Sacred Heart
Southwold, Suffolk
We’re all going on a Suffolk summer holiday! Visit our church with a 'mission to a summer holiday place'.
The church's exterior has superb examples of the art of flintwork. This is particularly fine at the west end of the tower. Here, panels of flint framed in stone rise above the window to a Latin inscription that translates as 'St Edmund Pray for Us'. Above that is chequerwork panelling of flint and stone.
The two storey south porch has 'M' for St Mary picked out on the lower panels. Above the door, framed by two windows, is a modern statue of St Edmund, shown bound in the ropes that tied him to a tree while he was used by Danish archers as a target.
The interior is much of interest, from the 15th to the 20th century. Outstanding are the medieval screens separating the nave and aisles from the chancel and chapels. These retain much of their original colour, and paintings of the Disciples, prophets and angels.
On the eastern side of the chancel screen are stalls with carvings that include armrests in the shape of men, animals and fantastical creatures.
The painted and glided pulpit and font cover are successful 20th century restorations and recreations of medieval decorative woodwork. The font itself is original, but scraped of the seven sacraments that were once carved on it. Near the tower is a figure called Southwold Jack. Still with some of his 15th century colour and in fine clothes of the 1470s, he was made to ring a bell at the beginnings of services.