St. Mary Magdalene, Caldecote
This church lay redundant amongst elder trees and nettles before the Friends of Friendless Churches took it under her wing; the village finished off by the Black Death and economic changes has all gone, leaving one or two scattered houses and the church up a rough road to the manor house. All around lie massive modern fields, no longer meadows but monocultural deserts in which nothing local lives. The flowering rape may look spectacular, but it grows there instead of all indigenous life.
The Caldecote Church Friends is the local group responsible for the building, and they were out in force on Heritage Open Day. September is a good time to access churches far from home; with open days and ride-and-strides causing many to unlock their doors there are less wasted journeys . Caldecote guaranteed it would be open, but even so I was surprised at the twenty to thirty cars parked on the hard standing near the group of modern barns. Stalls provided information, jumble and books for sale, refreshments and a carnival atmosphere, whilst inside the little church musicians prepared to play. As various violins took turns to tune up, and a double bass got in everyone's way, I took the opportunity of looking around before the joint started jumping. The later fourteenth century tower was built into the west end of the slightly earlier nave, supported on arches as at nearby Newnham church; an odd way of doing things when it would have been easier to just extend all three walls upwards. As it is, more cut stone was needed for the side arches, and the small roofed areas to north and south are just extra places for water to get in.
It does lead to a short and snappy church, concise and to the point, with everything here tightly wrapped into one small package as if a bigger church has been concertina'd into itself. A porch was added in the fifteenth century, and bigger windows around 1425, one of which on the north side has its tracery replaced by the simplest stone struts in Georgian times.
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Inside there is an ornately carved fifteenth century font, with patterning and various shields including the cross of St. George or St. Michael, the saltire of St. Alban's abbey, the arms of the Passion, and the three crowns of East Anglia, shown thus without Edmund's arrows also on the font at Saxmunham. There is no arch marking off the chancel, but there is a low side window full of faded late eighteenth century scenes from the life of Christ, now much crackle glazed and hard to read . They are a form of transfer print, rather than painted enamel, turps-soaked engravings laid onto the glass, the paper washed off leaving the ink outline to be touched up with paint when dry . Some fragments of real mediaeval stained glass remain, with a headless kneeling figure of a donor tagged with the name of William Makeley, a vicar who died circa 1425.
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The best known item here is in the south porch, the biggest and most ornate holy water stoup in England, with carving all over its supporting stem, and the crocketted pinnacles of a vaulted canopy rising over the top of its broken bowl. Francis Bond mentions it in his books, but gives the county as Essex, and with so many villages scattered around England of the same name it was a while before I realised which church housed it.
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What led such a small shrinking parish to spend so lavishly on a spectacular stoup we will never know; we must just be grateful for all the hard work of the unsung heroes of both bodies of Friends that both stoup and church still stand when the Church of England thought them no longer worth saving. We need not fear for England's sanity so long as such eccentric enthusiasts exist, keeping such impractical follies standing in the face of all odds.
The church seems to only be open on special occasions, but there is a keyholder, Kerry Rafferty, who you should phone on 07584 504450 for access.
All rights reserved for this entire site. Copyright reserved to stiffleaf for all text and images, which may not be reproduced without my permission.
The church seems to only be open on special occasions, but there is a keyholder, Kerry Rafferty, who you should phone on 07584 504450 for access.
All rights reserved for this entire site. Copyright reserved to stiffleaf for all text and images, which may not be reproduced without my permission.
