Pembrokeshire with Hayley and Izobelle

One of my favourite parts of the UK is the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire. As Hayley and Izobelle had never visited this part of the world, we were all looking forward with great anticipation, especially with a trip to Skomer booked as well. As Robert Burns penned - `The best laid plans of mice....` To put it shortly, it didn`t work out as planed!

We had booked a holiday cottage near MiIlford Haven - which was lovely. It was also reasonably close to Broad Haven and Little Haven and not too far from St Davids. However, the highlight was to be a trip across to Skoma to see the puffins. Unfortunately, although the weather was reasonable ie not raining, the wind had settled in the north and was fresh. This led to a cancellation of our sailing at 7am on the morning we were going. Dissapointing for all.

This was on top of the most horrendous traffic queus while trying to reach our destination in the first place. Several hours on top of a long journey, in fact!

The glorious coastline of this part of the world.

Some really simple things keep people amused and this swing in the garden was one of them.

A visit and wander along Broad Haven to Little Haven gave us these spectacular views of the near empty beach.

Another view nearer to Little Haven

As we wandered along the beach there were many rock pools to search and various creature encounterd.

Then to just sit in the sun on the beautiful beach and make sand castles.

Or just soak up the sun.

Or even stand in this cave like entrance and pose for Grandad.

Burton (Hanging Stone) burial chamber

This monument comprises the remains of a chambered tomb, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 4,400 BC - 2,900 BC). Chambered tombs were built and used by local farming communities over long periods of time. There appear to be many regional traditions and variations in shape and construction.

The Burton (Hanging Stone) burial chamber is incorporated into a hedge bank which runs northwest to southeast and is formed by a large triangular capstone supported on three tall uprights; internally it is 2m in length, 1.6m wide and 1.6m in height. This we spotted on the map as within walking distance of where we were staying so Hayley and I set off one afternoon to have a look.

The hedge contains many large stones especially the western side and have been suggested as a second capstone and three further uprights and may well incorporate part of the chamber or cairn.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric burial and ritual. The monument is an important relic of a prehistoric funerary and ritual landscape and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of both intact burial or ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence, including a buried prehistoric land surface. Chambered tombs may be part of a larger cluster of monuments and their importance can further enhanced by their group value.

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Jubilee Celebrations

The year 2022 marked the 70th year of our Queen`s reign - becoming the first British Monarch to reach that milestone. Celebrations were held across the country so each community marked the celebration in its own style. Hadleigh took part in the torch relay and Layham village held a fete on 6th June.

The torch relay leg started in St Mary`s Church in Hadleigh and a couple of images taken, (Gloria in chair) before they set off. Each community seems to be doing a leg as it makes its way around Suffolk. It would arrive back in Ipswich at the Show Ground and be lit in Christchurch Mansion grounds the following night.

 And she is off! - down the High Street.

Rosey sets up her photographs and the PlaySchool tent is ready for action

Records (yes - records!) are ready and DJ puts on his patriotic waiscoat.

 Our own `Queen` poses with Rosey.

Despite the threat of rain in the days leading to our event, on the day it held off all day, and only started to fall as we were clearing up. All in all a very successful event enjoyed by all.

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Interesting buildings in Ipswich

A brief wander around Ipswich and a few of the interesting buildings I photographed. No doubt there will be many more in the future.

 

Bethesda Baptist Church, 9 St Margarets Plain, Ipswich, IP4 2BB

Bethesda is a Baptist Church, members who express a wish to follow Jesus’ command are baptised by total immersion, there is a pool under the dais at the front of the building. Before the current church was built members were baptised in the River Orwell. I don`t think people would want to do this today!

There has been a group of ‘independents’ meeting on the corner of St Margarets Plain since 1782 (when Fonnereau Road was known as Dairy Lane and a stream ran down the middle of the road). By 1834 they had outgrown their building and moved to St Nicholas Street. They did however retain an interest in the site.

In the early years of the twentieth century, it was decided to build a new church on the site of the original meeting place; in 1906 the foundation stone for the new Sunday School was laid, which opened six months later. The total cost had been less than £1,000.

In July 1911, Mrs Susannah Page died aged 81, she had been a member of Bethesda for 67 years and had been Baptised in the river. Her son Arthur offered to pay for the new church building as a memorial to his mother. Numbers 1 to 9 St Margarets Plain were purchased to provide the space needed, the final service in the old Fonnereau Road building was held on 31 December 1911, which was then demolished, the resulting rubble being sold for £88.

The new Bethesda Church held its first service at 7am on Wednesday 2 July 1913, followed by further services later in the morning, in the afternoon and the evening. What London architect Fred Faunch had created was probably Ipswich’s finest façade of the twentieth century. A flight of steps leading to four Cornish granite columns visible the length of Northgate Street.

Number 86 Fore Street

A C15-C16 timber-framed and plastered building, originally the Old Neptune Inn, considerably restored but retaining many original features. A C15 hall block extends east and west and a C16 Solar wing extends south at the rear.
It is dated 1639, probably recording the time alterations were made to the house. The front has a projecting eaves with a carved eaves board supported by carved brackets. The first storey has 2 oriel bay windows with lattice leaded lights and fine carved frames, supported on carved brackets. Small
mullioned casements flank the oriels below the eaves. The ground storey has one 6-light mullioned and transomed window (with 2 carved mullions). A painted panel between the oriels has a similar representation.
At the rear a solar wing extends south, timber framed and plastered, with a jettied upper storey with large casements and a large mullioned and transomed window on the ground storey. The interior has a fine C17 fireplace and moulded beams and ceiling joists. Roofs tiled, with 2 gabled dormers on the front.

There is a 4-centred doorway with carved spandrels representing Neptune and a coa serpent.

The Lord Nelson

The Lord Nelson can trace its history back to 1672 during the reign of Charles II when the local Headboroughs ordered inn keeper William Stephens to repair his pavement. In those early years the hostelry was known as the Noah's Ark, the name was changed in recognition of Nelson becoming High Steward of Ipswich (1800 - 1805). The fact that the Noah's Ark was an Inn rather than just a tavern or alehouse is confirmed by an entry in the borough records of 1696 when a payment was made to the Landlord for billeting soldiers. The building, originally two fifteenth century timber framed cottages has been listed Grade II by the Department of the Environment. 

You might wonder why the Lord Nelson in Fore Street has a glazed brick elevation to the ground floor when it is clearly a timber framed building of some considerable age. The brick front was added in the twentieth century as a flood defensive measure, an acceptance that the Orwell would overflow again sometime in the future and Fore Street would be underwater. The glazed bricks are not for flood prevention, that would be much too big a task for a little pub like the ‘Nelson, but simply materials that are robust enough to withstand a short spell of immersion and are reasonably easy to clean immediately thereafter.

In early 2019, Ipswich Borough Council announced its plan to restore the town’s landmark former post office. The Grade II listed building was first opened in 1881, survived two world wars and, during the 1940s, contributed to the UK’s war effort through its finials, which contained strategic metals. Since then, the Old Post Office has housed banks and various other institutions. It now houses the The Botanist Ipswich Bar & Restaurant.

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Bury St Edmunds - The Abbey.

2022 - A year of celebrations to mark 1,000 years since the founding of the Abbey of St Edmund in Bury St Edmunds by King Canute. Various events are being held this year and I took a brief visit to get a snapshot of the celebrations. Obviously, I have visited Bury many times before, so the first couple of images are from the beautiful gardens taken previously.

The gardens really are worth a visit on their own. They are always kept in immaculate condition no matter what the time of year. The first Patron Saint of England and King of East Anglia, Saint Edmund was enshrined in the Abbey lending his name to the town. The shrine brought visits from across the UK and abroad including Royalty as the Abbey became one of the most famous and wealthy pilgrimage locations in England. Today, the extensive Abbey remains are surrounded by the Abbey Gardens, which are visited by some 1.3million people every year. So onto some images of the ruins of the original abbey..

The story of St Edmund, who ruled East Anglia from AD 855 to 869 and was most likely crowned on Christmas Day, tells of the brave King Edmund who was killed by Danish invaders on 20 November 869 after refusing to denounce his Christianity. So goes the story; not sure the Danes were too bothered about other peoples religion! Anyway it makes a great story and the following two images (in Bury) give another angle on it, the King being tied to a stake and shot to death with arrows!

A wolf is a central figure of his story. The story goes that after being tied to a tree and shot full of arrows he was then beheaded. The king's body was found but his head was missing.

His supporters heard a wolf call to them and they found him guarding the king's head, which was then reunited with his body and body and head fused back together. This was the first of many miracles! Amazing what people will believe! Anyway, in our local Church of St Mary is a pew end relating to this story.

 A wolf with a head in its jaw.

In 903 the remains of St Edmund, the original Patron Saint of England, were moved to the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Beodericsworth (later known as Bury St Edmunds) where the site had already been in religious use for nearly three centuries.

St Edmund’s body was moved to London in 1010 for safe keeping when The Danes were again marauding through East Anglia but three years later his body was returned to Beodericsworth.

In 1020, King Canute had a stone church built for Edmund's body and the first abbots arrived. This was the beginning of the Abbey of St Edmund and it became a site of great pilgrimage as people from all over Europe came to visit St Edmund’s shrine.

When the great Abbey Church was built in 1095 St Edmund’s body was moved there in a silver and gold shrine. The shrine became one of the most famous and wealthy pilgrimage locations in England. For centuries the shrine was visited by various kings of England, many of whom gave generously to the abbey. The last time that Edmund’s body was verified was in 1198 after a fire set the shrine alight.

The Abbey was desecrated during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 and Edmund’s remains are believed to have been removed from the shrine.

The commissioners who dissolved the Abbey in 1539, mentioned nothing about the body, and given St Edmund's royal status it is likely they would have quietly allowed the monks to remove the body from the shrine and relocate it. The whereabouts of St Edmund remains a mystery today.

In his book Edmund – In Search of England’s Lost King, historian Dr Francis Young explores the theory that St Edmund’s remains still lie within the abbey ruins today. In 2013 he came across a document that was previously unknown, from a monk that said Edmund’s body was placed in an iron chest. In his book Dr Young explains his theory that St Edmund may be buried in the monks’ cemetery which lay beneath the former tennis courts in the Abbey Gardens and consecrated ground.

Few historical facts about Edmund are known, as the kingdom of East Anglia was devastated by the Vikings, who destroyed any contemporary evidence of his reign. Coins minted by Edmund indicate that he succeeded Æthelweard of East Anglia, as they shared the same moneyers. He is thought to have been of East Anglian origin, but 12th century writers produced fictitious accounts of his family, succession and his rule as king. Edmund's death was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which relates that he was killed in 869 after the Great Heathen Army advanced into East Anglia. Medieval versions of Edmund's life and martyrdom differ as to whether he died in battle fighting the Great Heathen Army, or if he met his death after being captured and then refusing the Viking leaders' demand that he renounce Christ.

The magnificent modern Abbey Church

A view of the stunning interior looking toward the Sanctuary.

One other reason I went to visit was that seven manuscripts from the Abbey Scriptorium were being reunited for the first time in their place of origin since 1539. Written and decorated by hand by monks in the Abbey, they will be displayed in the Cathedral Treasury. The manuscripts are on loan from Pembroke College, Cambridge where they were donated by William Smart (Portreeve of Ipswich) in 1599. They really were in marvelous condition, and I cannot believe how such small, neat writing was done by hand, and not just a sheet of paper but book after book. - amazing!

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The Ipswich Charter Hangings in St Peter`s Church

The Ipswich Charter Wall Hangings were researched and designed by Isabel Clover. The panels were embroidered by City and Guilds students from Suffolk College at the turn of the Millennium. Each of the eight panels is a graphic representation of Ipswich in the centuries since the town was granted its charter in 1200AD.

Embroidery is the embellishment of fabric with needlework; the panels demonstrate a wealth of techniques and applied materials to represent architectural styles, different forms of transport and Ipswich’s treasures.

The panels were born out of an idea by Ferial Rogers of the Ipswich Arts Association who, when discussing ways to mark the Millennium, suggested some kind of tapestry. Such needle-works have long been used to mark important occasions and historical events, most notable among them no doubt the Bayeux Tapestry.

A simple idea that, with Isabel’s experience in ecclesiastical designs and embroidery, became a major project. On a technicality, I am repeatedly reminded by my wife that neither the Bayeux nor the Charter Hangings are tapestries. Tapestries or hangings, they are a very suitable and fitting way to mark the occasion.

The initial idea of a panel for each century was revised so that the first panel could represent Ipswich in the period pre-dating the Charter (ie before 1200AD). There was a not insubstantial cost to creating the panels (despite the volunteer labour) and the Ipswich Arts Association set about fundraising. Sponsorship was secured from some of the owners and occupiers of the buildings featured and valuable contributions were made by members of the public. The panels took three years of research, design and craftsmanship to complete with the final results received to great acclaim.

The feature that links all eight is the river which runs through the bottom third of each panel, created in silk velvet, dyed with silk dyes and stitched with silk thread. It was accepted that over a long period of time the panels would fade but then so do the buildings featured, just as the river changes colour with the tide.

Using volunteers to create the panels was both a challenge and the source of much inspiration. The diversity of talent was bound to lead to different standards of workmanship but Isabel, who had the final word, frequently suggested pieces were reworked. The result is that the finished panels are of professional quality with unity and harmony. It is often suggested that to create a great painting you do not cut the canvas into jigsaw pieces and ask different individuals to each fashion their small section but this is exactly what happened here.

Isabel selected the person whose creative ability and known skills suited the piece to be crafted. The gold work was particularly difficult but was masterfully completed by Isabel’s church embroidery students, their collective years of experience reflected in the finished pieces. It was essential that throughout the creative process the students worked together to ensure the overall result was as required, the pieces fitted together and the finished panel created an impression of the period it was designed to represent. The result is a marvel fit for the 21st Century. The Charter Wall Hangings are on display in St Peter’s Church and can be seen every Wednesday between 10am and 3.30pm.

If you’ve seen the panels previously take another look, there is always something new to find. If you’ve never seen them then you really are missing out on one of Ipswich’s true icons.

This is one of the hangings - The Tudor Period (16th Century)

At the beginning ot the Tudor period Ipswich was stil Catholic. Many pilgrims came to the townto visit the shrine of Our Lady of Ipswich, eventhe royal pilgrims Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. At the top of the hangings, clergy and townspeople process to the shrine. Ipswich was the birthplace of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and his coat of arms is at the top, surmounted by his Cardinal`s hat; while at the bottom of the post, on the left a butcher`s boy with a knifein his mouth reminds us that Wolsey`s father was a butcher. Next to him is all that remains of his grand plan for a college: a waterside gateway.

At the top of the panel are two spandrel carvings, St Michael the archangel on the right and the Dragon on the left. They were carved on the entrance to the White Hart which stood on the site of Brook Street Craft Market.

On the Cornhill stood the Market Cross, removed in 1812. Two carved and painted heads top the corner posts on each of the hangings. The post on the left comes from Brown`s Yard, that on the right from the inn opposite the Ancient House in Dial Lane. Both are now in the Museum.

The Shambles (slaughter house) stood on the Cornhill and below this is the Royal Oak, still standing in Northgate Street at the corner of Oak lane. During this time of religious strife martyrs were burned on the Cornhill; groups are shown suffering on either side of the market cross.

Large new properties were erected on sites of religious houses suppressed or dissolved by Henry VIII. Christchurch, built on the site of the Augustinian Priory, is shown at the top of the hanging, with two of its original knot gardens in front.The mansion is now part of the Ipswich Museum. Below it is the tower of Great Place built for Sir Thomas Seckford in Westgate Street. At its base is the sundial from Smart`s Wharf on the docks, inscribed `Why stand you here idle while time passes`.

This was another prosperous time for the town, the port being used by many wealthy merchants. At the bottom of the hanging are depicted, from left to right, the merchant`s mark of Thomas Pownder and the coat of arms of Henry Toole, the Merchant Adventurers and William Smart, with the merchant`s mark of Thomas Drayll on the far right.

The ship on the river, the Mary Walsingha, belonging to Henry Tooley, a merchant fishing in Icelandic waters. The smaller ship, the Desire, took Thomas Cavendish of Trimley and Thomas Eldred around the world in the 1560`s. The grampusses, or porpoises, were washed up further down the Orwell. As they traditionally belonged to the king, their tails and fins were cut off and sent to him in London.

On the wharf to the right of Wolsey`s Gate is the inner court of the Issac Lord building, well restored today. Between this and the Quay is the magnificent hall and meeting place of the Merchant Adventurers which also remains.The other buildings are from Brown`s Yard.

For at least nine centuries a church has stood on this spot as a place for the community, whether it be congregations, lovers of music and the arts or model train enthusiasts!

As a church, St Peter’s served a large parish and the mariners who came into a port bustling with activity during the middle ages, first, probably as a building made of wood then on to a stone made building, which formed part of the Augustinian Priory of St Peter and St Paul during the late 12th century.

It is at this time that the magnificent Tournai Marble font, with its enormous bowl and prowling lions came to St Peter’s. One of only 10 in England and made from a type of limestone from around the town of Tournai in Belgium. (ABOVE)

Fast forward to the tudor period and St Peter’s gains prominence as Ipswich’s greatest son Cardinal Thomas Wolsey closes the Priory to use the church as the chapel to his College of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

During this period many changes were made to the building including the repositioning of the tower, addition of the north and south aisles and a new chancel.

Wolsey’s college was short lived when he fell out of favour with King Henry VIII and died in disgrace in 1530 and not long after St Peter’s was given back to the parishioners. Along with the church, the “Wolsey Gate”, a watergate on College Street are all that remains of his grand plans.

This gateway was once in the corner of St Peters Churchyard and is the only obvious reminder of the school founded by Thomas, Cardinal Wolsey, a native of Ipswich who rose to become the most powerful man in the kingdom under Henry VIII.

In modern times St Peter`s has fulfilled many functions, which is great, as the building is kept for future generations and a lot of its beauty can still be appreciated. As you can see from the above image, what was the sanctuary is now the stage for music performances.

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Yoxford Man

A giant bronze statue of a man, the 26ft (7.9m) tall `Yoxman`, stands near the A12 at Cockfield Hall, in Yoxford. Quite a surprise when you see it for the first time. There is a layby just in the right place so you don`t neet to risk life or limb looking while driving!

Sculptor Laurence Edwards says it is one of the largest bronze pieces to be cast in England in recent years and is "a Green Man for our age".

"He is a lightning rod for loads of issues about ecology and what we are doing to this planet," he said. The eight-tonne statue was transported flat on a lorry from the foundry at Halesworth Industrial Estate to the grounds of the private estate of Cockfield Hall, where it was craned upright into its final position. Mr Edwards, who has been working on the project for four years, said he was delighted to see the statue in place.

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St Matthew`s and Our Lady of Grace

In the 1960s, town planners foresaw a rise in the town's population of Ipswich towards half a million people, and so they decided to cross and encircle the existing town centre with a network of dual carriageways lined with office blocks. They didn't get very far with their plans before a halt was called, for some reason. The towering Civic Centre, police station and the Civic Drive road system were all that was left.. The Civic Centre and the police station, both which stood directly opposite this church, have since been demolished, but the four lane Civic Drive still cuts across what was the Mount residential area, the little terraces all demolished to make way for the 20th century, and separates St Matthew from the rest of the town centre.

This church is perhaps less well-known than the other working town centre churches. Partly, because it requires an effort to find it and get across to it if you are a visitor. Because of this, many people don't realise that the church contains a treasure of national importance. This is the early 16th Century font, which is quite unlike any other in Suffolk, and is perhaps unique in England.

In medieval Ipswich, St Matthew's Church was the parish church for St Matthew's Parish. It is situated in Portman Road and now has Civic Drive running past on the other (back) side.

A church was first recorded here in the 12th century, but much of the work to create the present building was carried out in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was then enlarged in phases in the 19th century during its time as the garrison church for the Ipswich barracks.

The day I visited, I was fortunate to arrive at the door as a gentleman was leaving, and he promptly escorted me around the church and gave me some insights to the building. It appears it was locked that day so I was very fortunate to arrive when I did!

The Chancel with its hammer beam roof and the Angels Bearing Shields. The Angels were in the nave roof at one point, but were moved to the current position in 1958. The other magnificent feature is the Reredos of five panels, which is a memorial to a Mary Ann Cole.

The stained glass window was a gift in 1890 by Mr George Hewitt, a successful local business man and member of the Church. He died before it was completed, but it was finished by another parishioner and unveiled on 26th April 1894.

The five panel Reredos

One of the two treasure of the sanctuary; a Jacobean Monument of around 1630

Tuning right from the Chancel you find what was once the home of the organ. It is now St Katherine`s Chapel. It has three panels in the alter rail dedicated to Rev. Ampat Thomas George, the much loved assistant Priest who died suddenly in 1975. His life in Kerala, Ethiopia and East Anglia, is marked by these three panels. It is fitting that on the Altar is the Axum Cross, an original work by unknown Ethiopian craftsman and sent as a tribute to Father George.

The Axum Cross

The window in the East on St Katherine`s Chapel. There has been some controversy since it was erected in 1853, over what the stained glass artist (Hedgeland) was actually portraying in the window! Some people suggested that the kneeling figure in the middle bottom segment was Our Lady or St Katherine, but it appears to be of Mrs Jane Gaye, to whom the window was dedicated.

However, there are Catherine Wheel motifs in the window to represent how the original St Katherine is supposed to have died.

So much English medieval Catholic iconography was destroyed by the Protestant reformers of the 16th century, and the Puritans of the 17th century. Here at St Matthew we find an even rarer survival of England's Catholic past, a font whose panels show a sequence of images of events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

This is regarded as one of the dozen most important and significant medieval art survivals in Suffolk, and one of the finest late medieval fonts in England.

Believe to date from some time during the second decade of the 16th Century or even 1350 according to one expert! Of the eight panels, one has a Tudor rose and another a foliage pattern, but five of them depict events in the devotional story of Mary, mother of Jesus. These five reliefs, and a sixth of the Baptism of Christ, are amazing art objects. They show the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin with Gabriel unfurling a banner from which a dove emerges to whisper in Mary's ear; The Adoration of the Magi, with the wise men pulling a blanket away from the Blessed Virgin and child as if to symbolise their revelation to the world; the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, with Mary radiating glory in a mandala, which four angels use to convey her up to heaven in bodily form; the Coronation of the Queen of Heaven, the crowned figures of God the Father and God the Son placing a crown on the Blessed Virgin's head while the Dove of the Holy Spirit races down directly above her; and the Mother of God Enthroned, the crowned figure of the Blessed Virgin sitting on the left of and looking at (and thus paying homage to) her crowned son on the right, who is holding an orb.

Across the road (Civic Drive) from the rear of St Matthews is the above statue on the wall of Lady Lane, to mark the spot where the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace was sited.

On January 8th, 1297, a royal wedding took place in Ipswich. Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King Edward I, married the Count of Holland. Fitch, in his annals, records that Edward I stayed in the town for the ceremony with 'a splendid court', and that the three minstrels were paid 50s each for their services. The wedding took place, not in any of the parish churches of the town, but in one of England's major shrines of Marian pilgrimage; a shrine to which we may presume Edward I had a special devotion. This was the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace, also referred to in contemporary records as Our Lady of Ipswich.
This wedding is just the earliest record we have of a royal occasion at the shrine. Thereafter, a succession of visitors come here on pilgrimage, culminating in the early 16th century, when the pilgrimage cult was at its height. Between 1517 and 1522, both Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon made journeys to the shrine, set beside the Westgate in the parish of St Matthew. Other visitors included the local dignitary Cardinal Wolsey, and the future saint Thomas More.
The fame and influence of the Ipswich shrine reached its peak in the early years of the 16th Century, after an incident known as the Miracle of the Maid of Ipswich. This occurred in 1516 and was held in renown all over England in the few short years left before the Reformation intervened. The popularity of the Miracle, in which Joan, a young Ipswich girl, has a near-death encounter and experiences visions of the Virgin Mary, was widely used by the Catholic Church as a buttress against the murmurings of reformers.

The focus of any Marian shrine would be the statue of Mary, most often with the infant Christ on her knee. When the reformers of the 16th century set out to break the hold of the Church on the imagination of the people, statues of Mary and the saints were the first things to go. 

Records indicate that (Thomas) Cromwell... caused this image of Our Lady to be pulled down from her niche, and after despoiling the effigy of its rich habilements and jewels... it was conveyed to London and destroyed. John Weever, writing a century after the event, reports that all the notable images, as the images of Our Lady of Walsingham, Ipswich, Worcester, the Lady of Wilsdon, the rood of grace of Our Lady of Boxley, and the image of the rood of St Saviour at Bermondsey, were brought up to London and burnt at Chelsey, at the commandment of the aforesaid Cromwell.

There is some evidence that the original statue of Our Lady of Grace survived, and still exists today;  A wooden statue of the Madonna and Child displayed in the local church of the Italian seaside town of Nettuno closely matches various descriptions of the Ipswich statue. The statue is known locally as "Our Lady of Grace" or "The English Lady". Radio carbon dating places the era when the tree was felled to provide the wood of which the statue is carved at circa 1280 to 1420 with 94% certainty.

There is also evidence in the Nettuno archives that a statue arrived there from Ipswich in 1550. It was classified as being in the English iconic style in 1938 by Martin Gillett, an historian of 13th century iconography. Although the statue had been altered (a throne had been replaced and the posture of the Christ child had changed), details such as the folds in the material and Christ's position on the right rather than the left knee suggest that the statue came from England.

So, It wouldn't be that improbable?  Western mainland Europe is full of statues and sculptures produced in England during the 12th and 13th centuries. Many of them must have been exported at the time; Nottingham alabaster work, for instance, was greatly prized throughout Europe. But much probably went abroad at the time of the Reformation. 

Fast forward to more modern times, in 2002 the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace of Ipswich was re-established, at St Mary at The Elms. (Above) The shrine is visited annually by the people of Nettuno, Italy - where the original medieval statue is now venerated.

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