Sunday 1 March 2015

Sunday.


Took the photographs today in and around Aldham Church, where we went to morning service. It's about a mile or so away from Highdale. It's a lovely little church, mainly of 14th century date, although the round tower is a good deal earlier, and was probably built for defensive purposes, against the Danes, we are told. We are also told (by the local people, who have had the information passed down by word of mouth since time immoral, as one of them used to tell me) that the tower is about a thousand years old. Actually, parts of it are rather older than that, as you'll realise when you come to look at the third photo.


Above photo is of what's left of the old duck decoy near the Church.


Inside one of the windows is the above celtic strapwork stone. Another similar piece of stone is built into the outside of the tower. Don't know when this stone was cut; probably somewhere between the seventh and ninth centuries we are told (by the same well informed  locals). It's obviously a piece of reused stone from an earlier Church. After Church we motored over to Copdock where a couple of antique fairs are held on the first Sunday of the month. Combed both of them (one in the village hall and the other in a nearby hotel).  Made only one purchase, a piece of late eighteenth century pewter; but I am very pleased with it.  Home and a late lunch.  Spent the rest of the day in my workshop, getting a few more pieces ready for Wednesday's Long Melford Antique Fair.  Got another treen bowl to wax polish, then it's bedtime.

                                              Goodnight All.

7 comments:

Crowbard said...

Aldham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located around eight miles west of Ipswich, in 2005 it had a population of 200. (Estimates of Total Population of Areas in Suffolk Suffolk County Council)
According to Eilert Ekwall (Ekwall, E. 1940 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names; 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; p. 5) the meaning of the village name is Ealda's meadow/enclosure or Old meadow/enclosure. The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book, when it had a population of 16.
The church of Aldham St Mary is one of 38 existing round-tower churches in Suffolk. (There are about 155 in England)
In 1555 Aldham Common was the location for the matyrdom of the English Protestant Rowland Taylor during the Marian Persecutions.

Crowbard said...

Aldham is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. Located around eight miles west of Ipswich, in 2005 it had a population of 200. (Estimates of Total Population of Areas in Suffolk Suffolk County Council)
According to Eilert Ekwall (Ekwall, E. 1940 The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names; 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press; p. 5) the meaning of the village name is Ealda's meadow/enclosure or Old meadow/enclosure. The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book, when it had a population of 16.
The church of Aldham St Mary is one of 38 existing round-tower churches in Suffolk. (There are about 155 in England)
In 1555 Aldham Common was the location for the matyrdom of the English Protestant Rowland Taylor during the Marian Persecutions.

Rog said...

I love round towered churches. I bought the book on Norfolk round towered churches recently and will tick them off gradually

Unknown said...

Thank you Crowbard. Doctor Rowland Taylor has a memorial stone on Aldham Common. In fact he has two memorial stones. One is a fairly crudely engraved lump of stone made in the 16th century, and the other is a much more civilised/sophisticated one dating from the 1820s.

Unknown said...

Thank you Rog. So do I - love round towered churches, that is. Between Norfolk and Suffolk, we have the majority of the round towered churches in the kingdom.

Pat said...

I love time immoral:)

Unknown said...

Hi Pat; thank the Lord someone's spotted that one. I too loved it when I first heard it. I have never been able to make up my mind whether it was a comment on the supposed morals (or lack of them) of our distant ancestors, or just a good example of English bucolic humour.