NEWS
The annual Summer Lunch in the former churchyard at St Bartholomew’s Shipmeadow on 25th June was a triumph: a most congenial occasion with over 70 guests enjoying excellent company and a fabulous array of sumptuous culinary delights. Favoured with a fine day, it was the only day that week to escape strong winds. We extend our grateful thanks to Nick and Jenny Caddick for their hospitality and for welcoming us to the grounds of St Bartholomew’s, and to all those who cooked, catered and helped set up and clear away.
Our Patronal Evensong on Trinity Sunday saw the inauguration of the handsome new service books. The service was followed by fizz and tasty bites.
The Rev’d Graham played the organ at Sunday service on 13th July, and afterwards we were delighted to celebrate his birthday with customary Barsham hospitality.
The Rt Revd Dr Joanne Grenfell has been appointed as the new Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. She takes up the position later this year and we look forward to welcoming her to Barsham in due course. Currently Bishop of Stepney in London, Bishop Joanne is also the Lead Safeguarding Bishop for the Church of England. Prior to ordination Bishop Joanne was a lecturer in English Literature at Oriel College, Oxford.
The PCC met for routine business on Thursday 10th July.
The old churchyard bench, repaired and restored, is now positioned in a peaceful spot in the churchyard under the east window.
Copies of the Prayer Book magazine are available for loan at the back of the church. Please return them when finished.
As many as ten swifts at a time have been seen over the churchyard. In addition, a jackdaw has been spotted feeding its young in one of the putlog holes high up on the face of the tower.
The sales table organised by Jenny raised an excellent £120.00. The Summer Lunch raised a magnificent total of £1,320.00, comprising ticket sales of £883.00 with £348.00 from the raffle and £89.00 from the sale of drinks.
We contributed 153 items to the Beccles Food Bank in June.
FORWARD PLANNING
Haymaking will start on Monday 11th August and will continue for much of the week. The work will be led by the Community Payback Team, which has been keeping the parking area tidy this summer. Please do come and lend a hand if you can on any day and for whatever time you can manage. Raking hay is the chief task. It is helpful if you can bring your own rake. Chris Bardsley has kindly offered to provide her delicious ploughman’s lunch each day: please let her or Malcolm know if you are likely to be in for lunch so that she can cater appropriately for the numbers.
The annual Suffolk Historic Churches Trust Ride, Stride & Drive, Saturday 13th September, 9am-5pm. The SHCT charity raises funds for the repair and restoration of churches and chapels in Suffolk. Of the money you might raise by sponsorship, half will come direct to Holy Trinity Barsham and the remainder placed in a central fund from which grants are made. Dick Carter is the Barsham organiser and Cheryl Coutts is the Beccles area coordinator. Participants are sponsored to walk, ride or drive around participating churches in the area – in the villages or around the town. From the beginning of August there will be yellow sponsorship forms available at the back of the church: when collecting sponsors, please ask them to give their full name, postal address and postcode, and to tick the Gift Aid box if they are taxpayers. There will also be a sign-up sheet for those willing to help by manning the church on a rota basis on the day, and helpers can also be sponsored for their efforts.
Dr Barry Darch’s talk on the Redes of Beccles, Saturday 6th September at 2pm, Barsham Church, with a Barsham tea afterwards.
SNIPPETS – St Bartholomew’s Church, Shipmeadow
Sitting in the churchyard at St Bartholomew’s, enjoying the summer lunch and taking in its glorious ambience, one cannot but notice how different the church is from Holy Trinity Barsham, most obviously with its shorter nave and chancel, its tiled roof, north porch and square tower. It feels very different and yet their stories have distinct parallels. The two churches are of a similar age: naves of the 11th or 12th century and chancels of the 14th. Both are constructed of flint rubble with stone dressings, albeit the plaster overlaying the flint survives better at Shipmeadow than at Barsham. The ancient round tower at Barsham is strikingly different from the square tower at Shipmeadow, but the addition of a new belfry of flint decorated with the newly fashionable building material, brick, at Barsham in the early 16th century echoes the building of a whole new tower of flint dressed with brick at Shipmeadow in the same period.
In the 19th century both Shipmeadow and Barsham were important centres of the Anglo-Catholic revival in the Waveney Valley. Both benefitted from the work of Frederick Eden, one of the leading designers of Anglo-Catholic interior embellishment, most notably in his designs for new stained glass (and thereby hangs an intriguing tale for another time).
Shipmeadow’s story diverges from that of Barsham however, in the community it served, both living and dead. From 1767 to 1938 the Rector of Shipmeadow was chaplain to the Wangford Hundred Workhouse at Shipmeadow, and from 1854 to 1859 to the Shipmeadow Penitentiary in Locks Lane. Inmates of the workhouse unfortunate enough to die there were buried in the churchyard at St Bartholomew’s, and the women of the Penitentiary walked up to the church every Sunday for morning service.
AUGUST DIARY
Sunday 3rd August – Seventh Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 10th August – Eighth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.
Sunday 17th August – Ninth Sunday after Trinity. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP), Barsham. Revd Desmond Banister.
Sunday 24th August – Tenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor.
Sunday 31st August – Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]