Hunston, Suffolk
Encyclopedia
Hunston is a small Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

 hamlet and civil parish
Civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 set in a conservation area of Mid-Suffolk and lies
between Stowlangtoft
Stowlangtoft
Stowlangtoft is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England two miles south-east from Ixworth. Located around five miles north-east of Bury St Edmunds, in 2005 its population was 270.-St George's:...

 and Badwell Ash
Badwell Ash
Badwell Ash is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England, near Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket. According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is Bada's stream near the field with ash trees, however this source lacks validity in terms of the oak mysteries...

 off the A1088, nearly eight miles east of the centre of Bury St Edmunds. It is set in flattish farmland, mostly arable.

St Michael's Church

St Michael's Church stands in farmland about one-third of a mile south of the village centre, behind the site of Hunston Hall. It is an interesting specimen of Early English architecture. There are a number of Early English windows and some perpendicular insertions. The nave roof is of good hammer-beam
Hammerbeam roof
Hammerbeam roof, in architecture, is the name given to an open timber roof, typical of English Gothic architecture, using short beams projecting from the wall.- Design :...

 type, the restored chancel roof being copied from it. The chancel arch is plain, supported on circular shafts with richly foliated capitals.

The priest's door to the south is elegant; the head is a segmented arch boldly trefoliated the cusps are terminated with fleur-de-lys
Fleur-de-lis
The fleur-de-lis or fleur-de-lys is a stylized lily or iris that is used as a decorative design or symbol. It may be "at one and the same time, political, dynastic, artistic, emblematic, and symbolic", especially in heraldry...

. In the east wall of the transept is a niche leaf with beautiful moulding of foliate design In the south-east angle of the transept is a beautiful Early English double piscina
Piscina
A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. Roman Catholics usually refer to the drain, and by extension, the basin, as the sacrarium...

under two trefoil arches one in each wall supported on three circular shafts the central shaft being in the angle of the walls In the chancel are two ancient benches with well carved poppy heads.

The font is Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...

. Near the font is a well preserved chest of unusual design.

The 14th Century flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...

tower which contains 5 bells is plain decorated of three stages without buttresses with a late brick parapet. In 1887 the chancel was thoroughly restored by the late JH Heigham. In the same year the chancel floor was relaid with mosaic work by Major C Heigham who in 1882 placed 6 new windows in the chancel.

The most recent refurbishment completed in 2005 was restoration of a central window in the chancel.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK