Barsham Holy Trinity
Holy Trinity Church Barsham
Where to find this church
Church Information
Holy Trinity church is located in Barsham, a village on the Suffolk-Norfolk border about 2 miles west of Beccles.
This church is usually open to visitors
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Visiting Barsham Holy Trinity
Holy Trinity church in Barsham is another church that can be visited when you are boating on the Norfolk Broads. It is only a couple of hundreds of yards away from one of the prettiest moorings on the Broads, at Geldeston right at the Locks Inn pub.
The first stage of this round tower, reaching to the ridge of the nave, was built late13th/early14th century, added to an earlier church. It has three stone-framed pointed windows and a lower west window that was inserted in the 19th century. The next stage was the belfry, but the openings were inconspicuously filled in with flints in the late 15th/early16th century, to support the new belfry. There are two small brick framed windows in this stage. The top belfry incorporates much brick with the flints. In the nave there is still a 12th century window above the 13th century north doorway. The nave has a thatched roof, but the chancel is covered with red tiles. The outstanding feature is the chancel east wall, where a stone pattern continues over the whole wall, copying the diamond pattern of the tracery of the east window. There had been a north chapel built in 1527, but pulled down circa 1785. The aisle was rebuilt in 1906 to celebrate Admiral Nelson’s Mother, Catherine Suckling, who was born at the Rectory next door, as her Father was Rector here.
There is a faint wall painting of St Christopher opposite the south doorway. The font, with quatrefoils round the bowl is early 15th century standing on the base of an earlier one. The north aisle has a mural of a painted window above the altar, which is a replica of an Italian one. The central plaque is of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Child, similar to ones of the late 15th century. The square pulpit dates from the 17th century, but has a new canopy above. The Rood screen is partly of the same sort of date, with a rood group installed 1893. Above it is a canopy arch of 1919, with free standing figures of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Archangel Gabriel, St Elizabeth and St Joseph. In the north chancel is a terra cotta tomb chest for Sir Edward Etchingham †1527. Nearby is a brass in the floor, of a knight in armour, remembering either Sir Thomas de Echyingham †1460 or Robert at Tye †1415. In this corner stands the bowl of the old 12th century square Purbeck font on a new base.