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Two of the more remote
churches in Suffolk are actually less
than a mile apart, just to the east of
Stowlangtoft. One serves the parish of
Langham, and the other is this one, St
Michael at Hunston. I remembered that,
the first time I'd come here, it had
taken me some time to find it; it was
hiding in a gloomy dip behind a farm, and
the only way I could find to approach it
was a muddy track between the farm and a
field. And when I got there, it was
locked with no keyholder listed. However,
that was ten years ago, and today this
church is welcoming to visitors, listing
two nearby keys. Even
if you didn't go inside, you would find
much that is interesting to be seen from
the outside. For a start, this is
basically a small Norman church, but it
has a massive south transept. The effect
is something like two separate churches
which have got stuck together at right
angles. The lancets and three-leaded
light of the transept window look
exciting, but they are all renewals, from
the 19th century restoration. However,
the top of a medieval priests door in the
south chancel wall was also revealed at
some point, and infilled with a Decorated
window.
On the occasion of my first
visit, I was not fully prepared for the
scene which greeted me as I stepped
inside. All the furnishings were swathed
in plastic sheeting, because St Michael
has a serious bat problem. I have
previously gone on at tedious length
about the problems which bats cause to
churches, and so I will refrain from
doing so here; suffice to say, until
churches are allowed by law to dissuade
bats by providing alternative
accomodation, situations like that at
Hunston will persist. However, on a
return visit I found everything
beautifully cleaned and cared for.
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The
overwhelming presence inside the church (apart
from the bats, of course) is of the Heigham
family, who lived for generations at Hunston
Hall. At their most imposing, they are here in
the persons of Captain George Thomas Heigham of
the Royal Irish Dragoon Guards and his son Major
George Henry John Heigham of the Royal Welsh
Fusiliers. Their Coade stone memorial, surmounted
by sabres and regimental badges, notes that
Heigham fils was killed at Lucknow,
during the attempt by the British to impose
authoritarian rule in the years immediately
following the Indian Mutiny, and is buried in the
graveyard there. His father went to a gentler
sleep at Sproughton on the outskirts of Ipswich.
Most
of the Heighams cluster up in the sanctuary, and
here also is some of the excellent early 20th
century glass in the church, the best of which is
Heaton, Butler & Bayne's Blessed Virgin and
Child. Beside it is their very good war memorial
window depicting the angel of Victory, and
captioned To the Glory of God and in Memory
of the Hunston Men who fell in the War 1914-18
from the Heigham Family - a pleasing example
of what was once a typical rural patronage.
There
are plenty of medieval survivals, a couple of
them rather unusual. The oldest is the head of a
Saxon cross, found in the graveyard, and one of
only about half a dozen in East Anglia. The most
spectacular is the large, flat image niche in the
transept with its extraordinary floriated border.
If you look closely, the petals and leaves are
not identical, but each is slightly different.
Not far off is a most unusual corner piscina, set
into the corner as if in reverse of the usual
form. The font is also 13th Century, and there is
no reason to think it did not come from this
church originally. It is a plain drum, the
simplicity of which suits this quiet place, and
it has been reset on a Victorian collonade. The
bench ends in the chancel are probably 19th
Century, though.
| What appears to be a
battered stone memorial on the south side
of the nave is actually a charity board.
It seems to have been reset in a window
splay. There is a charmingly rendered
transcription of it on a board opposite,
and it remembers the will of Mrs Mary
Page, who died in 1731. Her passion was
education, and she left money to provide
for a Mistress to teach three poor
girls to read, knit, spin and sew
and also for proper books to be
purchased for the children not only
whilst in school but chiefly to be given
them when at the end of 3 years they
shall leave the school. I
was delighted to discover that, as the
gift was in the form of land, it has kept
pace with inflation, and the terms of
this noble bequest are still adhered to,
albeit in a slightly different form. The
Mary Page Charity still provides funds
for school books and uniforms for the
children of the Parish. No doubt
successive PCCs have taken note of Mrs
Page's final injunction: As ye
Parishioners of Hunston hope for the
Blessing of Almighty God to attend them
and their succeeding generations, let
them not dare to pervert ye Revenues of
Lands thus bequeathed to any other
purposes whatsoever.
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