CHURCH LARKING - Stiffkey Parish Church

The double dedication to both St John the Baptist & St Mary, is a legacy of there once being two churches in Stiffkey's churchyard. St Mary's being de-consecrated in 1563. This strikes me in itself as remarkable, that a tiny village like Stiffkey once thought itself able to support two benefices. The remaining church is a very self effacing building. Small in stature, and not that architecturally notable. 

The exterior is largely classic flush flintwork with stone flushwork. The church is predominantly 15th century architecture, though the tower and chancel are thought to be the earliest part of the church surviving. The tower has a slender square profile with an octagonal staircase on one side. A similar octagonal abutting staircase acts as a type of counterbalance on one external edge of the nave. Quite what function this staircase had is not visible internally, but it may have been to provide access to a rood loft. 

The Chancel strikes me as being quite petite in relation to its longer and distinctly loftier nave. This may reflect its earlier date of construction. It also is the only part of the building not executed in flint, but cement rendered, which may be hiding a multitude of constructional sins of repair, or was simply a cost effective restoration when executed in 1848. The entirety of the external flushwork is devoted to its main porch. The relationship between the main porch, the octagonal staircase and the tower does strike a clumsy and adhock cluster. There is much here that reflects the poor and humble nature of its medieval village setting.

The pronounced verticality of the three perpendicular windows either side of the nave, strike one as dramatic when viewed externally. One expected something equal to that drama internally. And though they can bring a lovely quality of light to the interior of the church it has nothing of note to enhance the beauty of. The interior of St John's unfortunately has a particularly dreary looking architectural aspect. No clerestory, no side aisles, no pillars or arches, just its clear pattern glazed windows majestically sweeping upwards to a rather dull and perfunctory wooden roof. I searched hard to find some hidden detail that was worthy of being highlighted. The chancel has some rather finely executed Victorian stained glass. The corbels on the chancel arch are quite distinctive. There is a strange recess behind the pulpit. Hard to say what that once originally contained, a saints shrine, a window or a blocked up door.

The church was built right next to The Old Hall, which in its medieval hay day must have been very impressive. Though there was obviously never much patronage coming from the Bacon family into the church fabric. Humble churches can have their own charm and be characterful. Unfortunately St John's looks like a church that has never been much loved, or found patronage from people with money