Friday morning and nothing better to do – so what better than a shortish trip to a (very) small Suffolk village to investigate an interesting artefact in the local church. We only know of this Retable because when we went to Norwich Cathedral a couple of months ago, we saw the 14thC Despenser Reredos – one of the Cathedral’s greatest treasures and the only surviving medieval English altarpiece with scenes from Christ’s Passion. It is also known as the Despenser Retable. Want to know the difference between reredos and Retable – google it….(other search engines are available!)
Anyway, when we were at the cathedral, the guide told us about the only other example of this type of Retable, which happened to be in Suffolk in the village of Thornham Parva. Even so, we weren’t expecting to pull off the A140 on to little more than a dirt track to get to the village. Despite that, we found the church easily enough and hopefully the collage gives some indication of both the interior and exterior of St. Mary, which has served the village for around a thousand years. The building itself is thatched, including the tower, which we believe is quite unusual. The ‘newest’ part of the church is indeed the tower, rebuilt in the 1480s, but some of the exterior walls can be dated back to the Saxon period.
Inside the church, in addition to the Retable (more later), there are wall paintings on the north and south walls. Also 14th century, they were rediscovered in the 1920s and the north side contains the most complete story of St. Edmund, the martyr King. You can I think get a sense of them from the collage.
Onto the Chancel and behind the altar is the Retable, dating from around 1335. The Thornham Parva Retable was/is a magnificent example of medieval craftsmanship, with painted figures of saints flanking a scene of the Crucifixion. The Retable was made of timber felled in Poland, and red pigment used to create the colourful paint was made from an insect only found on the Polish coast. Research indicates it was painted for the Dominican Priory at Thetford (also very much worth a visit). The Retable itself was restored over a period of eight years and finished in 2003 at which point it was returned to St. Mary’s. The reasons it survived the clutches of Henry VIII and its subsequent disappearance are a mystery in itself but I would encourage you to visit the British Express site for more information on both the lost years and the Retable itself.
Of course, there is much more to St Mary’s than the Retable, and even if it did not exist it would still be worth visiting the church, even if just to enjoy the leafy setting. It is no wonder that St Mary’s is such a peaceful location, completely surrounded by lovely countryside. An astonishing place to find the most complete medieval altarpiece in Britain, when it would be more fitting to find it in the Victorian and Albert Museum or a similarly high-profile venue.
After the church visit, we moved on to the neighbouring village of Thornham Magna (via a narrow but real road this time) to visit the Four Horseshoes pub. We both conjectured that such an out of the way pub would struggle for clientele so it was a bit of a shock to find a very large car park opposite the inn. It was also quite full and so when we went in, we felt quite lucky to get a table – where did all these people come from? We can guess, but it’s still a little bit of a mystery. Whatever the reason, the staff, service, food and ambience were all exemplary and we both thoroughly enjoyed the stop off. Particular shout out to the dessert called the Horseshoes Mess, which was their version of a classic Eton Mess – crushed meringue, fresh whipped double cream, mixed berry compote, vanilla ice cream and raspberry coulis. Even more delicious than it sounds!!
Postscript……Some of the info on this posting comes directly from the excellent church pamphlet we picked up from St. Mary’s; worth 80p of anyone’s money.