Rowden Holiday - Lacock & Bath

This holiday was a family holiday to an area, most of which I had already visited in previous times. However, our family had not, and were rather attracted to one or two places in the area. So, here we are!

We stayed at Rowden Manor,  in a converted building on the site.

The converted building in the grounds, part of which we stayed in. We had full access to all the gardens and grounds of the Manor.

The first place we took the family to, was Lacock Abbey, in the National Trust village of Lacock. If you are in this area of the Cotswolds, this is well worth a visit. The village itself is a beautiful place to wander and the Abbey too. In its 800 years of history, Lacock Abbey has been many things. It started as a nunnery in the 1200s before becoming a Tudor family home. Since then it has evolved with every owner and in 1835, the first photographic negative was captured in the Abbey. Today Lacock is a well-known location for a host of film and TV productions including Harry Potter and Downton Abbey. Images from my previous visit can be seen here on a previous blog.

Next day we visited Bath, primarily to get some images of the Cathedral, while the family perused the town. 

An image of the Abbey taken on a previous visit. All other are from this visit in 2025

Since it was founded in the 7th century, Bath Abbey has undergone a great deal of work, being reorganised in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. Major restoration work was also carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s.

Three different churches have occupied the site of the Abbey since 757 AD. First, an Anglo-Saxon monastery which was pulled down by the Norman conquerors of England; then a massive Norman cathedral which was begun about 1090 but lay in ruins by late 15th century; and finally, the present Abbey Church, which started in around 1499, as we now know it.

When the Abbey was raised to cathedral status in 1090, it was felt that a larger, more up-to-date building was required. John of Tours planned a new cathedral on a grand scale, dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but only the ambulatory was complete when he died in December 1122. Unfortunately, a major fire destroyed the half-finished cathedral in 1137, however work continued under Godfrey, the new bishop, until about 1156 when it was finally complete.

The abbey was stripped of its co-cathedral status in the aftermath of the Dissolution when the cathedral was consolidated in Wells. All of the lead, iron and glass in the building was stripped away and the church was left to decay. It was then sold it to Matthew Colthurst of Wardour Castle in 1543, and his son Edmund Colthurst gave the roofless remains of the building to the corporation of Bath in 1572. The corporation had difficulty finding private funds for its restoration.

In 1573, Queen Elizabeth I licensed a seven-year nationwide collection to support the rebuilding of the Abbey. Over the following 50 years, the Abbey was transformed from a ruin to a church which the city could be proud of. Once the church had been rebuilt, it could serve the city effectively and its growing numbers of well-to-do but sickly visitors. This meant that the number of monuments grew in the Abbey to become the largest collection of any church in the country: 891 stones on the floor and 635 around the walls. As you can imagine, they are everywhere you look!

A statue of Mary which I believe was lent to the Abbey for a period, by the artist who made it.

High Altar and Reredos. 

The reredos is a decorative screen or panel that was installed behind the altar in the 1870s. It was a part of the extensive renovations and restorations carried out by the architect Gilbert Scott. Specifically, a plain reredos of blank arcading was designed to fit under the east window. This reredos replaced a marble altarpiece that was previously there.

This window shows the crowning of Edgar. Edgar was crowned first 'King of All England' in the Anglo-Saxon Abbey here in 973. The Archbishop of Canterbury, called Dunstan, wrote the service. This event became the template for all subsequent coronations, including that of King, Charles III, in May 2024.

From the Bath Abbey website:

One piece of wood carving that was completed in 1947 that you can see today is on the big wooden front door of the Abbey. This door is called the West Front door and was given to the Abbey in 1617 by Sir Henry Montagu, the Lord Chief Justice, in memory of his brothers Bishop James Montagu and Sir Walter Montagu. The door is decorated with three shields displaying the coats of arms of the three Montagu brothers. In 1947, the lowest coat of arms, in the middle of the door needed to be repaired.

Following our brief wander around a very crowded Abbey, we strolled the town briefly and came across a busker or two. We watched the guy pretending to sit and the guitarist who was rather good.

Then we headed back to our base, ready to plan the next visit.

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Rev John Henslow of Hitcham

Despite having worked in the area for a number of years, I had never been inside All Saints Church in Hitcham. So I was looking forward to this, my first time.

My first observation was that the church has a massive tower, built around the 15C, with a rather good looking South side entrance.

The south porch entrance.

And so into a lovely light and airy interior. Unusually, the church has not a single piece of stained glass. The nave is seperated from the two outer aisles by the simple octagonal pillars of the five bay arcades that probably date from the 14C.

Hitcham Church features a significant "Adoration of the Magi" painting, a copy of a work by Rubens, which is located in the south aisle. This painting, a reverse copy of the original at King's College Chapel in Cambridge, is a notable feature of the church. The painting is said to have come from the palace of the Bishop of Bath & Wells and was described as a copy of an old master.

The fine double hammerbeam roof

The font was installed in 1878 but moved to its presnt position in the 1930`s

Memorial to Rev John Stevens Henslow. For me, the main interest in this Church and Parish

John Stevens Henslow was born in Maidstone, Kent, in 1796, the eldest of eleven children. His father was a solicitor and his grandfather, Sir John Henslow, had been Master of Chatham Dockyard and Chief Surveyor of the Royal Navy. His was a family of amateur naturalists and the children were encouraged to add to the household collection of insects, fossils and anything of natural interest. As he had a flair for collecting and classifying, young Henslow, whilst still a schoolboy, was invited to assist staff at the British Museum in cataloguing its growing Natural History collections.

Thus began Henslow’s lifelong interest in science and scientific education.

He went up to Cambridge in 1814 and as there were no Natural Science courses then, he took his degree in Mathematics. It was only during his postgraduate studies that he was able to follow his scientific interests and in 1822, at the age of 26, was given the Chair of Mineralogy. Five years later, in 1827, he was appointed Regius Professor of Botany.

In addition to his required lectures, Henslow organised field trips for his students, but his most popular custom was to hold weekly soirées at his home in Cambridge to which anyone who had a scientific interest was invited to come and join in discussion in an informal and social atmosphere. It was during these gatherings that Henslow came to know and to recognise the outstanding ability of a diffident young undergraduate named Darwin. In 1831, Henslow was asked to recommend a suitable naturalist to join HMS Beagle for its scientific survey of South American waters, and he persuaded Charles Darwin to accept the post. It was during the five year voyage of the Beagle that Darwin began to compile his vast collection of notes which he subsequently condensed into “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.”

The Henslow-Darwin connection did not end at Cambridge, they remained close friends, and in 1860, the year before his death, Henslow chaired the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Oxford, where “Origin of Species” was debated and where Thomas Huxley, in his celebrated defence of Darwin, declared that he would sooner be descended from an ape than a bishop. Henslow’s own comments were unrecorded, but there is little doubt that he regarded Darwinism in particular, and science in general, as enlarging our view of God, and giving us a greater respect for the rest of creation.

There is also little doubt that Henslow himself would have liked to have accompanied the Beagle. Perhaps that is why the invitation came to him, but by 1831, he was not only a married man but a clergyman too; he had been ordained Priest of the Church of England in 1824.

John Henslow came to Hitcham in 1837, a village described at the time as being “a populous, remote and woefully neglected parish, where the inhabitants, with regard to food and clothing and the means of observing the decencies of life, were far below the average scale of the peasant class in England.”

He immediately set about the task of improving the quality of life of his parishioners. But not from the pulpit. It is recorded that Henslow’s first congregation in Hitcham Church was insufficient to fill one pew, and although a first-class lecturer, he was regarded as an indifferent preacher. Perhaps he felt uncomfortable in speaking six feet above contradiction. With Victorian confidence and practicality he saw that education and the application of scientific knowledge offered the best solutions to the impoverishment that he found around him.

He found the farmers of Hitcham to be hard-working but intensely conservative in their methods of husbandry. He found their workers. who made up the bulk of the population, to be underemployed and invariably the victims of poor harvests and economic downturns.

He believed passionately in scientific agriculture and persuaded local farmers to assist him in experiments on crop diseases and measured analyses of manures. On a family holiday in Felixstowe, his restless, enquiring mind caused him to examine substances found in the cliffs there, known as coprolites. He recognised that coprolites, which are the fossilised excrement of animals long extinct, contained a high percentage of phosphate of lime, which he believed would provide a highly concentrated fertiliser. He conducted experiments, published his results and lectured at Suffolk Farming Society Meetings. Two young Suffolk farmers were so impressed, that they gave up their farming work to exploit the coprolite deposits, and from these humble beginnings, the international chemical company of Fisons, once based in Ipswich, evolved. There is a small back alley in Ipswich, close to the Docks where the fertiliser was crushed and prepared, called Coprolite Street. A reminder, perhaps, of Henslow’s holiday in Felixstowe.

Throughout his ministry in Hitcham, Henslow maintained his position as Professor of Botany at Cambridge, and was also, for a time, a private tutor to Queen Victoria’s children. But his teaching was not confined to bright undergraduates or to royal offspring. Shortly after arriving at Hitcham, he founded a village school and timetabled himself for regular lessons during the school year. His lessons were naturally Botany and nature study. Henslow was no mere chalk and talk classroom teacher. His surviving teaching notes show carefully prepared lessons which involved the children in collecting specimens, dissecting them and preparing notes and drawings of their findings. A teaching method still regarded as exemplary. Henslow believed that learning and enjoyment went hand in hand.

His beliefs in the potency of education did not end with the school children. He was deeply concerned with the overall poverty of their homes and families. Their fathers, farm workers subject to the vagaries of the day labour system, worked to exhaustion at some times of the year, during ploughing and harvest, for example, and stood off with little or no pay at other times; whose only recreation was in beer which they could ill afford. Their mothers, prematurely aged through child-bearing and drudgery.

As Rector of Hitcham, Henslow was responsible for the administration of the Village Charities, which traditionally gave handouts to the poor at Christmas, much of which they were relieved of at The White Horse. He changed this by substituting coal for money (a system which still prevails in the village, although now it’s electricity tokens for pensioners), but more significantly, he used the resources and influence of the charity to provide gainful occupation and extra food throughout the year. He introduced allotments to the village. In the teeth of opposition from the farmers who feared the loss of labour when they most needed it, he badgered them into making available plots of land which their labourers could cultivate, produce their own vegetables and develop an absorbing interest in gardening. As well as providing practical advice, Henslow instituted an annual vegetable show at the Rectory where those parishioners who had responded to him could proudly show off their produce and receive prizes for “Superior Allotment Culture”.

With the coming of the railways to Suffolk, Henslow organised excursions to places where Hitcham people were unlikely to have visited before, such as Cambridge and Norwich, and, in 1851, to the Great Exhibition in London. Each trip set off from Stowmarket station and was meticulously planned so that his party could see and enjoy as much as possible in the time available.

Henslow could also be described as the father of scientific archaeology in Suffolk, in that he undertook the first excavations in the county for which plans and sections survive – these were on the Roman barrows Eastlow, Rougham 1843-4. He was also one of the founders of Ipswich Museum.

John Henslow died of an attack of bronchitis in Hitcham in 1861. He had lived a life full of achievement, only fragments of which are described in these brief notes. He has had two biographies, one written in 1862 by his brother-in-law, Leonard Jenyns and a recent one by Jean Russell-Gebbett, published by Terence Dalton of Lavenham in 1977. This is available in local libraries.

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Extreme Abseil at Ipswich Hospital's Tower

To quote the web site of  Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity: 

We are proud to be the official NHS charity of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which provides hospital and community health services to around one million people and in 2022/23 was the second largest NHS organisation in the region.

When you make a donation to the Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity, you help take care of patients and staff at your local hospitals and healthcare centres – providing those extras that go above and beyond what the NHS can provide, and which make such a difference to happiness and healing.

You’ll help improve patients’ lives by bringing some good into a difficult time, such as making sure there’s tea and coffee in the waiting room for patients receiving chemotherapy or providing the slippers that keep older patients safe from falls.

Your kindness can also help provide the hospitals with the life-saving equipment, cutting-edge technology, research and innovation that can transform the healthcare available to your friends and family, when they need it most.

This Charity is very important as our Grandaughter has been in the care of Ipswich Hospital, amongst others, since her brain tumour was removed five years ago. Her father, our son, was raising money for them by doing this extreme abseil. In his words:

I've decided to be really brave and take on Ipswich Hospital's Tower by abseiling down it!

It's 135 feet high, but every foot will count towards fundraising for Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity. They are the official NHS charity of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust.

I'm raising money for the children’s play team. They do amazing work with children in the hospital going through treatments and helping to deal with the ongoing psychological effects post treatment.

The team have, and continue, to provide invaluable support for Em following her cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2020. We will always be grateful for their support.

So onto the photos!

Well done Matthew. That`s £700 plus raised!

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Layham Grove - a Bluebell walk

Having walked past the woods some days earlier, I realised that the bluebells were really showing. A few days later and a visit to the Grove with camera was the day`s mission. 

From the road, these are the first two images I took - this was before we even entered the woods!

 

Walking down the side of the wood to reach the only pathway through, we disturbed a deer!

Once in the wood, these images were taken from the pathway. Absulutely beautiful! Every year I think the same - I never tire of nature`s beauty.

Besides bluebells there was other forms of life of course. This being, so my wife informs me, a Cleopatra Beetle.

Then a couple of images of a Small White. Not forgetting the image at the top of this post of the deer we disturbed as we arrived on scene! Overall,  a beautiful area to spend time in.

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Unusual reredos in Great Waldingfield Church

Another church I have not seen before was Great Waldingfield`s St Lawrence. Having been warned that it is kept locked, I was pleased to find on arrival that it was in the process of being made ready for a funeral. The people involved were very welcoming and so was able to get a photograph of the main point of interest.

Like many churches in this part of the world, the Victorians really `went to town` on the restoration.It was a gentleman by the name of John Hakewill, whose major restoration of the nave was made in the 1870s. He was the brother of the more famous Edward Hakewill, but he had often designed the furnishings for his brother's restorations. His work here was enthusiastic and overwhelming, replacing not only the furnishings but also the roofs and the window tracery.

The Victorians certainly `had  a thing` about their churches!

The great architect William Butterfield turned up here to rebuild the chancel. Butterfield was a great enthusiast for encaustic tiles, using them on the walls as well as the floor. When I first read the above, I wondered what the word `encaustic` meant and found the following explanation: Encaustic means "burnt in" and refers to the way the tiles are made, which is rather unique. Instead of being glazed with colour, the material itself is pigmented and patterns are made by in-laying multiple colours before the tiles are pressed.

The real gem of this church is to be found in the remarkable sanctuary walls, forming a great three-sided reredos set with mosaics. See image below:

The marbles in these mosaics were collected in the ruins of heathen temples in old Rome AD 1867-1869. 'Old Rome' means the Roman Empire, and Emily and Louisa Baily, two sisters of the rector, travelled extensively in the Middle East and north Africa in the middle years of the 19th Century. They collected their stones in the Holy Land and in Egypt, and were the first European women known to have travelled alone beyond the second cataract of the River Nile into modern Sudan. The stones they brought back in trunks and carpet bags were sliced thinly thanks to a new industrial process of the time, and used to create varying designs across the three walls. The central cross is made up of stones collected in the tomb of Rameses II. There's some concern now that the reredos is deteriorating. The metal brackets are corroding and some stones are falling off, and so a major restoration project is currently in hand. 

A rather unusual sanctuary but well worth seeing.

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Ramsholt on the River Deben

This post was originaly made in August 2020 but I was not able to go inside the church due to the dreaded Covid. Now, some five years later, I was able to go inside. So, same post with some interior images added!

On the River Deben in Suffolk sits the tiny village of Ramsholt, a place I had never visited. From a book of photographic walks by local photographer Gill Moon, we picked this one for a walk with our cameras, on a very bright sunny day. I took a Nikon lens with a circular polarising filter, as I thought it would help with the bright sky. However, having not used the filter for some time, I had forgotten that I have ruined a number of images using a polariser, as the filter often made the sky far too dark. I almost managed the same today! However, it did help on some images.

What a position to sit and have your evening meal! By the time we had finished our walk, the front terrace was getting quite full. According to the advertising blurb: 

"The Ramsholt Arms is a popular riverside pub and dining room, situated on the banks of the river Deben. The pub is recommended in the Michelin guide and in July 2015 was voted one of the top 20 places to dine alfresco in the UK by the Sunday Times. Being the only south facing pub on the river, the Ramsholt Arms enjoys beautiful sunsets and is popular in the summer with holidaymakers, families and sailors who make the most of the sun soaked terrace, neighbouring beach and crab fishing jetty."

Over a few stiles on our way across the fields - some a bit worse for wear.

An early view of the church as we crossed the fields.

This is an ancient and mysterious place but in medieval times when King Edward III’s fleet was moored in the estuary below this would have been a thriving and busy settlement.

All Saints Church, Ramsholt is one of only 38 round tower churches in Suffolk. It sits in a tranquil location overlooking the River Deben and has a beautifully tended churchyard full of flowers in the summer. A chart of 1287 apparently shows the church as a sea mark. Much of the Norman church remains, though the windows are broadly medieval. 

The church fell to ruin in the early 19th century and was rescued in the 1850s when it was fitted out with box pews and a two-decker pulpit, although, due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, we were unable to enter. The above image was from May 2025 when we revisited. Also the following ones.

The late medieval font

The tower has large buttresses on the outside a characteristic found on only one other round tower church in Suffolk. It is, perhaps, these buttresses which make the tower appear oval, although it is round on the inside.

The current tower is built of Septaria (light to medium- brown limestone of coarse texture which outcrops in this area), flint and medieval brick. It is argued that this tower was built in late C13 or early C14 together with its three buttresses as tower and buttresses have a similar mix of building materials, perhaps suggesting a problem with an earlier tower.

The Priest`s Door

 Entrance is through the C19 porch.

Just beyond the church we watched as the farmer turned over the soil in this field. I guess he had onions in it this year, as you could see a few still on the field, but smell them from a long way off!

Back at the quay side, a view across the Deben and the moored boats.

I don`t know how far he was rowing, but he set off at a good pace.

Looking from the quay toward the Ramsholt Arms

The pilot of this boat obviously lost his sense of direction!

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