Gillingwater's History of Lowestoft / a reprint: with a chapter of more recent events

by Edmund Gillingwater

In all the particulars mentioned, the church at Lowestoft bears a perfect resemblance to the antient churches; the side aisles extending exactly half way of the chancel; the end of the north isle next the chancel is made use of as a vestry; and there is the same space at the east end of the south aisle, which was used formerly for the prothesis. Before the Reformation the chancels were separated from the nave or body of the churches by screens or partitions. These screens are still remaining in some of our English churches; in Lowestoft church part of it was standing about the year 1710. The doors belonging to these screens (or holy gates as they were called in the primitive times) were always kept shut against the laity, except at the celebration of the sacrament.

There was also a rood loft in this church in the times of Popery. A few years since some bricks falling down from one of the buttresses on the south side of the church, near the chancel, discovered the stairs by which they ascended to the loft. The same has also been discovered on the north side of the church. The rood was the representation of our Saviour on the Cross, with the Virgin Mary on one side and St. John on the other; and was placed on the top of the wooden screen which formerly divided the church from the chancel. This screen, from the use above mentioned, was often called the rood-loft, a small bell, which was rung, probably, at some particular parts of divine service (as at the consecration or elevation of the host, from whence it is called the sacring, or consecrating bell), to rouse the attention of the congregation, some of whom, who sat at the south-east and north-east corners of the church, could not well see what was transacting at the high altar. This bell is different from that called the Saints’ Bell, which was hung on the outside of the church, and gave notice to those abroad when the more solemn acts of religion were performing. A small piece of stone work on the outside of the east end of the church, with a small perforation or arch in the middle, for the bell to swing in, is still standing on several of our churches.

The chancel belonging to this church is very neat and elegant. The Rev. Tanner, while vicar of the parish, opened the subscription for purchasing the impropriation, and declared that if he succeeded in his undertaking, he would expend a considerable sum in repairing and beautifying the chancel. Mr. Tanner was successful, and he strictly adhered to his promise; for he thoroughly repaired the roof, raised five free-stone steps the whole breadth of the building, leading to the communion table, wainscotted the east end entirely, as well as part of the north and south sides, and also erected the seats at the west end, and made such alterations as rendered the chancel both commodious and handsome, expending in the whole upwards of £300.

The succeeding vicar, Rev. Arrow, continued the plan of his worthy predecessor in repairing and ornamenting the chancel. He erected a new altarpiece, enclosed the communion table with handsome iron work, opened the lower part of the east window (which before was filled up with brick work), and glazed the same, which caused this window to produce a very beautiful effect when viewed from the body of the church; and from these and other alterations, he rendered the chancel truly elegant. The number of communicants at Lowestoft church on Easter day, 1789, was 122.

There was a custom amongst the primitive Christians (during the violent persecutions which raged in those early ages of Christianity) of having churches underground, in order to avoid the dreadful cruelties which a more open profession of their religion would have exposed them to. In imitation of this antient practice the more modern Christians have also had their subterranean places of worship, which were situated under the choirs or chancels belonging to their respective churches, and where they also deposited the bones of deceased persons, which places where called the under-croft, and from the latter use of them charnel-chapels. There seems to have been one of these charnel-chapels formerly under the chancel belonging to this church. The design of them was for a priest to officiate therein, and to pray for the souls of all those persons whose bones were deposited in that place; but after the reformation they ceased being used for any sacred purpose, and were made use of afterwards only as repositories for the bones that were casually dug up in the church or churchyard.

The font in the church is very antient. It is ascended by three stone steps, and on the upper step is an old inscription, almost unintelligible through corrosion. The font is surrounded by two rows of saints, each row consisting of twelve figures; but they were so much injured by Francis Jessope, when he visited the church in 1644, under a commission from the earl of Manchester, as to be almost totally defaced.

On the 12th of June, 1644, Francis Jessope, of Beccles, under a commission from the Earl of Manchester, visited this church, and took away all the brass plates from the grave stones having the inscription “Orate pro Anima, etc.” and others of the like nature, except the following: “Pray for the soul of Lady Margaret Parker, who died the First day of March, Ao. Dni. 1507. On whose soul may God be propitious.” He also disrobed the stones of many brass effigies. All the brass was sold to Mr. John Wilde, of Lowestoft for five shillings; although the quantity was sufficient to be run into a bell, which was used for a chapel. On the bell is the inscription “John Brand made me, 1644.” The stone work of the font is covered with a handsome piece of carved work erected in the year 1734 by John Postle and Edmund Gillingwater, churchwardens.

About the year 1740, the pews in the church being very old, irregular, and much decayed, the Rev. Tanner, the vicar of the parish, in order to recover it from this disgraceful state, and to ornament it with that decent arrangement of seats, so becoming a place dedicated to public worship, and so generally to be met with in other churches, first set the example of new-pewing the church by erecting (in 1746) six neat wainscot seats in the body of the church, in memory of his wife. On these seats was the following inscription: “In memory of Mary, the wife of John Tanner, and daughter of Robert and Mary Knight, 1746. Not unto us, O Lord; not unto us, but unto thy name be the praise. John Tanner, vicar, desires this to be considered as a monument and pledge of love.” In 1747 he added eight more, in grateful acknowledgment of some great mercy he had received from the Almighty. On these seats the inscriptions are “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me. J. T., 1747”; the other is “In memory of Grace Symonds, sister of John Tanner, vicar, 1759.” It is supposed he thus shewed his thankfulness, for having been enabled to complete and publish the great work of learning and antiquity the “Notitia Monastica,” which his brother, the Bishop of St. Asaph, left unfinished. The town being stimulated by so pious and useful an example, undertook within a few years after, to complete what Mr. Tanner had so laudably began; for in the year 1770 the whole design of new-pewing the church was completed; and by the addition of a very elegant desk and pulpit, is become one of the neatest and best pewed churches in the county.

In the year 1778 a resolution was formed by the minister and churchwardens to erect an organ in the church, and in pursuance thereof, a large gallery was built that year, at the west end of the middle isle, for the purpose of an organ loft; and in 1780 a large chamber organ, which formerly belonged to the late Dr. North, of Shanfield, near Saxmundham, was purchased at the price of eighty pounds, and erected in Lowestoft Church, and is the first instrument of the kind ever placed there.

There was a large brass eagle in the church. It formerly stood at the west end of the middle isle, but was removed into an obscure corner. The original use of the eagle, so general, formerly, in most of the churches, was for the purpose of being used as a litany desk; which part of the Church service, after the Reformation, was read or sung, at a different time of the day, from that where morning prayers were read. Also, possibly, the great English Bible, which, in 1538, Thomas Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal, ordered to be placed open in each parish church, for everyone to have recourse to, was laid upon these eagles. The ardour with which men flocked to read this bible is almost incredible. They who could, purchased a Bible, and they who could not, crowded to read it, or to hear it read, in churches; where it was common to see little assemblies of mechanics meeting together for that purpose, after the labours of the day. Many even learned to read in their old age, that they might have the pleasure of instructing themselves from the Scriptures.