Little Saxham
Encyclopedia
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The village appears as Sexham in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
and as Saxham Parva in 1254.
Its church, St Nicholas, is one of 38 existing round-tower church
Round-tower church
Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, almost solely in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, 6 in Essex, 3 in Sussex and 2 each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshire. There is evidence of about twenty round-tower...
es in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
. It is almost entirely of flint construction, the round tower also of flint, having little to reveal the age of building except for the obviously Romanesque arcading in the upper part. The tower resembles the one at nearby Risby - perhaps it is, in the lower part at least, by the same builder, as there are no other round-tower churches nearby. It tapers slightly from bottom to top, a lower window (apparently also Romanesque) having a zigzag design round the sides and arch. A small window in the west side of the tower with a monolithic head seems to match one of the north side with apparently Romanesque tooling. Inside, the tower arch, between tower and nave, is very simple, but it is very tall in proportion to its width, often seen as more of a Saxon than a Norman feature. A capital has a superficial double spiral carving and there is a roll moulding - also Anglo-Saxon features - but they may have been deliberately archaic at the time of construction. The doorway from the south porch to the nave also has an enigmatic roll moulding and similar spirals on the capitals, but the decoration of the arch and the plain tympanum are more credibly Romanesque. Heraldry of the church includes, on a late gothic panelled area, Lucas or Fitz Lucas (Thomas Lucas of Little Saxham Hall, died 1531, Solicitor General to King Henry VII - ?VIII -): Argent, a fesse between six annulets Gules
Lucas (as above) quartering Morieux: Gules, on a bend Argent six (or seven or nine) billets (or billetty) Sable
Kemeys (?) Quarterly, 1st and 4th Argent, a lion rampant Sable, crowned Gules, 2nd and 3rd Vert, on a chevron Argent three broad arrows Sable
In a window, with the inscription "Lieut. Col. James Grove White Crofts, died March 1901 ... ": Or, three bulls' heads and necks couped Sable
Other monuments include the matrix of a memorial brass on the floor, with four shield shapes, and, on a dark ledger slab (floor slab) by the altar rails the following inscription:
Hoc Saxo Tegitur Corpus Michaelis Emont Clerici Qui In Hac Ecclesia (Quam per 44 Annos Religiosissime Administrauit) Mortalitatis Exciuias Spe Resurgendi Pie Deposuit Mensis Sextilis Die 14o Anno Ætatis suæ 83 / Salutis 1661 Disce quid est quid eris; Memor esto quod Morieri.
External links
- Village website
- Website with photos of Little Saxham St Nicholas, a round-tower churchRound-tower churchRound-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, almost solely in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, 6 in Essex, 3 in Sussex and 2 each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshire. There is evidence of about twenty round-tower...