Mellis

Mellis common by Mike Dodman

14th November, 2019

This morning, mid-November, the sun was shining bright and early from a clear blue sky, so Hubby and I decided not to miss the opportunity to venture out. I quickly made a flask of soup, filled some rolls and we were off! We didn’t travel far before we arrived at Mellis in Suffolk, where we browsed the furniture and furnishings housed in The Old Mill before settling ourselves outside in the village car park to eat lunch. We ate facing the common to enjoy the vista before changing our footwear and setting off for a stroll to wherever the grassy paths led us. We were astonished at the size of the open green space and found out that for some reason or other, Mellis Common escaped the fate of so many other villages that lost land under a series of Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and common land. Those Acts created legal property rights to the fortunate (or greedy) few, to land that was previously used by commoners to graze their animals. In fact, between 1604 and 1914, over 5,200 individual acts enclosed 6.8 million acres. Lucky enough to have escaped enclosure, Mellis retains the largest area of unfenced common land in England. Puritan Oliver Cromwell whose Parliamentarians controlled the East of England, trained his troops here in 1644, ready to do battle with Catholic sympathising King Charles I, whose death warrant he signed in 1649. Strange then, when we entered the church basking in sunshine behind huge Irish yew-trees in the churchyard, to find a yellowing coat-of-arms dedicated to Charles I and dated 1653. Perhaps the congregation had been sympathisers too… We left the church whose building began in the 13th century, sorry to see that its tower had fallen in 1730. Never replaced, the precious stone was re-used to build a raised path across the boggy land known as The Carnser.

Picture by Richard Rice

As is the case with so many of East Anglia’s beautiful churches, it is left to the imagination as to how sumptuous the interior must have been in its prime, and the painted tracery of the rood screen only hints at the glorious sight that must have been beholden by congregations of the past.

Rood Screen, Mellis Church

Out again onto the spongy grass, we basked in the profound silence and imagined the meadows as they must have looked then. Now, thankfully, they are managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust using age-old methods that ensure a succession of wild-flowers as well as nutritious grazing for the animals. We concluded our morning out and about in Suffolk, determined to try to visit to a new place of interest every week if possible. ​ https://www.suffolkwildlifetrust.org/melliscommon

The Babes of Wayland Wood

My dear, do you know,

How a long time ago,

Two poor little children,

Whose names I don't know,

Were stolen away on a fine summer's day,

And left in a wood, as I've heard people say.

And when it was night,

So sad was their plight!

The sun it went down,

And the moon gave no light!

They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly cried

And the poor little things, they lay down and died.

And when they were dead,

The robins so red,

Brought strawberry-leaves

And over them spread;

And all the day long,

They sung them this song:

"Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!

Oh don't you remember the babes in the wood?" My dear, do you know,

How a long time ago,

Two poor little children,

Whose names I don't know,

Were stolen away on a fine summer's day,

And left in a wood, as I've heard people say.

And when it was night,

So sad was their plight!

The sun it went down,

And the moon gave no light!

They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly cried

And the poor little things, they lay down and died.

And when they were dead,

The robins so red,

Brought strawberry-leaves

And over them spread;

And all the day long,

They sung them this song:

"Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!

Oh don't you remember the babes in the wood?"

In 1595, a London publisher by the name of Thomas Millington printed a broad-sheet in Norwich entitled The Norfolk Tragedy, and since it was obviously popular, produced in 1640 a ballad of the story which concerned the deaths of two small children in Wailing (now Wayland) Wood near Watton.

As is often the case, fact and fiction interweave but here is the truth of what I have found out so far about the matter. Wayland Wood's history goes back to the 10th Century. It used to be much larger, its trees coppiced, and is dense with a fine mix of trees, flowers and birds. It also reputedly has ghosts, supposedly of two young children under the age of three who were abandoned in the woods when the de Grey family owned nearby Griston Hall.

The tale appears to have been much embroidered over the years, as my research shows that there was actually only one child central to the plot. When his father died in 1562, seven-year-old Thomas de Grey of Merton became a ward of Queen Elizabeth since he was a minor but heir to the family's richness of house and lands. However, should he die before he married and had children, his father's brother Robert de Grey would inherit.

Four years after his father's death, young Thomas paid a visit to his stepmother Temperancé, daughter of Sir Simon Carew of Anthony in Cornwall. She had remarried to Sir Christopher Heydon of Baconsthorpe. The boy never returned alive, dying according to records on 21st March, 1665 at Baconsthorpe.

Perhaps with unseemly haste, the child's Uncle Robert seized the estate thus giving rise to the ghastly tale of abduction and murder by abandonment which has since been reworked into the story of the 'The Babes in the Wood'.

The well-known story was even turned into a popular pantomime, all of which helped to cement the sentimental story of two little children abandoned in the woods by ruffians sent to dispatch them. One of whom was heartless enough to murder his fellow but unable to kill the toddlers, thus condemning them to roam hungry, fearful and tearful until they eventually died of hunger and exhaustion.

In true sentimental 'Disney-style' and for publication purposes I suspect, their deaths were sweetened by the addition of the robin covering their tiny bodies with strawberry leaves which is in fact an ancient superstition that the cheery red-breasted birds never suffer a dead body to remain unburied. The childrens' wails we are assured, can still be heard on dark nights in Wayland Wood if you venture out at that time of night and believe strongly enough in a good tale...

Griston image showing ruffian with dagger courtesy Evlyn Simak: Watton image shows the babes under the oak tree where they were supposedly found. Courtesy Deben Dave

Bowling at St. Catherine's

St. Catherine's Church, Mile Cross, Norwich.

Our village short-mat bowls team turned out for a match against a City side last night and on a beautiful mellow evening, Hubby and I arrived early in the car-park just as a striking young woman popped through the hedge of the vicarage next door and walked gingerly across the gravel in odd stripy socks and no shoes, carrying before her a tray of drinks. With her smiley, carefree approach, she was about to quench the thirst of a group of people busily tidying the grounds of St. Catherine's Church, Mile Cross. As they stopped to take their break, and with a little time in hand before the match, I seized the opportunity to ask to see inside the opened church from which their electric lawn-mower flex was trailing.

We have played at the venue several times before in the impressively large church hall, a separate building standing beside the monumental church that I had never before seen inside. Wow! what a treat was in store for me!

Anyone who has driven through the northern suburbs of Norwich towards the airport, must be familiar with the massive greyish-brick building that sits on a triangular junction between two main roads. It comes as something of a shock to the senses after the traditional medieval flint churches of the inner city. Years ago I confess to thinking it their ugly cousin but now I appreciate the statement and grandeur of its strong, modern lines. It was built, after all to minister to the needs of Britain's first large council estate of Mile Cross which housed some 8,000 people and had outgrown the red-brick Victorian church which stood nearby. The stone-covered concrete building was designed by Architects Caroe and Robinson.

The foundation stone was laid by Queen Mary in February 1935 and amazingly the church was consecrated the following year in November, 1936. Enormous effort had gone into raising money for the construction and in response to a request from the Bishop of Norwich, Miss Violet Edith Wills of the fabulously wealthy tobacco family, generously donated funds to cover the whole of the building project of church, church hall and vicarage. What I didn't get to see were the bells which are, in fact, some of the oldest in Norwich, formerly hung at the church of St. Mary the Virgin, Coslany, the earliest of the four cast in 1424.

So thank you Miss Wills and everybody else for my necessarily brief eye-opener yesterday onto a stunning interior bathed in soft evening light. White walls reared up into soaring Romanesque arches, their undersides painted peacock-blue while either side, impressive art nouveau-style lanterns drew the eye towards the simple oak communion table and stone reredos beyond. Personally, I found the traditional design of the stonework and its frame carved from Beer-stone and polyphant stone from Cornwall, rather out of keeping with the clean, sharp, majestic lines of the inside. I'd have preferred a massive, striking painting instead!

The rear end of the church was more intimate with a series of stained glass windows set into a gentle curve around the font and with gallery above that sported not one but two Royal Coats of Arms.

Sadly my elation at getting a sneaky view of the inside of St. Catherine's did not translate into a bowls victory for my team. We lost by a measly two points but it was a lovely friendly game on a balmy evening in Norwich.

The stunning Art Deco interior of St. Catherine's Church, Mile Cross.

St. Mary's Coat of Arms.

http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk