Actually, there's a bit more to it than that. This site is a journey, a travelogue. It is an act of art terrorism. This is churchcrawling as guerilla warfare. Between January 1999 and November 2003 I gradually made my way around this county, visiting all its Anglican and Catholic churches. Mostly, I cycled. Sometimes I walked, and I even went to some of them by car. It began as a kind of pilgrimage. On the way, the website kind of took over, being featured on television and in the national press, and even becoming a BBC local radio series.

So, what will you find if you explore the site? Well, I've tried to describe each visit, partly as a way of keeping a record, partly as a way of documenting the county, and partly to enable you to experience something of the same thing yourself. I rarely phoned ahead, rarely said who I was, rarely made my intentions clear. The visit you will read about is pretty much the one you would make yourself. I took thousands of photos, and most of them are here on the site. If you go to the main index, you'll find links to the individual churches. Read them in whatever order you like.

I found myself following the footsteps of Cautley and Mortlock, Dowsing and Phipson. If you don't know who any of these people are, it doesn't matter. If you read enough of the entries, you'll get to know them all very well.

Eamonn Duffy's majestic The Stripping of the Altars was the catalyst for this journey. I blame him. If Hilaire Belloc, P.J. O'Rourke, William Dalrymple and Bill Bryson had not written about journeys in the way that they did, I suppose that I would not have done the site like this. Someone wrote to me recently and suggested that I should also have acknowledged the influence of the writer Simon Inglis, and of course they are right.

Don't imagine for one moment that any of the parishes had anything to do with the entry for their church. They didn't. Mostly, I've been able to celebrate these churches, but not always. Some parishes are not at all happy about their entries. If you read some of them, you'll see what I mean. However, I am now firmly a part of the establishment, since the Anglican Diocesan website has added copious links to this site. It is all downhill from here.

This isn't a religious website, but I hope it has a spiritual dimension, of sorts. I'm afraid that it isn't a family history website, either, but there is a page that explains how to contact individual Suffolk churches, for those of you who want to know what is in the registers.

I hope this doesn't sound immodest, but this site has generated a huge amount of interest, and not a little controversy. It's had more than 85,000 visitors through the front door alone, not to mention the ones directed round the back by search engines. This is actually very humbling.

People often ask me what I'm going to do now that I've finished Suffolk. The answer is simple: Suffolk will never be finished. Even though I've now visited every Anglican and Catholic church and written about all of them, there will always be improvements to make, updates to write, new or discovered features to go and photograph. I'm gradually revisiting the first 200 or so to write all-new entries with lots of new photos. I hope to do some non-conformist churches, for example. There'll also be another Radio Suffolk series this summer. I imagine it all a bit like an old man in a rocking chair, occasionally stoking an otherwise blazing fire, before going back to the excellent book he is reading. Of course, this won't stop me occasionally popping over the border into Norfolk.

If you come across any mistakes, any misrepresentations, any broken links, please let me know. I'll put them right. If you come across any opinions you don't agree with, you can let me know about that as well, if you like. I probably won't change anything, but it would be good to hear from you.

The running costs of the site are not insurmountable, but it will never make any money. However, it is a tremendous help to receive Amazon commission for items bought via the site - this offsets costs like web space, bandwidth, train fares, etc. If you have enjoyed using the Norfolk Churches site, and you were going to buy something from Amazon anyway, please do click through from a banner - there's one at the bottom of this page.

Acknowledgements: This site is the record of the solitary ramblings of a madman. However, if it is found to be of entertainment, and perhaps even of education, then this is in no small way due to the efforts of the following people. In no particular order:

Aidan Semmens of the Ipswich Evening Star was the first to bring the site to the attention of the people of Suffolk. He has also contributed photographs, taught me some basic HTML, and become a much valued friend, accompanying me on some of my travels. Discussions about Suffolk churches over copious pints of Adnams have led my thoughts in new directions, and have generally made this site more colourful. His Sylly Suffolk site is indispensable.

Alan Thurkettle is an indefatigable photographer of Suffolk churches, who has happily joined his lonely furrow to mine. His efforts to fill in gaps in the site's photo collection are tireless, and have injected new life into it.

Simon Cotton has studied more medieval Suffolk wills and bequests than anyone. He has made his research freely available to me, and in doing so has given some entries the mark of authority. If any facts about the genesis of towers and aisles are correct, it is because of him.

Rachel Sloane and Sally Goodwin of BBC Radio Suffolk have shown great faith in me and my site, putting it on the air as a series in the Summers of 2003, 2004 and 2005, as well as letting me ramble on about it at other times. Lesley Dolphin and Claire Phillips also had me on their shows; several of them let me review the papers as well ;-)

Roy Tricker is former Suffolk field officer for the Churches Conservation Trust, and knows more about Suffolk churches than anyone else I know. He has answered my queries with enthusiasm, and by return of post. He only saw this site for the first time just before he retired because, as he cheerfully admits, he was still living in the 15th century. His successor Chloe Cockerill has proved equally helpful and interested.

Sam Newton speaks with the greatest authority on Anglo-Saxon Suffolk. Because of him, I have begun to have an understanding of pre- and early-Christian East Anglia. He has a wonderful website about the East Anglian royal family, and his motorbikes are pretty cool, too.

Arthur Rope has been generous with his time, information and photographs of the many Suffolk windows and artworks of the Rope family, his relatives. He is extraordinarily tolerant of my incompetent mistakes and ill-informed opinions, and has shared his time and hospitality generously.

Kit Bird of the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust has shown considerable confidence in the site, ensuring that news of it has reached the parishes it describes. He is now enjoying a well-deserved retirement.

Basil Rollason has played many Suffolk organs over the course of the last half century. His valuable knowledge had begun to address this major gap in the site. Unfortunately, I've lost his e-mail address, and would love to hear from him.

Rev. Leonard Payne of the Anglican Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich was very brave in promoting the site, particularly at times of controversy. I valued his faithful support in the face of my stubborn independence and idiosyncracy. Unfortunately, the forces of darkness defeated us both in the end, although the Diocesan website does seem to have recently seen the light.

My friends of the Churchcrawling e-mail list, particularly Phil, Les, DD, Jo, Chris, Eva, Marion, Doris, Rich, Allan and several Johns, have between them kept up a fairly constant barrage of constructive criticism as the site has developed, all of it very encouraging. They have tested new entries, found missing links, MOST of the spelling mistakes, and generally pricked the bubble of my pomposity with their cunning barbs. The site is so much better because of them. Also, the Suffolk rootsweb list, particularly Patricia Bridges, my Waldingfield oracle. Their enthusiasm is encouraging and infectious.

At hundreds of churches there have been random acts of kindness. There were churchwardens who gave up an hour or more to show me round; a few of them were delightfully indiscreet about their Vicars. There were Vicars who invited me in for a cup of tea; a few of them were delightfully indiscreet about their churchwardens. There were keyholders who brought the sacred object to the church, so that I wouldn't have to cycle off and find it. They are too many to thank individually, and, in any case, they are sometimes mentioned on the entries (although I have been rather more discreet than some of them). In addition, hundreds of people have e-mailed me from all over the world, with suggestions, photographs, information, anecdotes and outlandish requests. Again, the number precludes me naming them all.

However, several entries lean heavily on the enthusiasm, time and interest of particular people, so I thank Nick Balmer for help at Badley, Valerie Langfield for Bawdsey, John and Wendy Colles for Bromeswell and Wantisden, Robin Lee for Culford Heath, Olive Reeve for Darsham, Brenda Gamlin and Arthur Rope for East Bergholt Old Hall, The Sisters of Jesus and Mary for Felixstowe Chapel of Jesus and Mary, Mgr Peter Leeming and Anne Parry for the old and new churches of Ipswich St Mary, John Barbrook for Ipswich St Mary at Stoke, John Blatchly and David Kindred for various medieval Ipswich churches, Mrs Doreen Rope for Kesgrave Holy Family, Father James Mather for Kettlebaston, Mark McCaghrey for Lowestoft St Andrew, Sam Newton for Walton Castle, Maggie King for Wickhambrook and Gerard Melia for Withermarsh Green. A much valued recent discovery was Martin Cooper, who trod most of these paths before me; he has been liberal with his hints and tips.

This is not to mention, of course, the complaints the site has had. Only a handful, but enough to keep it interesting, including one threat of legal action. I never wanted to live in Oulton or Wingfield anyway.

The burden of travelling alone was lightened on occasions by my wife Jacqueline, and on various others by my friends Joanna Quinton, Cameron Newham, Aidan Semmens, Mark Savage and Malcolm Steward; and also my children, who have become adept at getting themselves into photographs.

I must also mention Derek Mortlock, a man I have never met; but he has been a constant companion on my travels through more than 500 Suffolk churches, because of his majestic A Popular Guide to Suffolk Churches. I would be lost without him.

I thank my dear friends of the Catholic Parish of St Mary, Ipswich, who sustain me with their love and faith, and nurture an ecumenism in my cynical old heart.

That the site has survived the vicissitudes of five years of my mid-life crisis is due in no small way to the persistence of Tom Muckley who, as Dr Pusey once said of Hadleigh's Dean Hugh Rose, when hearts were failing, he bade us stir up the gift that was in us. In Tom's case this bidding consisted of a good kick up the backside, and convincing threats of his own mortality.

And the dedication? That the site exists at all is largely because of the incomprehensible tolerance of my long-suffering and saintly wife Jacqueline. It is all for her. I should also mention the energy and enthusiasm of my children Jimmy and Martha, without which this site would be finished in half the time, but my REAL life would be so much the poorer.

ubi bene ibi patria
Simon Knott, Suffolk, 2005.

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