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The Windows of St. Mary's Church |
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| Mary Window |
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Christ inri Window |
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Star Window |
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You can see some of the thanksgiving offerings around the old priest's door. |
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"The straight side window is the Mary Window. Has the "M" initial and the Mary Lily in a crown.
The double w/abaresque top are the Christ inri windows. I don't remember if the "E" is for Edward.
The Star window show just how deep the window well and walls are. The British thanksgiving is in September. They fill the window wells with garden offerings, flowers, even a package of cookies.
This is the original 12th century glass. The sexton told me that the church interior still appears much as the Merrill's would have seen it. They knew who I was as soon as I was spotted looking for the old gravesites. Unfortunately the English weather dissoulves marbel grave markers within 200 years. I understand it is difficult to visit inside this church. But I went on a Sunday and attended the services. People were pleased to see me, I was a visiting relative. The Braintree and Bocking churches were locked up they did not have active congregations. Belcham family is still living in the neighborhood.
I took a trip a few years ago. The fellow at the Priest's door is like a rector. I do not know what conditions are today.
Many of the Norman churches no longer had active congregations. The parishioners were very anxious for me to tell people stateside that there was an active Christian group still meeting there. The best way to get around is to use a local cabbie. They have all the roads memorized. Also the main library in Ipswich will have info. It is housed in one of the old churchs. Richard Merrill's family is burried in Ipswich (can't remember if this was grandson, or cousins grandson). I was there after hours so I couldn't get in to see if the headstone survived.
The mowing fields were somewhere to the north east of the church off Vicarage lane.
The grave sites are still there on the north east side of the church, exactly where is a within 70 feet estimate. Remember, England is very damp. Moss grows at a terrific rate. No grave marker survives outside more than 200 years. And Hans Christian Anderson wasn't kidding about stinging nettles growing in kirkyard green. Be careful of where you stick you hands in the older sections of the kirkyard.
At one time there was a bed and breakfast near Wherstead called the "Spider Inn" after all the master weavers that left the country early 1600's. The wool market crashed and the master technicians were starving to death in the Ipswich area. Most of the towns of Braintree and Bocking left with the Ipswich group to the America's. It's hardly surprising the American Ipswichers were called Websters, Weavers, Reeves, etc.
The Belcham in-laws still live in the area. There is a plaque inside the church listing all the priests from the 1300's down. Many of them are Belchams. John Sr. married Anne Belcham dau of Johannes Belchum and JoahonMarie Belchum.
There are two books here at the FHL in Salt Lake (that) verify how tough things got when the wool market collapsed.
942.64/
I2 Hwbp
History of Ispwich 1500 years of Triumph and Disaster
1995 ed. p. 70 "The Golden Fleece" chapter
by Peter Bishop
This is a secondary source combines on the ground originals but seldom names the original source. Bishop states that the outlying areas to Ipswich got hit much harder than the port town did. He quotes a direct source, probably a tax list " in 1622 the merchants had 2 years of unsold inventory on their shelves" for dyed and undyed woolen yardage. He describes all the illegal activity in Ipswich as their merchants vie against the London cartels. He says the outlying populace moved to Holland.
942.64/
M21b
Able Men of Suffolk 1638
Charles I, vol. 411
This is a 2nd generation Victorian transcription of the original draft-lists of able bodied men who were not currently trained and serving in the military. The draft age was 16-60 They are in groups called 100's. Wherstead and Belstead appear in the Samfor group. The date on the sheet is January 1638. Only 1 Merrill, William appears and 2 Birds. They are in Belstead. Wherstead has only 46 total draftable men. Belstead has 86. There are a few random Gildersleeve and Wolterton in the Samfor lists but the other clothmaking names have vanished.
Even John Merrill of Merrill Lynch has been to Wherstead."
Above photographs by Dawn Merrill
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