CHILTON TRUCK REPAIR MANUAL

Perhaps some counties have a church which sums them up. If there has to be one for Suffolk, it must be the church of the Most Holy Trinity, Blythburgh. Here is the Suffolk imagination writ large, as large as it gets, and not overwritten by the Anglican triumphalism of the 19th century, as I am afraid Long Melford, Lavenham and Southwold are (as much as I love the last one of these three churches).

Blythburgh church is often compared with St Edmund, Southwold. I don't think this is a fair comparison - Southwold church is much grander, and full of urban confidence. Probably a better comparison is with St Margaret, Lowestoft, for there, too, the Reformation intervened before the tower could be rebuilt. The two churches have a lot in common, but Blythburgh has the saving grace. It is so fascinating, so stunningly beautiful, by virtue of a factor that is rare in Anglican parish churches: sheer neglect.

Holy Trinity, Blythburgh, is the church that Suffolk people know and love best, and because of this it has generated some wonderful legends. We will encounter several of them in the course of this account. The first is that Blythburgh, now a tiny village bisected by the fearsome A12 between London and the east coast ports, was once a thriving medieval town. This idea is used to explain the size of the church; in reality, it is almost certainly not the case. Blythburgh has always been small. But it did have an important medieval priory, and thus its church attracted enough wealthy piety on the eve of the Reformation to bankroll a spectacular rebuilding.

Nobody can call Lavenham church beautiful, so it is to Long Melford, Southwold and here that we come to see the late 15th century aesthetic in perfection. For my money, Holy Trinity, Blythburgh, is the most significant medieval art object in the county, ranking alongside Salle in Norfolk. Look up at the clerestory; it seems impossible, there is so much glass, so little stone; and yet it rides the building with an air of permanence. Beneath, there is a coyness about the aisles that I prefer to the mathematics of Lavenham. Here, it could not have been done otherwise; it distils human architectural experience. If St Peter and St Paul at Lavenham is man talking to God, Holy Trinity at Blythburgh is God talking to man.

At the east end, a curious series of initials in Lombardic script stretch across the outer chancel wall. You can see an image of this in the left hand column. It reads A-N-JS-B-S-T-M-S-A-H-K-R. This probably stands for Ad Nomina JesuS, Beati Sanctae Trinitas, Maria Sanctorem Anne Honorem Katherine Reconstructus ('In the name of the blessed Jesus, the Holy Trinity, and in honour of holy Mary, Anne and Katherine, this was rebuilt'). A fanciful theory is that they are the initials of the wives of the donors. However, note the symbol of the Trinity in the T stone, and I think this is a clue to the whole piece.

High above, an old man sits on the gable end. Incredibly, this is a medieval image of God the Father, and extraordinary survival; we'll come back to this in a moment.

The porch is part of the late 15th century rebuilding, but it was considerably restored in the early 20th century. Interestingly, the angels crowning the battlements look medieval - but they weren't there in 1900, so must have come from somewhere else. Pretty much all the porch's features of interest date from this time. These include the small medieval font pressed into service as a holy water stoup, and image niche above the doors. This has been filled in more recent years by an image if the Holy Trinity; God the Father holds the Son suspended while a dove representing the Holy Spirit alights; you can see medieval versions of this at Framlingham and Little Glemham.

Of all medieval imagery, this was the most frowned upon by puritans. An image of God the Father was thought the most suspicious of all idolatry. As late as the 1870s, when the Reverend White edited the first popular edition of the Diary of William Dowsing, he actually congratulated Dowsing on destroying images of the Holy Trinity in the course of his 1644 progress through the counties of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

William Dowsing visited on the morning on April 9th, 1644. It was a Tuesday, and he had spent most of the week in the area. The previous day he'd been at Southwold and Walberswick to the east, but preceded his visit here with one to Blyford, which lies to the west, so he was probably staying overnight at the family home in Laxfield. He found twenty images in stained glass to take to task (a surprisingly small number, given the size of the place) and two hundred more that were inaccessible that morning (probably in the great east window). Three brass inscriptions incurred his wrath (but again, this is curious; there were many more) and he also ordered down the cross on the porch and the cross on the tower. Most significantly of all, he decided the angels in the roof should go.

Lots of Suffolk churches have an

Talk all the talk with a poet's style
Tongue like electric, eyes like a child
Buy only wives and the classic cars
Live like a saviour, live like the stars
Talk all the talk with a model's smile
Tongue like electric, eyes like a child
Buy all your highs and the classic cars
Die on the front page, just like the stars

The big screens, the plastic-made dreams
Say you don't want it, say you don't want it
It's our world, the picture-book girls
Say you don't want it, say you don't want it
Don't you ask me if its love my dear
Love don't really mean a thing round here
The fake scenes the plastic-made dreams
Say you don't want it, say you don't want it

Pace all the rooms with a jealous style
Tongue like electric, eyes like a child
Paint all your soul with the grand designs
Reach like a saviour, your heart on the line
Talk all the talk with a model's smile
Tongue like electric, eyes like a child
Buy all your highs and the classic cars
Die on the front page, just like the stars




So I was walking home the other day, and saw these shoes hanging from the telegraph line things. So I decided to go back and take photos. I don't know why they're up there, but I liked them. It just made me smile.

I got tagged

1) I went home this weekend, and loved it.
2) I got spoiled rotten :D I do love my family.
3) Now I'm back in Bournemouth, and am knackered.
4) I had life drawing again today, and our model definetly hadn't heard of a razor.
5) hell, she needed a fucking lawn mower for that.
6) She also looked quite a lot like a crow.
7) But I got some pretty epic drawings, which I'll upload later.
8) My favourite boots need reheeling, which is annoying because I haven't a clue where the nearest shoe repair is.
9) I can't decide what to have for dinner.
10) Tomorrow I'm going to Poole. Expect some pictures. (:

I've tagged a few people I don't usually tag, but still love their pictures (: be honoured!