- Screen Colours:
- Normal
- Black & Yellow
The fifteenth and early sixteenth century saw the climax of prosperity and wealth in East Anglia. The windows in the nave are Perpendicular, as are the three square-headed windows in the chancel. They would have replaced others, probably lancet ones like the one near the pulpit. The large east end window is also Perpendicular, but the stained glass is a memorial to those from the parish who died in the First World War. Outside, the east end may have been rebuilt in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Notice the variety of materials used to build this wall, also the beautiful little medieval cross at the east end. Internally, the chancel walls seem to have been heightened.
The nave has a splendid single hammer beam roof. Notice the decorative details in the roof and shields in the chancel and nave . They are the coats of arms of many of the families who have been connected with Hacheston through the centuries. They were caused to be repainted by the Revd. J. Haggitt in 1818, and again by the late Captain Adams, DSO, RN, in the 1950s.
Many of the pew ends are original, unfortunately damaged, perhaps in the seventeenth century. They show mutilated animals and fine tracery patterns. One may marvel at the fine workmanship and originality of design of the carpenter.
At the western end of the nave is the font made of Caen stone, which used to stand attached to the last westernmost pillar in the south aisle. It appear to have bene moved to its present position about 1870 during alterations to the church. Notice that it is octagonal (eight-sided) and has carvings of four wild woodmen, or woodwose, and four lions. On the upper lip there are beautiful angels with interlocking wings. The upper face bears sword marks, perhaps made by Dowsing's men during his visit 1 October 1644, as does the stem where the figures are sadly mutilated. The whole font was probably painted in bright colours. Faint traces of paint can still be seen if you look closely.
Behind the font are ten wooden panels, all that remain of the rood screen which once divided the chancel and nave. They would have been brightly coloured with representations of ten saints and their emblems, and were put in their present position in the 1870s. The panels show figures of the apostles although they are badly mutilated and nearly all the original colour has faded. They have been identified as follows, viewing from left to right: 3) St Thomas - part of a spear; 4) St Simon - fish; 5) St James the Great - pilgrim's shell on a wallet; 6) St John the Divine - part of a palm and a snake coming from a chalice; 7) St Jude - a boat; and 9) St James the Less - a fuller's bat.
Originally there would have been a rood loft above the screen, now completely gone, and the rood beam, which remains today embattled and moulded.
The late fifteenth and early sixteen centuries saw the building of the south aisle and pier arcade, the last major addition to our church. Compare the very smooth vertical tooling on those pillars, called bolstering, with the slanting rough early work on the stones near the Norman door .
There are three large and two smaller windows, one behind the modern organ and originally the east window of the Lady Chapel. Outside on the westernmost window of the south aisle there are the remains of two quaint carved faces.
The lean-to roof is particularly fine with carved floral bosses, two with grotesque faces and one, possibly, of David playing his lyre. On the wall posts are seated figures with crowns, also birds with wings outstretched. Near the western window are two panels of the Ten Commandments; they were originally on the south side of the east window in the chancel.
On the south wall of the south aisle is a fragment of a late fourteenth-century alabaster panel representing the Incredulity of St Thomas. It repays a close look. There is a small wall cupboard in the west wall of the aisle.
The Churchwardens
Autumn 2017