The Earliest Years.

 

The village of Whitton is a Saxon foundation and it is highly likely that a small church was built for the people from the earliest times, most probably wooden. Saxon invaders colonised Britain from about 430 A.D. and Whitton would have been founded as part of that colonisation. Originally the inhabitants would no doubt have worshipped the Saxon Gods such as Thor and Wodin (from which our Thursday and Wednesday are derived) and may indeed have used the present church site as a centre for their religious practices. Holy places from ancient times were frequently ‘converted’ and reused for new worship. The site of Whitton church, set on a clear promontory hill might well have been such a holy place even before the Saxon invasion and foundation of the Whitton settlement.

 

At some point now lost in history, the Christian faith arrived at Whitton and displaced the traditional worship of the Saxon people. Maybe St. Botolph, the Saxon saint who was active in East Anglia in the seventh century, was instrumental in the conversion of the local people but we may never know. What we can guess is that Christianity arrived here at some point in the sixth or seventh century and almost certainly would have supplanted the traditional worship held on the earlier site. At this time a building for worship would probably have been built.

 

What we know for certain is that the Domesday Book (1086) lists a church at Whitton (Widetuna) as well as one at Thurleston (Turestuna): ‘In Turestuna in Claindune (Claydon) Hundred, Godric has a church, St. Botulf’s with one acre. In this Hundred the king has thirty freemen with 147’/2 acres and a church in Widetuna with ten acres’

 

The church at Whitton might have been a wooden or stone structure and could have been built and rebuilt several times before the Domesday survey noted its existence. Nothing that can be identified as Saxon or even Norman remains. However, the original ground plan of the present church seems to follow a traditional simple Saxon church pattern. It consisted of a small rectangular building without any aisles and all on one level. This church, of which much more remains than might at first appear, was built sometime in the thirteenth century in the Early English style which was faithfully repeated in the present Victorian reconstruction and enlargement last century. The church was dedicated to St. Mary.

 

The list of Rectors dates from December 20th 1299. The first recorded Rector was Herbert de Cheperith, Acolyte - a minor order and not a priest. Another Acolyte, John de Weston, followed on June 8th 1325, but within a few months on February 3rd 1326 the first priest listed as Rector, John de Paxton, began office.

 

Rectors were the people who received the tithe income of the Parish and were often laymen or only ordained to a minor order. Out of their income they had to provide for a priest to service the church. These unrecorded and poorly paid priests did the real work of the church in those early years.

 

Finding the remains of the original thirteenth century church.

 

In the sanctuary, in the East wall, there is a small thirteenth century piscina (a small sink for the cleansing of the holy vessels and the disposal of the water used in the Mass). The fact that it has survived at all shows that this part of the wall is original to the thirteenth century church. Its position in the wall shows that it belongs to a time when the church floor was all at one level. Now the chancel and Sanctuary have been raised and the piscina is at entirely the wrong height.

 

The wooden roof beams above the chancel are considered to be the original thirteenth century roof and this opinion received some confirmation when the present church was being re-roofed in 1983. Then we were able to see that the same roof timbers extend through the present nave but finish roughly where the present pews end at the back. That was the extent of the original church.

 

The Victorian restoration extended the church westwards by demolishing and incorporating a small bell tower into the body of the church and Victorian pine beams mark that extension. The present west wall seems to incorporate part of the original outer wall of the small bell tower that stood here, now pierced by a great Victorian west window and refaced with a Victorian flint facade. Also clearly shown whilst the church was being re-roofed are that many of the original beams in the nave section are in poor condition and have been strengthened by Victorian splints at the same time as the extensions. The Victorian restoration appears to have left the original roof in place which means that, extensive though the Victorian restoration work was, it was not the total rebuild from the ground up that previous guidebooks have suggested. There are still two ancient wrought iron hooks in the chancel eaves that are said, by one guidebook published in the 1960’s, to have been used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for a runner of black cloth. It is not said what the purposeof this cloth might have been.

 

The early nineteenth century

 

For many years Whitton church was known as Whitton Chapel and it remained a small inauspicious building. There were a few minor alterations. An etching by Henry Davy, who made drawings of many Suffolk churches in his day, was made in 1842. It shows the church as it appeared before the great restoration by the Victorians.

Etching by Henry Davy 1842

 

In the County Record Office in an article entitled ‘Whitton Church Notes’ and dated September 9 1827 the interior of the Davy church is both described in words and a small interior ground plan is given which can be directly used to understand the Davy etching.

 

Plan of Whitton Church interior as drawn and described in Whitton Church Notes

 

September 9th 1827

 

‘The church, which is improperly called the chapel, consists of a nave and chancel. The chancel is 26fi 8in long and l7ft 9in wide covered with flat tiles and ceild within arching. The communion table is raised a small step and railed round Against the east end and in the view of the window, on two frames, are the Lord’s Prayer and Belief. The floor of the chancel is two steps above that of the nave.

 

The nave is 35ft 9 in long and 17ft 6 in wide covered with flat tiles, like the chancel but having a different roof; it is ceiled arching within. The pulpit is placed in the south east corner, hexagon, plain. Against the north wall hang the arms of ? from the opposite wall are the commandments. The font stands at the west end and is only a slender fluted column of stone with a square top. The pews are neat, with some oak seats.

 

The steeple is a small square at the west end, rising no higher than the roof of the nave: it contained one bell, which I could not get at.’

 

The description and plan show that our church already had a raised chancel and the pulpit is shown in the present unusual south side position. The pulpit described is clearly the present one. Pulpits were normally on the north or ‘Gospel’ side of the church. At some point, possibly during the Victorian restoration when the north aisle was added, this was moved to the north side but was later returned to its present south side position by Canon Donald Smith in the 1960’s.

 

The roof is described as boarded as at present creating the so-called ‘wagon’ roof that is seen in many other Suffolk churches. It would appear that the chancel roof described in the 1827 notes as ‘different from the chancel’ and therefore probably as we see it today, was also boarded at one time. The marks of the nails for the boards can be clearly seen but that these boards were taken down at some time to reveal the original timbers. Everything beyond the chancel arch was the responsibility of the Rector so it was not unusual for chancel and nave to be treated differently. Once again we have clear evidence that the extensive Victorian restoration left the original roof in place.

 

The church had a bell tower at the back, which did not rise above roof height but incorporated a small bell within the roof. It is fascinating to read this description and see it in the Davy picture where you can make out the roof top opening necessary to let out the sound of the bell. This was almost certainly our present bell, which is of Flemish origin and is the oldest dated bell in Suffolk bearing the Latin inscription Hail Mary full of grace and the date 1441. You will note in the Davy drawing and in the earlier ground plan that the Early English style windows are clearly designated and were obviously faithfully repeated in the later Victorian alterations. Note also a small priest’s door into the Sanctuary roughly where the present window is which looks, at first sight, like a buttress in the Davy sketch. Note also in the plan the existence of a north door, which is ‘stopt up’.

 

The mediaeval church of St. Botolph at Thurleston was united with Whitton during the incumbency of Dus. Thomas Benson, who was instituted to Whitton on 13th June 1514. Thereafter the church at Thurleston seems to have fallen into disrepair and was for several centuries used as a barn. Two drawings of this barn have survived in the Public Record Office. The site of this church was on the Thurleston lane above and on the Ipswich side of the present Water Works building where a house has now been built on the sharp bend in the road. There are still accounts of recent times when heavy rain has washed human bones down the lane from the old churchyard.

 

The situation in the middle of the nineteenth century.

 

The Village of Whitton underwent a great social change last century. A number of very rich people came to live in the area and many built houses in the parish - not only was there the ancient Sparrowe’s Nest but now this was also joined by Thurleston Lodge, Datchett House, Whitton Lodge and others. Whitton Chapel became a very smart and fashionable place to worship and the entry filled the simple pews of the Nave on a Sunday whilst their carriages and pairs waited outside. Whitton church was isolated from the village on the main Norwich Road and was at the end of a muddy and difficult track that led to it. The local paper complains of:

 

‘almost unnavigable furlongs which divide the lonely church from the highway. If the army of Italy could cross the Alps, and artillery be forced along the Balaclava Road all things are possible. It is still possible, with a fair wind, for foot passengers of good constitution, to reach it. And they do reach it too, and sweep down the aisle with gentle mien and in fair raiment. Certain it is that the men of hard hands, the men or corduroy and velveteen are but sparely represented upon these benches, and the little church is gay with the upper circles of Whitton society.’

 

Canon William Howarth. Rector of Whitton 1835 - 1875

 

On November 3rd 1835 the Revd. William Howarth (later Canon of Norwich Cathedral) was instituted as Rector. He was to remain for forty years until he died on December 13th 1875 at the Rectory. Canon Howarth was born in 1806. He was the second son of the Revd. William Howarth (of the same name) who was Headmaster of Ipswich School. He held a curacy in March in Cambridgeshire where he met and married Caroline Orton, daughter of Thomas Orton, on Christmas Day 25th December 1831. He has left a lasting memorial to his long ministry not only in the brass memorial plaque beneath the east window but in the present appearance of Whitton church.

 

Canon Howarth rebuilt the Rectory and enlarged Whitton church twice to accommodate his growing congregation. In a survey of 1845 the Rectory at Whitton is described thus:

 

‘The Parsonage is a lathe and plaster house with a tile roof including a dairy attached to the house as a lean to’.

 

Another survey of 1872 describes it as: ‘A newly erected Parsonage House with stables, carriage house and other offices all built of brick and covered with slate.’

 

We may deduce then that Canon Howarth rebuilt the Rectory between these two dates. It was always considered that the resent (date) Rectory is a typical Victorian house but church deeds held by the diocese are said to state that the house was built in 1780. The mystery may have been partly solved during an extensive renovation of the Rectory in 1989 when it became very clear that the house has been extensively remodelled. If the two houses are on the same site, which would be very likely as this would be the glebe land, then Canon Howarth probably did to the Rectory what he also did to the church. He Victorianised the older building so much so that the original structure became almost totally obliterated and hidden.

 

Canon Howarth was a quite extraordinary man and his influence upon the parish church at Whitton is such that he merits more than a passing reference. The East Anglian Daily Times on December 12th 1859 records a visit to a Whitton Church service. It says:

 

‘The Revd William Howarth MA., rector of Whitton-cum-Thurleston, has passed the third score years of his life and he approaches the three score and ten with a high head and a steady step. It is our duty in the task we are engaged in to report of many reverend gentlemen that they are dull, and of many more that they are incapable. The reverend rector of whom we write is neither dull nor incapable, and enters upon the duties of the service as one who does not feel that the task is too much for him, or that an apology is needed for his position there. He dashes into the service with high nerve and resolution, and reads with a fine voice and in able style. If those prayers and lessons lose a little delicacy in one place, or a little tenderness and feeling in another, they lose no strength or dignity in this reader ‘s hands; and he appears to have studied in a good school, and not to have considered the manner of delivering the service of the Church of England beneath his attention. Indeed whatever may be his zeal in the service of religion, his conception of the importance of the church, and the dignity and authority of her ministers, is evidently not a light one. Between the Divine Government and the sinners of the world stand the ministers of the Church of England, and we judge as we sit in Whitton Church that this sublime order stands nearer to the Divine Government than to the sinners. There is high-bred dignity, and there is courteous familiarity noticeable in the passage of the service the former is for the people; the latter is for the Power before whom the people are called hither to bow. In delivering the divine commands and in giving voice to the exhortations from on high to those who are in the world and are related to the flesh and devil, the reverend gentleman retains his foothold on elevated ground, and is by no means one of the sheep. In obedience to the mere form of expression which is enforced in the Prayer Book, of course he can have no objection to make use of the first person plural, yet it would, perhaps, be more consistent with the tone and feeling with which the shepherd addresses the flock if a slight reform were introduced into the wording of the forms of address instituted by Act of Parliament - the relative positions of minister and sinner would be less liable to be misunderstood if the reverend gentleman were permitted to say, ‘Dearly beloved brethren, the Scripture moveth you in sundry places to acknowledge and confess your manifold sins and wickedness’ ******** - and further, the objectionable pronoun giving way to the more appropriate expression, the General Confession would lose little of its euphony, and might be read from the desk with heartier concurrence if it ran ‘Almighty and most merciful Father, these people have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. They have followed too much the devices and desires of their own hearts. They have offended against thy holy laws, **** But thou, 0 Lord, have mercy upon them, miserable offenders.’

 

It is not necessary that every minister of the church should be gifted with the prescriptive Christian graces of meekness and humility. Stern work, courageous self assertion, a relentless hand and a terrible eye, have done much service in the Christian history. It is not, then, for us to speak in deprecatory terms of the fine demeanour of the rev, rector of Whitton; nor ought we to deem it unbecoming in a valiant servant of the gospel, even 4/the brow should darken and the eye to kindle in the presence of baseness or irreligion.

 

Mr. Howarth had performed the duties of the desk with unusual ability, and it was, therefore, with more than ordinary interest that we desired to ascertain whether the rev, gentleman would rely upon those abilities in the pulpit or whether the deliberations of the study would take the safer form of a manuscript discourse. The reverend gentleman, whom nature has favoured with physical height which would qual4fy him as an officer of her Majesty’s guard, showed none of that coy reserve which may sometimes be observed in the pulpit in the matter of written compositions of this nature but held his manuscript on high before him — gave his voice that excellent pitch which many an ambitious rhetorician would envy, and plunged into the reading in rapid and vigorous style and with faultless execution.

 

Not quite so much may be said in favour of the matter of this discourse. The writing was good, but a little more originality was needed in the conception and development. The sermon was the shortest we ever heard.’

 

The picture of Cannon Howarth hangs on the vestry wall, though Ipswich School has the same picture hanging in their library and attributes it to the father as a former headmaster. When you look at the distinctive face and then look at the memorial east window you will see that the unbearded figure in the central panel beneath Christ himself bears an uncanny resemblance to Howarth. How typical it would be if such a humble and meek man had had his own picture incorporated into the window that he gave to the church It was certainly a common custom of the time and the more one looks the more convinced one becomes. Thus Canon Howarth still appears before our eyes every time we face east in church! Could the other younger figure beside Christ be Canon Howarth’s only surviving son Captain Richard Fletcher Howarth of Alexandra House Felixstowe? The other elder son, Capt. Thomas Orton Howarth died in Bombay on January 23rd 1865 aged 28. He is commemorated in the ‘soldier’ window on the south wall of the chancel.

 

William Howarth wrote a number of publications:

 

Sermons doctrinal and practical 1839

 

The Redeemer – a poem 1840

 

A Sermon Preached in the Parish Church of March on the Duty of Christian Obedience to Civil Government 1848

 

The Life and Issue from It 1869

 

The Cry of the Poor (no date)

 

The First Victorian alteration in 1850.

 

The first of Canon Howarth enlargements was the addition of the north aisle and the demolition of the small bell tower and the incorporation of the space into the body of the church. The cost was £800. The Ipswich Town Paper of October 19th 1850 describes the reopening:

 

‘The parish church having undergone extensive alteration and being enlarged by the addition of an aisle on the north, will, we understand, be reopened for Divine Service on Friday afternoon. Besides the space obtained by the erection of an aisle, the lower part of a western tower has been removed and the nave extended in that direction. The western front will form a simple but not inelegant facade. Benches have been substituted for pews, but it appears to us that the rubric of the church, which enjoins a kneeling posture during prayer, has been overlooked. According to the phrase of the Church Building Society there will be a certain number of sittings, but of a more befitting and reverent posture there is no accommodation.’

 

Now our little Flemish bell was re-hung in a small bell turret above the west wall and can be clearly seen in another picture which hangs on the vestry wall.

 

The Second Victorian alteration in 1862

 

The church was again enlarged in 1862 by the addition of a south aisle and the tower and spire. For this some of the remaining stones from the long disused and neglected Thurleston church were brought to Whitton and incorporated into the new extension. Does the thirteenth century outer doorway, which was placed here at the same time also, come from Thurleston church? It is difficult to reconcile it with the 1827 plan and the Davy drawing of the church done in 1842 before the present rebuilding began. This time it is clear that the new pillars were built inside the old church walls and were in place before the outer wall was taken down, again leaving the original roof in place. This strange procedure means that the nave is slightly out of line with the chancel and sanctuary because the new pillars take up space within the original nave building.

 

The Dedication of Whitton Church

 

The dedication of Whitton Church has been the subject of some confusion over the years. At various points in its long history the dedication has changed back and forth between St. Mary and St. Botolph. It seems clear, however, that the confusion arose because Thurleston Church, dedicated to Botolph, was often mentioned in the same sentence as Whitton Church, which was dedicated to St. Mary. This confusion only became even more pronounced when the stones of the old Thurleston Church were brought to Whitton in 1862 and used in the construction of the new south aisle and tower. In recent years it was decided to bring the confusion to and end and an application was made to the authorities in 1990 for a change of dedication. Our church now has the double dedication of St. Mary and St. Botolph which not only recognises the past uses but also perpetuates the dedication of the old Thurleston Church which is preserved in the stones (and doorway?) of the south aisle.

 

Things to note inside the Church.

 

In the sanctuary the Bishop’s throne is the original throne made for the first Bishop of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich when the Diocese was created out of Norwich on March 25th 1914. It sat for many years in our cathedral before being replaced in the 1960’s and eventually brought to Whitton. It was restored and placed in its present position in 1980.

 

Beside it there is a simple wooden Tudor chest with three keyholes. In this chest would once have been placed the valuables of the parish - service books and registers particularly - and the three locks were an early form of double signed cheque security. Three people had to be present with their keys to open the chest.

 

The wooden altar brought from St. Mary’s church in Camberley, Surrey in the 1980’s replaced a simple wooden structure.

 

The great east window, depicting the Last Supper is by John Hardman who set up his firm in Birmingham in 1845 under the patronage of the famous architect Pugin. The window is recorded by a brass plaque beneath as in memory of Canon William Howarth who died in 1875. However, it is probable that the window was placed here before his death, as it is contemporary with the great west window, also by Hardman and in memory of Charles Steward. The ‘soldier window’ in the south chancel wall, again by Hardman and in memory of Howarth’s eldest son who was killed in 1865. Probably all three windows were commissioned at the same time to complete the restoration and enlargement of the church and which became memorials later.

 

On the east wall are two recesses, which contain the Ten Commandments on grey slate. They were an ugly product of the Victorian Restoration and a replaced earlier wooden panel containing the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. They have been covered up for most of their life by a curtain. In the redecoration in 1980 they were covered with gauze and painted over because, although they were considered to be of historic value, they were also considered an eyesore to be sympathetically removed. The gauze and paint cover thus preserves them for history.

 

The Willett family of Whitton Lodge gave the four small windows in the south sanctuary wall to the church in the 1960’s. They are quite clearly ecclesiastical and depict Jesus, Mary, St. Paul and St. John. They are early Victorian glass, probably 1840-55 but certainly not earlier than 1830. Their origin before they ended up in Whitton Lodge is a mystery. Were they part of an early attempt at Restoration?

 

At the back of the choir stalls, on each side, there are carved faces of a mediaeval man and woman. Experts consider one and probably both to be authentic and they may indeed be a relic from the two original church benches that once would have been placed on the wall on each side of the nave so that, before the days of pews, the ‘weakest could go to the wall’ and sit down.

 

The clergy stalls came from All Saints’ church in Sudbury when it was made redundant. They have misericords or little half seats for the clergy to perch on during long offices when they were required to stand.

 

The small statue of the Virgin Mary nestling in the chancel arch is a plaster cast of a mediaeval wooden statue.

 

Two mid nineteenth century icons from Eastern Europe are hung on the wall at the front of each side of the nave, probably looted from Orthodox churches by the Communists and sold on the antiques market.

 

In the chapel, created in 1985, the altar is an Elizabethan Holy Table. All churches had to provide them to replace the stone altars made illegal during the Reformation. Our example is a simple, plain structure and served for many years as a vestry table before being incorporated into the new chapel. Whether or not this table is the original one for this church is unknown. One guidebook makes the unconfirmed statement that it came from Akenham church, but we are not sure.

 

On the Altar stands a crucifix, which does come from Akenham. It is Spanish ivory, 17th C and was part of the artefacts that the Revd. George Drury (of Akenham Burial fame) collected for the church.