Trip to Suffolk 1

A recent trip to Suffolk to buy books took in several churches. The best was Dennington, twelve miles west of the coast and two miles north of Framlingham.

Dennington's greatest claim to fame is a carving on one of the bench ends of a skiapod. The middle ages believed in the existence of all sorts of strange species of human, including men whose mouths and faces were in their stomachs. The skiapods were men from Ethiopia with one large foot on which they hopped about. When they slept they lay on their back with the foot in the air, thus sheltering themselves from the sun and rain. The name skiapod means shadow foot. Actually, if you look carefully at this one he appears to have two large feet. Perhaps the carver misinterpreted a picture he'd seen of the creature, or maybe there is an alternative tradition about such fabulous men.

Other features of this church are matching parclose screens on either side of the nave. They must have originally been joined by the rood screen, now lost of course.








It is a large airy church, very attractive. A fine table tomb to William, Lord Bardolf, and his wife,
who died in the 1440s is a feature.




And dotted about are other relics of the past. There's a hefty parish chest and a medieval hanging pyx cover for the reserved sacrament in the sanctuary.












Something I have never seen before is in the side aisle which in the early nineteenth century housed the village school. It is a long tray, filled with sand. Using a stick the children would learn to write their letters. And when the tray was full you used a smoothing board on the sand and could then start again. Very ingenious, and cheaper than providing everyone with slates and chalk.