St Mary, Langham

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The church was pretty much entirely rebuilt in the 19th Century, and its restoration is a story in two parts. First came the nave in the 1870s, the work of Edward Hakewill responsible for a number of gloomy restorations and rebuildings in Suffolk. He resisted adding his trademark low north aisle, and as James Bettley points out in the revised Buildings of England volume for West Suffolk, a surviving 13th Century window at the north-west corner seems to have been his starting point and been the inspiration, if such a word can be applied to Hakewill, for the whole. However, ten years later the enthusiastic Anglo-Catholic Ernest Geldart came along and rebuilt the chancel, along with the surprisingly fortress-like vestry on the south side. The furnishings inside the chancel are his, those in the nave are Hakewill's, so it really is a church of two parts.

What was here before? There are a number of clues in late medieval wills and bequests transcribed by Simon Cotton and the late Peter Northeast. In 1494, Bartholomew Wymball left 40 shillings (about £2000 in today's money) for a pair of chalices to the church, and 13s 4d (about £660) to the making of a cross to be set in Langham churchyard. These two bequests suggest that if any late medieval rebuilding had taken place (and in this part of East Anglia it would be unusual if it had not) it was by then complete. However, in 1530, Robert Cooke, late of Langham, now dwelling in Badwell, left another 40 shillings to the reparation of Langham church where most need is. This doesn't necessarily mean that there was a building campaign underway, of course. The fact that the bequest does not specify any particular part of the structure may simply mean that Cooke was leaving money in trust for any future repairs. However, the word reparation was often used to mean building rather than repairing and it is the second part of Cooke's bequest that intrigues, for he also left 3s 4d (about £180 today) to the reparation of the great bell and bellhouse. Does this mean that Langham church had a tower at the end of the medieval period? If so, I'm not aware that any trace of it has survived. More likely, it was a bell turret at the west end of the nave, as there is today, but the current one is Hakewill's.

Inside, William Aikman's glass of the Blessed Virgin and Christchild, 1919, glows like a jewel from the north side of the nave. Not much survives of the earlier church, but what does is important, for as well as a 14th Century font, Langham has an almost complete 15th Century screen which retains the nave-side parapet of the rood loft, a most unusual survival in East Anglia. I'm afraid that you won't get to see it unless you make arrangements in advance, for although the great majority of Suffolk's churches are open all day every day, this one isn't, and neither are several of the other churches in this benefice. I'm told that this is because of several break-ins in the early years of the present century, but of course only locked churches get broken into. Still, this is a lovely spot, and the network of footpaths leaves you two possible routes across the fields if you want to return by a different way.