Church of St John the Baptist,  Snape,  IP17 1QW

 

Snape Church showing the daffodils by the car-park

The picture above is from the excellent © Suffolk Churches website

stained-glass window by Mary Lowndes featuring old Snape Bridge

Snape Bridge       

Click on the image above for our
«War Memorials, 1914-1919» webpage.

 

  Click here for our «War Memorial, 1939-1945» page.  

 

our maybe 15th-century font

font, c.1500

detail from the bottom of the font

 

click the image above to
Become a Friend of Snape Church

 

 

Snape's Grade II❋-listed Church
is in the north of the village,
at the A1094 crossroads,

marked on our Map 1 with letter "J".

The earliest recorded incumbent of Snape was Sir William de Rurcham whose appointment was in 1240.  There have been many internal as well as external alterations and restorations since then.  The most recent of significance have been the rebuilding of the East Wall in 1920, and the installation of a new organ together with improvements to the balcony and vestry at the millennium. 

The treasure of the Church, despite some mutilation in the past, is undoubtedly the font, made c.1500 and once gilded.  In his "Buildings of England: Suffolk", Nikolaus Pevsner describes "on the base a quatrefoil frieze, and inscription referring to Richard Mey and his family as donors; on the foot of the stem, small beasts crawling; against the stem, four signs of the Evangelists set diagonally, and kings and bishops placed frontally; against the bowl seven figures all holding one long scroll [and] in the eighth field the Trinity with the two donors".  The font remains one of the most beautiful in the county.

Visitors are also attracted by the East window, designed and made in 1920 by Mary Lowndes — it carries, in its lower middle panel, a representation of Snape Bridge, as it then was, with a Thames barge in the foreground (pictured far left). 

"Mary Lowndes (1857–1929) was ... an influential leader in the Arts & Crafts movement, not only for her stained glass work and successful studio-workshop, but also for opening doors for other women stained glass artists.  She was an active participant in the suffragette movement, acting as Chair of the Artists' Suffrage League, and creating poster art to assist the movement."  — Wikipedia

Visitors from all over the world, as the entries to the visitors’ book indicate, come to Snape Church.  They and those who follow them, whether local residents or holiday-makers, are most welcome whether they come to services or merely to enjoy the calm and peace of their surroundings.  The Church is open to visitors during daylight hours.

See here about parochial life today.

downloaded from http://www.williamdowsing.org/journalnoindex.htm, quoting "The Journal of William Dowsing" from Dec. 1643 to around Sept. 1644.

58.  Snape, Jan. 25.  We brake down 4 popish pictures; and took up 4 inscriptions of brass, of Ora pro nobis, etc.

©  Extracted from Trevor Cooper (ed.), The Journal of William Dowsing: iconoclasm in East Anglia during the English Civil War, Woodbridge, 2001

 

 

CHURCHWARDEN'S HISTORY & REPORT, APRIL 2021

 

See here about today's parochial life, including further links on to Benefice Service rotas.

Our local medieval Churches include the following —

ALDE RIVER BENEFICE CHURCHES

 
                   (All churches are within 5 miles/8km of Snape Bridge.) © Suffolk  
                           W3W    Churches  
St John the Baptist   Snape Farnham Road/Church Road corner IP17   1QW   map   history data
St Mary's   Benhall    Deadmans Lane IP17   1JL   map   history  
St Peter's   Blaxhall Church Road IP12   2DW   map   history  
St Mary's   Farnham Church Hill IP17   1LA   map   history  
All Saints'   Great Glemham The Street IP17   2DA   map   history  
St Andrew's   Little Glemham Church Road IP13   0BH   map   history  
St Mary Magdalene   Sternfield Church Hill IP17   1RS   map   history  
                         
REDUNDANT 1992, now a private residence                
St Andrew's   Stratford St Andrew Great Glemham Road IP17   1LJ   map   history  

 

map of Alde River Benefice