St. Mary’s Parish Church

St. Mary’s Parish Church

‘A Norfolk Odyssey’ (showcasing St Marys’) | Benefice Services | Online Services | Hexagon | Donations | The Bells of St. Mary’s
Churchyard & Lychgate | History | Contacts

St. Mary's Church in background on sunny evening against blue sky with clouds and with leaning gravestones in foregound

Part of a Benefice made up of six parishes, St Mary’s Walsham-le-Willows, St. Margaret’s Westhorpe, St. Bartholomew’s Finningham, St. Mary’s Badwell Ash, St. Mary’s Langham and St. Margaret’s Wattisfield.

All six congregations regularly share services together. These are usually early Sunday morning in St Catherine’s Chapel (St. Mary’s, Walsham-le-Willows), on Wednesday mornings (touring different churches in the benefice) and about every three weeks on a Sunday morning at half-past ten.  You can find the dates the web site A Church Near You.

St Mary’s Walsham-le-Willows also holds its own village services mid-morning on a Sunday. These are either Mattins or the Eucharist.  There is no traditional Sunday School, but a monthly Children’s Praise takes place when children accompanied by their parents meet in church with other members of the regular congregation.

A Norfolk Odyssey

Take a look at photographer Simon Knott’s album ‘Norfolk Odyssey’ showcasing, St. Mary’s Church in Walsham le Willows.

Benefice Services

Rolling list of church services at St. Mary's Walsham and the wider benefice.
DateTimeServiceChurch
3rd November The Fourth Sunday before Advent
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
9:30amHoly CommunionWesthorpe
3:30pmAll Souls ServiceFinningham
10th NovemberThe Third Sunday before Advent
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
10:50amRemberance ServiceWalsham
10:45amAct of RemberanceBadwell Ash War Memorial
10:50amRemberance ServiceFinningham
10:50amRemberance ServiceWesthorpe
10:50amRemberance Service (Joint Service with URC) Wattisfield
17th NovemberThe Second Sunday before Advent
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
11:00amHoly CommunionFinningham
3:00pmEvensongWesthorpe
24th NovemberChrist the King
9:30amHoly CommunionBadwell Ash
11:00amHoly CommunionWalsham
1st DecemberThe First Sunday of Advent
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
11:00amBenefice Stir Up SundayFinningham
8th December The Second Sunday of Advent
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
9:30amHoly CommunionBadwell Ash
9:30amHoly CommunionWesthorpe
11:00amSongs of PraiseWalsham
2:00pmCarol ServiceLangham
15th DecemberThe Third Sunday of Advent
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
3:00pmCarol ServiceFinningham
3:00pmCarol ServiceWattisfield
3:00pmEvensongWesthorpe
18th December
2:00pmSchool Carol ServiceWalsham
19th December
6:00pmCarol ServiceWesthorpe
22nd DecemberThe Fourth Sunday of Advent
4:00pmNine Lessons and CarolsWalsham
24th DecemberChristmas Eve
3:00pmCrib ServiceWalsham
5:00pmCarol ServiceBadwell Ash
11:30pmMidnight MassWalsham
25th DecemberChristmas Day
9:30amChristmas CommunionFinningham
11:00amChristmas CommunionWalsham
29th DecemberThe First Sunday of Christmas
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
9:30amHoly CommunionWesthorpe
4th January
7:30pmEpiphany Singers ConcertWalsham
5th JanuaryThe Second Sunday of Christmas
8:00am BCP Holy CommunionWalsham
11:00amEpiphany Singers Concert (Eucharist)Walsham
12th JanuaryThe First Sunday of Epiphany
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
9:30amHoly CommunionBadwell Ash
11:00amSongs of PraiseWalsham
19th JanuaryThe Second Sunday of Epiphany
8:00amBCP Holy CommunionWalsham
11:00amJoint Communion ServiceWattisfield URC
3:00pmEvensongWesthorpe
26th JanuaryThe Third Sunday of Epiphany
9:30amHoly CommunionWesthorpe
11:00amHoly CommunionFinningham

Services Online

The Benefice Magazine – The Hexagon

The name of the benefice magazine, the Hexagon, reflects the number of churches in the benefice.  It is published bi-monthly and distributed to every home in the six parishes.

Download the December / January Hexagon magazine

Donations

If you would like to make a donation to the Church there are a number of options:

  • Contactless giving terminal at the back of the church
  • Online Giving web site
  • Scan the QR Code to be taken to the Online Giving web site
  • By contacting the Treasurer | garthharlow@outlook.com

Thank you for your kind support

The Bells of St. Mary’s

Walsham Parish Church has a 11 cwt (465kg.) ring of six bells.  The treble, second, third, fifth and tenor were cast by Charles and Thomas Newman between 1699 & 1704. The fifth and the tenor were recast by John Warner in 1900. The newest, by John Taylor & Co. in 1988, replaced the 1576 by Stephen Tonni.

Change ringing developed in England during the 17th century and remains unique to the British Isles and other parts of the world where British people have settled.  The bells are fitted with wheels allowing them to be swung through 360 degrees giving the ringers control over the timing of each stroke, enabling them to vary the order of the bells in each row of change and so ring complex patterns in which every change is different!

On the six bells of St. Mary’s Walsham-le-Willows 720 changes are possible whilst on eight bells the changes can reach 40,320!  The ringing chamber is at the top of 35 steps with the bells another 28 steps higher.

The inscription on an oak tie beam is:

‘THIS ROOF WAS MADE ANEW AND THE BELLS REHUNG A.D. 1900’

The Walsham Ringers practice on Friday evenings from 7.30 to 9.00 and they ring for Sunday services and on special occasions.

St. Mary’s Churchyard and Lychgate

Image of the newly resited lychgate, and Oak framed gatewayto a churchyard

The 10th of December 2006 saw the movement of the lychgate from the old entrance to the existing cemetery which is sited on what was once known as Kiln Meadow. 

Over 100 years ago this entrance had been positioned just before a sharp bend in the Ixworth road and over the years it had now become far too dangerous for its original use. 

Consequently a decision was made that it should be moved back along the road nearer to the Six Bells crossroads and at the same time a small lay-by would also be provided for the use of visitors to the graveyard and for the vehicles that would be involved with any future internments.

Bishop of Dunwich under the lychgate during teh consecration ceremony

The lychgate was originally built by village craftsmen including a certain John Morley who requested that his body should be buried close to the gate when he died. Hopefully he would not have been too upset by the reasoning for its re-siting.

The oak used for the lychgate was all from within the Parish into which various biblical texts have been carved.

The whole structure was held together with wooden pegs and obviously needed very careful handling when lifting by crane from its old position to be repositioned and adjusted onto its new foundations.

The congregation process to the lychgate and extended cemetery for the consecration ceremony

The Churchyard at St Mary’s Parish Church was fully occupied by 1890 which was the date of the last burial on that site.

Mr. John Martineau then generously gave three quarters of an acre in Kiln Meadow to accommodate all future burials. The cemetery has had to be enlarged on three occasions with the latest being in 2007 at the same time as the lychgate was moved exactly as planned and it was finally consecrated by the Bishop of Dunwich at 4.30pm on Sunday, June 3rd 2007.

The New Organ – 2018

Installation of the replacement organ was completed on 20th September 2018. 

The restored organ was built by Porritt – a firm based in Northampton. It’s exact age is not known, but it previously served in the Baptist Church in Long Buckby. Now fully restored and rebuilt by David Stalley and his team from the Village Workshop, and with a new electrified action, it is a joy to see, hear and play,.

The PCC thank everybody who supported this magnificent project.  The ‘new’ organ will serve the community for decades to come.

History of St. Mary’s

St. Mary's Church entrance with tower above

Located in The Causeway next to the crossroads by the Six Bells Inn at post code IP31 3AB,  St. Mary’s was built sometime in the last thousand years.  When William the Conqueror ordered a written survey of England in 1086, Walsham (the Saxon name) already had a church.  A church was here when that Domesday Survey was made in 1086.

Many pre–conquest Suffolk churches were built of flint, the natural stone of East Anglia. That building has long gone, though the materials have been used and reused over the centuries. A recognisable fragment from the late 1100s can be seen in the north aisle. The tower and the font belong to the 1300s, but the church had its greatest make-over from about 1400, when the builders were busy, on and off, for a century.

Eight-sided pillars or piers frame the nave.  The oak roof is one of the finest in a county famous for its church roofs.  The tie-beams alternate with the stubby hammerbeams which take the thrust from above, and originally they were decorated with carved angels.

The basic roof was finished by 1450, but additional decorations we re added in 1475, the year that John de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, became Lord of the Manor. The King, Edward IV was his brother-in-law, and as a loyal gesture he nailed up the King’s favourite badge, the rose en soleil.  

This device can be seen on most of the roof-braces. The paint too, now beautifully faded, dates from 1475. John de la Pole also fixed four stone beasts from the King’s heraldry to the top of the old tower. Similar stonework is at Royal Windsor, but ours is medieval, not an expensive modern replacement.

image-sacred-monogram-blessed-virgin-mary
sacred-monogram-blessed-virgin-mary-drawing

The carved angels on the hammerbeams were removed by the churchwardens in 1538, acting on the orders of Edward IV’s grandson, Henry VIII. The carvings, then less than a century old, must have been lifted off quite carefully and the wooden tenons which fixed them are still in place.

In the nave on the south side hangs a small wooden plaque unique in Suffolk.  It is a simple memorial to Mary Boyce who died aged 20 in 1685.  The carved hearts imply that she died after an unhappy love affair.

Repairs continued throughout the years, and there are 18th century bills for mending numerous windows and whitewashing the font. 

During the Napoleonic Wars the churchwardens commissioned the huge painting of the royal arms now over the south door. 

The medieval screen was extensively restored in 1842, a clever piece of later joinery and painting.  The builders came back in force in 1878.

The flooring, most of the benches and the pulpit date from then. The chancel, beyond the restored screen, was almost completely rebuilt, although the 15th century stalls and later monuments were skilfully conserved.

The impressive terracotta reredos of the Last Supper was set up in 1883, a surprising piece for what was, by then, a relatively obscure village.

Detailed guides on the main structure and the important Victorian features can be obtained in the church.

Contacts

Curate in Charge Badwell and Walsham Benefice | Revd Catriona Brinkley | 07525920307

Churchwardens | Collen Baker 01359 259258 | Howard Gilbert 01359 259101/07711 123976

Treasurer | garthharlow@outlook.com

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