Monday.

As it was a dry (but rather dull) bank holiday Monday, we decided to drive out to Polstead, have a look round the Church, then go for a good walk round the lanes. I'm going to save the walk till later and show you Polstead Church on this blog entry. The church (pictured above) is a very unusual church in one way. It is built of stone, reused roman masonry, roman bricks, and norman bricks. Someone at this point usually interrupts to tell me that after the romans left  around 450 years A.D. we lost the art of brickmaking and didn't discover it again until early Tudor days. This is generally true enough but there seems to have been the odd survival of brickmaking in a few places, of which Polstead was one. Certainly some Norman bricks were used when the Church was built here around 1160 A.D.

Above is a view across the nave of the church, and below a view of the roof  showing three crown posts.

 Above is a photo of the small memorial to  Jacob Brand,  the then Lord of the Manor of Polstead, who died in 1630. With him is his three year old son Benjamin, who is said to have died after falling from an upper window of Polstead Hall. Below is a picture of Polstead Hall, which stands next to the Churchyard. It was given a new facade in the eighteenth century, althoughmuch of the building is of 16th century date.

And lastly, a snapshot of a small  piece of stained glass, which has been reused in a porch window of the Church.  Doesn't that face look across the centuries at us? Don't know who he was, but his nose appears to be running.

I'll do another blog entry of our walk later -supper calls now.