St Lawrence Church is a Grade II*

listed Listed may refer to: * Listed, Bornholm, a fishing village on the Danish island of Bornholm * Listed (MMM program), a television show on MuchMoreMusic * Endangered species in biology * Listed building, in architecture, designation of a historicall ...

church in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, that is now used as a community centre. The 15th-century church has the oldest ring of five

church bells A church bell in Christian architecture is a bell which is rung in a church for a variety of religious purposes, and can be heard outside the building. Traditionally they are used to call worshippers to the church for a communal service, and t ...

in the world.

History

St Lawrence was built on Dial Lane in the heart of present-day Ipswich. The upper section of the tower was rebuilt in 1882 by the London firm of Barnes and Gaye. The new Victorian design consists of floral and geometric flintwork patterns and includes the initials S. and L. Unusually, the modifications also removed the central aisle from the nave in an attempt to prevent celebration of the

High Anglican The term ''high church'' refers to beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, liturgy, and theology that emphasize formality and resistance to modernisation. Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term originated ...

liturgy. It served as a parish church until the early 1970s, when the parish was declared redundant by the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

due to its having no members. Care of the building was handed over to the Ipswich Historic Churches Trust (IHCT) and the church fell into disrepair. After deliberations over future usage and subsequent extensive renovations, the church was reopened as a community restaurant and gallery in July 2008. The £1.2 million cost of the restorations came from

Ipswich Borough Council Ipswich Borough Council, founded in 1974 after the abolition of the County Borough of Ipswich, governs the non-metropolitan district of Ipswich in Suffolk. It is the second tier of a two-tier system, fulfilling functions such as refuse collectio ...

and UK government grants.

Bells

The church's tower features the oldest ring of church bells remaining in the world. The five bells, hung in a modern steel frame for

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

, are known as "Wolsey's bells", after

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling figur ...

who was raised in the area. It is believed that Wolsey's uncle

Edmund Daundy Edmund Daundy (by 1468 – 6 May 1515), of Ipswich, Suffolk, was an English politician and Ipswich merchant. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Ipswich in 1512 and 1515 and believed to be Thomas Wolsey's uncle, being a brother to his mother ...

may have commissioned one of the bells. Four of them were cast circa 1450 and a fifth added circa 1480. The bells remain undamaged and unmodified, and still include their original clappers. In 1985 the bells were removed when the tower was declared unsafe. After reconstruction of the tower and the installation of a new bell frame, the bells, having been overhauled by the

Whitechapel Bell Foundry The Whitechapel Bell Foundry was a business in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. At the time of the closure of its Whitechapel premises, it was the oldest manufacturing company in Great Britain. The bell foundry primarily made church bells a ...

, were returned to working use in September 2009. According to the IHCT, the next oldest set of five are located in

St Bartholomew the Great The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, sometimes abbreviated to Great St Bart's, is a medieval church in the Church of England's Diocese of London located in Smithfield within the City of London. The building was founded as an Augustin ...

and date from 1500. The bells are recognised as being historically important by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

's Church Building Council.

Curates

* (1808-1830) James Ford

References

External links

St Lawrence Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Lawrence Church Ipswich Church of England church buildings in Ipswich Former Church of England church buildings Alexandra Ward, Ipswich

History

Bells

Curates

See also

References

External links