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By the standards of many Suffolk Churches, St John the Baptist in Denham is not a spectacular building, but historically it is fascinating. Over many centuries it has had so many formats that sometimes one has to wonder whether the descriptions offered are the result of poetic licence. A church in Denham is mentioned in the Doomsday book, but whether it was on the current site we will never know. A plaque in the present building is inscribed “William de Kirsby, Prior of Norwich placed me here……….” This stone was previously on the outside of the east wall of the building and he is recorded as prior in the 1280/90's. This suggests that by this time there was a stone building on the current site, though probably much smaller than now.
Evidence within the building give clues to its other formats, for example the exposed wooden beam within the chancel arch suggest a lower roofline for the nave, the bricked up arch on the north wall together with the remnants of large horizontal grave markers outside indicate the existence of a chantry chapel, the remains of the rood stair between the buttresses on the south wall indicate the existence at sometime of a rood screen, and the recently uncovered doorway beside the current south porch door suggest an entrance to the tower which was demolished sometime in the mid seventeen hundreds. However nothing visibly shows that this building was at some time about 14 foot longer than it currently is, but recently the builders and architects discovered that markings on the roof beams indicate that at least two of the wooden roof arches are missing, so authenticating the map of 1725 which shows a tower in the middle of the south wall which housed three bells. In 1744 a faculty was granted by the Diocese of Norwich to sell two of the bells and use the money to take down the tower and put the building in good repair as well as building a place to hang the remaining bell. In 1747 the church terrier lists only one bell which was housed in a cupola above the foreshortened west wall. The north chapel is described in 1731 as having three gravestones (dedicated to the Bedingfield Family) the remnants of a screen with defaced angels, and stained glass windows. In 1809 the building is described as “thoroughly repaired and neatly pewed,” and an engraving of 1818 shows the church much as it stands today. However sometime during the 19th century the cupola was removed and replaced by a bell tower, but this fell down within living memory, and now the remaining bell sits at the back of the church, awaiting some more modern means of hanging it.
The population of the Parish of Denham is small and the congregation have depended on large grants from English Heritage, Suffolk Historic Churches Trust, The Garfield Weston Foundation, The Veneziana Fund All Churches Trust and The Listed Places of Worship Grant to help fund the current repairs. There were also large donations from local farmers and members of local families. The Friends of Denham Church Group, set up in 2009, when the future of the building was in peril, organised a variety of events in their first year which has enabled them to donate £6,000 towards the repairs, this bodes well for further improvements in the future.
The repairs to the building were scheduled to run for 16 weeks over the summer but complications due to the poor state of the building, only exposed when the roof was removed, resulted in delays, and the emergency installation of tie bars prevented the north wall of the building from collapsing. The building work is not quite finished, but the church fabric is now secure, and should with good maintenance be secured for generations to come.
The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the Right Reverend Nigel Stock led a service of Celebration and Thanksgiving on Sunday 12th December. This was a new beginning for Denham St John, as it marked the change from a monthly family service on the afternoon of the third Sunday to a Village Service at 11.30am on the second Sunday, beginning in January. The villagers of Denham have worked hard, to ensure the survival of this ancient landmark in the village, come and have a look round, join the congregation for the family service and become an active part of this commuThe visit of the Bishop of Norwich to St John the Baptist Church in Denham celebrated the completion of the repairs to the fabric of the building that have taken more than two years to come to fruition.