All Saints, Ashbocking

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www.suffolkchurches.co.uk - a journey through the churches of Suffolk

We have escaped the orbit of Ipswich and are heading north, the lanes narrow and winding, the fields a hog's back of ridges. Ashbocking church is about a mile from its village as the crow flies, but to come here by bike involves a longer journey, the road circling wide about the distant tower before you reach the bumpy track which leads to the little hamlet around the Hall where All Saints sits in its narrow churchyard.

The early 16th Century red brick west tower backs onto the lane, and it is your first sight of the church close to. It's a testament to the prosperity of Edmund Bocking, who rebuilt Ashbocking Hall at about the same time. The porch is of the same material and date, although as James Bettley points out, its appearance today owes a lot to Edward Hakewill's 1870s restoration. A lush Tractarian angel, scroll in hand, looms over the entrance. Otherwise this is a fairly small church, the late 13th Century chancel came first and then the nave was rebuilt probably in the 15th Century. Not much happened afterwards other than enhancement and restyling as the fashions of the passing centuries dictated. There is no clerestory, no aisles, and we should be thankful that Hakewill resisted his regular impulse to add a north aisle.

You step into a warm, handsome interior, the nave pleasing in proportion, not too narrow, not too high. The first sight is of a puzzle, the bulbous font. It's claimed as 12th Century, and that it was discovered under a layer of brick and cement in the 1840s, when it was set on it huddled legs. However, it's likely to be an old mortar, used for grinding corn or animal feed. There's another one away to the east at Sudbourne near Orford. Above the blocked north door is a handsome set of royal arms to Elizabeth II dated 2022, which must be the most recent set in Suffolk. The Charles I royal arms that used to hang here have been reset on the south wall, which makes them rather hard to see on a sunny day. They're dated 1640 and lettered God Save the King. This is a remarkably late date for such a public statement of support for the Crown. Presumably it tells us the political leanings not only of the Bockings but also of Theodore Beale, the vicar of the time who was, as several were in Suffolk, drummed out as a Scandalous Minister (that is to say, a Liberal Intellectual) and died in prison. There are only four of these sets left in Suffolk, the others being at Ampton, Denham St John and Mellis.

There are a number of late medieval benches at the west end of the nave, and the view east is through ranks of 17th Century seating with smartly buttressed bench ends. Some of the 19th Century furnishings were to the design of Edward Hakewill's brother John, including the pulpit which, as James Bettley observed, looks more like a dock or a witness box. Behind the benches in the south wall of the nave is an ornate tomb alcove, its elaborate canopy dripping with foliage. Grinning cowled heads gaze out from the cusping. It may have been for the tomb of John Bocking in the late 14th Century. Set into the back of it is a small window. Opposite is a group of late 16th Century brass figures, reset from their original place on the floor. The central figure is Edmund Bocking, who we have previously met as being responsible for tower and porch. He died in 1587, and he's flanked by his two wives Frances and Mary. Unfortunately, when the brasses were reset they were placed facing outwards rather than inwards, so they are now on the wrong sides of their husband. Their daughters Frances and Katheryne complete the set, but are now on the wrong sides, away from their mothers.

The chancel is an atmospheric space, almost entirely of the late 19th Century but with few changes afterwards. Beyond the 17th Century altar rails, the reredos is a forest of carved wood and encaustic tiles, the work of Howard Gaye in the 1880s. All in all this is a good building, with no great artistic or architectural wonders, but evidence of every age in its life, a sense of continuity too easily lost. Churches like this are not famous or rare, or worthy of mentions in books about England's Thousand Best Churches or anything like that. Not so much a museum, there is a sense here that, despite the rupture of the Reformation, this is a place where prayer has been valid for a thousand years or more.