense what a significant building this is.

Take, for example, the tomb recess in the north aisle. It is now cropped by the modern pews. The church guide (which is excellent, by the way, and a bargain at £1) suggests that it was not an Easter Sepulchre

And yet, I think that it might have been, and I remain to be convinced that only tombs in the north wall of the chancel were used for this purpose.

The 17th century pulpit is a beautiful colour, unstained and golden. An alarming creature acts as a handhold; a griffin, perhaps.

The font is reddish, like that at Nettlestead, and there are some jolly monks and priests around the shaft; but they may have been recut.

A scattering of medieval glass adds a frisson of colour to the clerestory windows. Otherwise, all is stark white and wood. This whole building is, I think, one of the most beautiful art objects in the county; it deserves to be so much better known than it is.
The photograph below is a former winner of the Cotton Photographic competition taken by John Marshall which shows the comet Hale-Bopp passing over.

Carol Concert 2008

Here are three pics from the FCC Christmas Concert in St. Andrews on the evening of Thursday 18th December. Some 140 people came to hear the St. Edmundsbury Male Voice Choir sing a variety of music under their musical director, Mark Jefferson and to join in a variety of Christmas Carols. Mulled wine was served and mince pies, sausage rolls and a diversity of food was available before everyone set out for home.



 


Cotton Methodist Chapel

Kind thanks to Mr G Cuthbert for the following information :-

Cotton Methodist Chapel in the Bury St Edmunds Methodist circuit stands beside the B1113 road which divides the villages of Cotton and Bacton.
Services are held at 10:30am every Sunday with other meetings as announced.
A welcome awaits all who attend these services.
Methodism came to Cotton when some local people returned after hearing some of Rev John Wesleys preachers in Diss in 1779. At first meetings were held in a cottage, then in a barn until a chapel was built on the present site in 1814 with three galleries around the building.
When that became too small it was demolished and the present building erected for £1000 in 1877.
Each year a chapel anniversary is held in February.

A message from St Andrews PCC:-