Thomas Seckford and Woodbridge

On a walk around Woodbridge, it doesn't take long to realise that there is a name that crops up time and again - Thomas Seckford. It is remarkable that the life of one man, living in the turbulent Tudor era, should have had such an enduring impact on the town of Woodbridge and the surrounding area of Suffolk: an impact that is as powerful today as it has been down the centuries.

Thomas Seckford was born in 1515 at Seckford Hall, the family seat outside Woodbridge which is now a luxury hotel. His country house was the Abbey, now the junior school for Woodbridge School.

He built for the town the Shire Hall to serve as the local court, which it continued to do until the late 20th century and now houses the Council Chamber and the Foundation’s archives.

For a time he owned the iconic Tide Mill, one of only two working tide mills remaining in the United Kingdom. Seckford was a prominent lawyer who served Queen Elizabeth I in a number of important judicial roles. He amassed a considerable fortune and when he died in 1587 he left his estate in Clerkenwell, then comprising pasture land just to the north of the City of London, to endow an almshouse for thirteen poor men of Woodbridge. I believe they were actually started before he died.

Although Seckford had made generous provision in his will for his brothers and their offspring – he himself had no children – much of the first one hundred years was occupied by challenges to the endowment made by various members of the Seckford family, but one consequence of these legal wrangles was that the Master of the Rolls and the Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas were appointed to be the governors of the charity, with administration being delegated to the churchwardens of St Mary’s parish church in Woodbridge. As income from the estate grew, surplus funds were used to teach, clothe and care for poor children and the pensions paid to residents of the almshouse were increased and as London expanded and finally engulfed Clerkenwell, so the rental value of the endowment increased significantly, facilitating the construction in the mid 19th century of a magnificent new almshouse, the Seckford Hospital, not far from the centre of town, which today remains the centre of the Foundation’s care activities.

In 1662 Dorothy Seckford, the widow of Seckford’s nephew Henry, last of the Seckford family, joined with a number of other eminent locals to found a free school which was housed in a property in Seckford Street, just off the town’s Market Hill, donated by Robert Marryott, after whom one of the current school’s buildings, now housing the Foundation’s administrative headquarters, is named. The school was to teach ten “sons of the meaner sort” of Woodbridge residents, along with others who were to be charged £1 a year. They were to be taught Latin and Greek to prepare them for university; or, if not capable of mastering these subjects, arithmetic and writing as preparation “for trades or to go to sea”. Over the first two centuries of its existence the school had its ups and downs, including a headmaster disappearing in order to escape from his creditors, and despite educating an increasing number of boys, a number of whom went on to build eminent careers, its fortunes had dramatically declined by the mid nineteenth century and its premises had fallen into disrepair; in contrast to the increasing fortunes of the almshouse charity.

In 1861 it was therefore agreed that the Almshouse charity should merge with the Free School charity. As a result of the merger, the Seckford Foundation was created, facilitating the move of the School to a spacious new site on the edge of the town which still houses Woodbridge School as well as the administrative offices of the Foundation. As well as providing funds for more bursaries, the merger freed up the original school building in Seckford Street for use as a dispensary and a lending library and reading room, both funded by the Foundation. 

The original school building in Seckford Street which, in 1861, was converted for use as a dispensary and a lending library and reading room - both funded by the Foundation.

The Foundation has not stood still since then: the past 150 years have seen continuous development of the activities of the Foundation and its facilities, and since the turn of the century alone the Foundation has entirely remodelled the Almshouses, providing exceptional accommodation for its residents; constructed a 350 seat theatre, the Seckford Theatre, for the benefit of the School and the local community; has substantially upgraded the teaching facilities of Woodbridge School, to include a new classroom block, sixth form centre and technology centre; opened three new Free Schools, in Beccles, Ixworth and Saxmundham, providing educational choice in those areas; launched Seckford Springboard to help young people under 25 to access education, employment and training; and led on an initiative called ‘Flourish’ to help tackle the issue of rural poverty within Suffolk.

It seems incredible that one man from the Tudor era could have such an impact even today! The man himself was buried in St Mary`s Church, so a visit was on the itinerary.

There has been a church here since before the Norman Conquest. The parish church was begun in the early C15 and the spectacular 100 foot tower about mid C15. Much of the interior was remodeled around 1870, although there are a few medieval remnants - the font (below) being one of the best.

St Mary's Seven Sacrament font is one of thirteen survivals in Suffolk. It now stands at the west end of the south aisle, under the exquisite 1937 font cover by Walter Forsyth.

The panels show the sacraments of the Catholic Church, and are a reminder that our Medieval churches were not built for congregational Anglican worship. The panels are a bit battered, but are all recognisable. The one on my image above is the Crucifixion scene, this panel, anathema to the protestants of the 1540s, has been paid particular attention by them

The panels are, in clockwise order from the north, Ordination, Matrimony (the two sacraments of service), Baptism, Confirmation (the two sacraments of commission), Reconciliation, Mass, Last Rites (along with Reconciliation, one of the two sacraments of healing) and, in the final eighth panel, the Crucifixion. 

The survival of so much Catholic imagery in this church, when we know that the 17th century puritans were particularly active in this area, may seem surprising. But, ironically enough, it is a result of the destruction of a century earlier. During the early Reformation of the 1540s, Woodbridge was wholeheartedly Anglican, and the wrecking crew went to work with a vengeance. The destruction here probably took place in the Autumn of 1547, during the first months of Edward VI's reign, when there was a free-for-all in places like Suffolk. The easiest way to deal with the font was to knock off the more prominent relief, and plaster the whole thing over. When Dowsing and his Biblical fundamentalists arrived at this church almost a century later on the 27th January 1644, they found very little to do.

The tomb of Thomas Seckford, the great benefactor of Woodbridge

The Deban Millennium Frieze. Designed by Michael Coulter and created by the Deban Decorative and Fine Arts Society, this 20 foot long and 3 foot wide frieze gives a brief history of Woodbridge over the past 2000 years. Rather clever, I thought.

The window of 1890 to commemorate the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. St Patrick, St George with a dragon, and St Andrew are the three figures.

I hold and am held

This rather eye-catching 2016 sculpture by Rick Kirby is in the churchyard of Woodbridge Quay Church. Funded by a church member, this work is made of small pieces of welded sheet steel in the shape of a pair of supportive hands, which reflect the church's statement of faith and hope in God.

The Sisters

Installed in November 2020, ‘The Sisters’ sculpture, commissioned by Woodbridge Boatyard and made by Andrew Baldwin, celebrates Molly and Ethel Everson who, along with their brothers Cyril and Bert, managed the yard inherited from their father until 1969.

Cyril and Bert built boats and handled the river work, so ‘living’ memorials to them can be seen in the many Everson boats that still sail these waters. The sisters managed the chandlery, sail store and office, where the rowing club now stands. This sculpture celebrates their contribution. These two tough, resilient women now watch over the Deben once again and their story is remembered.

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Tempers flare at the graveside!

Now for a story of the strange going-on in Akenham churchyard, near Claydon. This strange incident from a sleepy Suffolk parish had a far reaching impact in that it is considered that it led directly to the passing of the Burial Laws Amendment Act of 1880.

Peace in the parish was initially disturbed following the appointment of Rev George Drury as rector of Claydon and Akenham in 1846. He was of the High Church, or what today would be called Anglo-Catholic, and introduced candles, a cross on the altar at Claydon, vestments, daily communion and incense none of which went down well with the local Protestant parishioners and resulted in the Bishop of Norwich intervening. All the items he introduced were actually illegal at the time and other priests had been prosecuted, and some imprisoned, for similar actions.

Tensions in the village continued to rise when the parishioners elected as churchwarden Mr Smith of Rise Hall, a local landowner and a nonconformist. Rev Drury obviously refused to recognise the election of a non member of the Church of England congregation despite the Bishop of Norwich’s opinion on the matter. The situation turned into a standoff with Rev Drury refusing to recognise Mr Smith as warden and hand over the keys of the church and from Mr Smith and the parishioners’ point of view his actions only served to further illustrate the stubbornness of the incumbent and his refusal to listen to the villagers. 

Rev Drury also did not endear himself to his Protestant congregation with the establishment of two religious communities. First a Benedictine community for men led by his friend Joseph Leycester Lyne, known as Father Ignatius, at Claydon Rectory in 1863. Father Ignatius preached Hell-fire and extreme Catholic teachings from the pulpit and attracted people to the church from far and wide; some to worship and others to protest resulting in the services turning into scenes of riot, protest and violence. Again the Bishop of Norwich had to intervene and Father Ignatius was banned from preaching in any churches in his Diocese in 1864.  Undeterred in his hopes for a monastic revival Rev Drury founded a convent of Benedictine nuns in Claydon in 1866 and this survived through to 1882. The situation however continued to deteriorate and Rev Drury, who also preferred the title of Father, was accused of keeping a harem. Tensions were running high in the peaceful Suffolk village to such an extent that on one occasion a mob broke into the convent and ‘rescued’ one of the nuns who was then conveyed to the lunatic asylum on her father’s orders and remained there until his death. Rev Drury was quite clearly not at peace with his congregation as he had built a 9ft wall around the rectory!

Part of the remains of Claydon rectory garden wall.

The funeral of 2 year old  Joseph Ramsey in August 1878 was the final straw which brought the tensions in Akenham to a very explosive head. Joseph Ramsey was the son of Edward Ramsey a Baptist employee of Mr Gooding (a nonconformist) of Akenham Hall; and as such Joseph had not been baptised as they advocated adult baptism as opposed to infant baptism. In the eyes of the Church of England the only difference this should have made was that Rev Drury was not allowed to read the burial service from the Book of Common Prayer over the coffin, but he would have been expected to accompany the coffin to the burial site and to be present at the interment.

The redundant church of St Mary, Akenham

What actually happened at the burial is unclear but all the evidence agrees that the coffin arrived accompanied by Rev Wickham Tozer, a Congregational minister from Ipswich, Mr Smith, and Mr Gooding (well-to-do nonconformists) and about 20-30 mourners. This was an unusually large number of mourners for the burial of an infant of a working-class family, as infant mortality was common place at the time. On arriving at the churchyard Rev Tozer attempted to hold a service at the edge of the field owned by Mr Smith of Rise Hall and situated across the track from the Church 

With the churchyard gate locked to them the assembled mourners passed the coffin through the hedge and buried it without any form of service in the churchyard. Harsh as this may sound it was illegal for Rev Drury to read the burial service over an unbaptised child, but it was also illegal for a nonconformist minister to read a burial service in a churchyard. This left nonconformists, who at the time had little option than to be buried in a parish churchyard, caught between a rock and a hard place and unable to receive burial rites. With no Baptist chapel in Akenham or Claydon and no Baptist minister there was no chance of Joseph Ramsey having a Baptist burial service in a chapel prior to burial in the churchyard. It was quite common at the time for a nonconformist service to be held in the home of a member of the church so the holding of a service in the open air opposite the churchyard is both unusual and contentious. Looking at the events and facts almost 140 years later it looks as if the nonconformists who gathered there on the 23 August 1878 were setting up Rev Drury for a fall. The villagers knew the type of man he was, High Church and dogmatic, and probably had a good idea as to how he would react to this sort of provocation at the churchyard gate. Whilst this service was in progress it is stated that Rev Drury approached the group to take charge of the coffin and accompany it to the grave, but the mourners counter claimed that he attempted to break up the service. Both sides agreed that ‘firm words were spoken’ with the Rev Tozer waving a fist in the face of Rev Drury and that the parents of Joseph Ramsey implored Rev Tozer to ignore Rev Drury and continue with the service. This just resulted in Rev Drury locking the churchyard gate and ‘storming off’ without burying the child.

The gravestone of little Joseph Ramsey

The Aftermath.

The events of this ‘interesting and unusual’ burial however did not stop with the burial of Joseph Ramsey as a detailed account of the incident appeared in the East Anglian Daily Times [EADT] the following Monday under the heading ‘Burial Scandal at Akenham’.

The report accused Rev Drury of trying to prevent a Christian burial and of having stated ‘your religious convictions… and feelings have nothing to do with it – your proceedings are altogether wrong and I must teach my parishioners that I cannot sanction them’

He was also accused of stating that Joseph was not a Christian and of storming off when Rev Wickham Tozer refused to shorten his service. The article concluded with the comment

‘We leave the facts to tell their own tale, reminding our readers that this staunch upholder of ecclesiastical law is already under admonition from his own Bishop for lawless proceedings in his own church’

The article brought about an instant reaction with the EADT being bombarded with letters about the funeral and the tensions within the parish. The articles proceeded to include comment as to Rev Drury’s ‘style’ of High Church along with hints and innuendos about the convent. His whole character came into question with the issue that he has been fined for assaulting someone with a red-hot poker and that he had thrown water over another person being brought in to play. Even his very clothing was subjected to comment with the note that he wore ‘peculiar toggery’.

It however emerged in due course that the original report has been written by none other than the Rev Wickham Tozer and that some of the letters attacking Rev Drury came from people directly involved with the funeral. Rev Drury did not however take this ‘assault’ on his character lying down as he sued Frederick Wilson the editor and owner of the EADT for libel and won! Financially it was a shallow victory of just 40s damages plus costs but his friends and supporters rallied round and Rev Drury is reported as having been given a hero’s welcome on his return to his parish. Clearly not everyone was as odds with the style of this clergyman

The more you investigate the more it seems that a group of disgruntled villagers set out to discredit Rev Drury with whom they were in dispute and that his behaviour played straight into their hands. Rev Drury might have won the High Court case, but a national fund was set up to pay Frederick Wilson’s costs of £1,000. The sum was actually exceeded and some of the money raised went towards the provision of a headstone for Joseph Ramsey.

Even more surprisingly Rev Drury remained at Claydon and Akenham until his death in 1895 having served the parishes for 39 years! And yes, he is buried at Claydon.

He is described in the Cambridge Alumni list as: 

“A strong ritualist, well known throughout the diocese for the uncompromising advocacy of his opinions. Established a Sisterhood at Claydon which caused much excitement. In 1878 was successful in an action for libel arising out of the burial of an unbaptised child in Akenham churchyard. Improved the church, erecting with his own hands a stone pulpit and some stained glass; rebuilt the chancel from his own designs.”

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Badley - a church frozen in time

St Mary's in Badley, is one of Suffolk's most remarkable medieval churches - its setting and unmodernised interior give an atmosphere of great peace and stillness. To discover its charm, you must begin with a journey - a mile's walk or drive down a rutted track across Suffolk farmland, to a small valley of trees and birdsong. The flint-and-brick church has nothing for company but a sixteenth-century farmhouse and the wildlife of its pretty churchyard. Passing through the sturdy medieval door with its iron grille, you step into a time capsule - a church scarcely changed for 300 years with plain walls and a brick floor set with memorials to the Poleys, once owners of the house nearby. The seventeenth/eighteenth-century arrangement of the pews, which incorporates Medieval benches, combined with fragments of a screen with seventeenth-century panelling, where the oak is silvery-grey with age, make an extraordinary ensemble. The day I chose to visit was rather dull and damp so the images suffered, but hopefully convey what I saw in this isolated church.

Badley`s St Mary's Church as you approach. The first thing of note is the tower which is of flint and brick rubble, with the belfry stage rebuilt in C16 orange brick. It was placed on top of the west end of the nave in C15. The church itself is mainly C15, with parts being c.1200 or earlier - quite old!

The church fell out of use in the 1980s, and is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. But it hasn't always been loved. The iconoclast William Dowsing came this way on the morning of Monday, February 5th 1644. Dowsing had a house nearby at Baylham. It was the last full day of his first tour of Suffolk, and he was probably in a bad mood - certainly, he seems to have been only just realising the enormity of his task, and this was the week he appointed the brutish and scheming Thomas Denny as his deputy. Dowsing found an ally here at Badley in William Dove, the principal landowner and churchwarden. Dowsing himself had about half of the stained glass broken down, but he trusted Dove to get rid of the rest. He also charged him with the task of lowering of the chancel steps which had been raised by order of Archbishop Laud a decade or so before. No old glass survives, and the chancel steps were never to be made high again.

The overgrown, grassed path, leads to a little wooden porch, with a drop-gate to keep out animals.

The door into the church has a metal grill set in it, and this all seems original too, or 18th century at the latest. Through this grill, you can peep at the remarkable interior.

On the south outer side of the church and blocking the outer face of a C14 window, is a monument to Henrietta Robins (d.1728). Heritage crime continues to be a problem in all churches. Lead is taken from church roofs; monuments are vandalised. Perhaps even more concerning is the possibility of theft to order. This church of St Mary has been the victim of this. A large carved stone shield from the memorial of Henrietta Robins (d.1728) a lawyer’s wife from Battlesden in Bedfordshire, was stolen from the above monument and it is suspected that this was done to order.

And then for the interior! It is essentially an untouched 18th century interior, with barely a sign of Victorian enthusiasm. The benches and box pews are bleached white by centuries of Suffolk air and sunlight, and flooded with sunshine by the remarkably large five-light west window. The tiled floor spreads, punctuated by ledger stones and brass inscriptions, and the whole piece is heartachingly rustic.

The box-pews, dating from the 17th century, were occupied by the more wealthy families who could afford to rent them. Those east of the screen are embellished with knobs and were used by the Lords of the Manor and the important families who sat in the chancel. Characteristic Jacobean carving can be seen on the pew entrance opposite the pulpit and there is more on the entrance to the reading desk and pulpit. The reading desk is commodious, although the pulpit is remarkably small. They were both equipped with red cushions and hangings, which had rotted and were removed earlier this century

Notable is an absence of the 17th-century communion rails which one would expect to find here; it seems that either they disappeared very early or that there never were any. The present iron rails were probable erected in the 19th century (Pevsner dates them c.1830).

The small octagonal font, standing upon its raised step, has shallow arches in its Purbeck marble bowl, indicating work of the 13th century. Its present cover may well be 18th century, but in the stonework of the bowl are traces of the device by which its mediaeval predecessor was locked to the font.

One of several mentions of the Poley family here on the floor of the nave. The grave of a Thomas Poley who amongst other political positions, was once Ipswich MP.

One of the attractions for me was the fine selection of oak furnishings of various dates, but untouched since C18. There is a set of 5 and three sets of 4 benches, one C15 example having carved animals on the buttresses. Most others are of C16, the whole augmented and rearranged in C17. So the Victorians didn't get to this one!

One of the only other 19th-century feature is the stained glass in the east window.

This is a really special church to visit, not for its size or spectacular artifacts, but for its preservation of a piece of life from a bygone age.

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Three days of summer!

`Make the most of the good weather` was our cry for this year, as summer weather seems in short supply at the moment. This week was forecast as sunny for most days and three days were marked as potential `days out`.

We were lucky as we managed all three days. One to Redgrave and Lopham Fen, another to Pipers' Vale Nature Reserve with its stunning views of the Orwell Bridge, and the third to Ramsholt Church on the Deben River, to see the poppies all around the churchyard.

So, here are images from all three days to remind us of at least some summer in 2021!

As you can see, the churchyard is a riot of colour at the moment. Certainly a view to remember.

In amongst this colour, with the River Deben as a backdrop, you have an interesting church as well. See my previous post.

Moving on to the next sunny day, and a trip to Pipers` Vale. This is a Nature Reserve that is worth visiting for its flowers and butterflies, but also its views of the Orwell Bridge.

Two views of the Orwell Bridge. A magnificent structure by any measure.

Textures in the water at the base of the bridge.

Salsify, spotted near the bridge. It is a root vegetable, apparently, belonging to the dandelion family, being known also as the oyster plant because of its similar taste when cooked. The root is similar in appearance to a long, thin parsnip, with creamy white flesh and a thick skin. In the same way as many root vegetables, salsify can be boiled, mashed or used in soups and stews.

Bumble Bee

Common Blue butterfly. We have seen these and the Marble White on this site many times before.

Here is a Marble White taken a few days later. Included, as the ones I took on this day were not up to scratch! Still Pipers Vale though.

Day three was a visit to Redgrave and Lopham Fen, noted for it Dragonflies and Raft Spider.

First two images are of a male Norfolk Hawker. The Norfolk hawker is a rare species, with clear wings, green eyes and the characteristic yellow triangle shape on the dragonfly’s body which make this endangered dragonfly very distinctive.

These little creature are the young of the Peacock butterfly I believe.

So to the great find on a visit to Redgrave and Lopham - the Raft spider. We had seen it here a year or two ago, but it is quite elusive so we were well pleased when a lady suddenly said "look, there`s one".

The spider was first identified in the UK in 1956, at Redgrave and Lopham Fen. Following their discovery, a number of new pools were dug to encourage population expansion. However, water extraction from the nearby borehole and a series of droughts in the 1980s reduced the population to only two isolated areas on the reserve. Throughout this period irrigation of the pools inhabited by the spider enabled the continuation of the population. The removal of the borehole in 1999 was expected to trigger an increase in population as water levels returned to normal. However, a study carried out in 2006 showed that no noticeable change had occurred. The population of the fen raft spider at the site remains small and restricted in distribution, but stable.

Longhorn beetle

Lastly, as we were almost next door to Bressingham, we had a wander around the gardens before heading home. The gardens are beautiful this time of year and, having had plenty of moisture, looking lush and colourful.

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Dingle Nature Reserve and Moelfre

Having spotted one or two Nature Reserves on the map, we headed to a reserve, spent a little time there, and decided to move on. We then headed onto the Dingle Nature Reserve which was beside a stream and had the added attraction of resident Red squirrels. Sadly, when we arrived we found that the reserve was still shut. Not sure why, but signs indicated unsafe. Luckily there was a cycleway through part of it so we headed along it, cameras at the ready.

An early Marsh Orchid

This I thought was beautiful - Bogbean

Marsh Marigold

Robin posing for us - this taken at Dingle Nature Reserve

Jay - spotted along the cycleway

My shot of the day - a Red Squirrel on  a branch overhead. Magic!

The stunning red squirrel is native to England and it's always a special sight to spot one of these cheeky critters scampering through our woodlands. Unfortunately this is becoming an increasingly rare occurrence as the last century has seen a dramatic decrease in their numbers. The reason for the widespread decline across Britain can be attributed to two main factors: the destruction of habitat, and the introduction of the grey squirrel from America. It is estimated by the Forestry Commission that there are now as few as 140,000 red squirrels left in Britain compared to the 2.5 million grey squirrels. Anglesey is a hotspot as all grey squirrels have been eradicated, and the Menai and Britannia bridges act as a barrier.

Then the sight of a Nuthatch.

Having walked the cycleway at Dingle, we decided that a trip to the nearby coast was in order so headed to Moelfre.

A walk along the front brought us to the Lifeboat station and this figure on the wall. Richard Matthew Evans (BEM), was a Welsh lifeboatman. He was born in the village of Moelfre on the north-east of the island of Anglesey. During his 50 years service as a lifeboatman, Richard Evans was involved in 179 launches and the saving of 281 lives and is one of only five men to be awarded the RNLI gold medal twice, the highest accolade awarded by the institution and the equivalent of the Victoria Cross for bravery at sea.

A view from the harbour before we bought the biggest ice-cream I have ever eaten (well almost eaten!), and then making our way back to base. Another very enjoyable day.

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