Robert de Leche, Vicar of Bassingbourne,Cambridge, Magna Trillowe (Great Thurlow)

Great and Little Thurlow merge into each other, forming a largish sleepy combined village along the Newmarket to Haverhill road. The two parish churches are at each end of the villages, set away from the road among the older houses. Little Thurlow's church is perhaps the better known of the two, being home to the imposing and elaborate early 17th Century memorial to Sir Stephen and Lady Ann Soane which fills the Soane mausoleum chapel there. Also, Little Thurlow church is open every day, which Great Thurlow church is not, but it is equally of post-medieval interest.

The church as we see it today is perhaps more typical of those just over the border in Cambridgeshire, with a battlemented nave rising above battlemented aisles. Pevsner recorded that the chancel showed structural signs of its Norman origins, but in any case the overwhelming impression is of a crisp 19th Century restoration, presumably that led by William Fawcett in the late 1870s. The leaded bell turret presumably predates this. 'Robert de Leck's' will of 1378 left 1 quarter of wheat to the work of the church, the proceeds of which may well have gone towards the building of the late 14th Century tower. The nave and its aisles presumably followed not long after.

As at Little Thurlow you enter the church from the north, and the first impression is of height and space. The most easterly bays of the two arcades contain the organ chamber on the north side and the Vestey Chapel on the right, and the view to the east is of a chancel that is filled with light. This is thanks to Harry Harvey's excellent late 1950s glass depicting Christ in Majesty, a scene often depicted with sombre gravitas but as usual Harvey manages to imbue it with a charming liveliness. Below the window the contemporary reredos by Laurence Bond makes its presence felt with scale and freshness.

The light to the east is also contributed to by the glass in the Vestey chapel. The otherwise clear windows have two lozenges recording restorations of the church at two different times, the first telling us that James Vernon Esqr Lord of this Mannor repaired and beautified this church 1741. James Bettley in the revised Buildings of England volume for West Suffolk notes Michael Archer's attribution of this glass to William Price the Younger, who with his father and grandfather was responsible for the 18th Century glass in Westminster Abbey.

The other lozenge records that Ronald Arthur Vestey Lord of this Manor & Florence Ellen MacLean his wife repaired and beautified this church 1956. It was made by Joan Howson, and this date marks the beginning of a scheme that also brought the Harry Harvey glass and the reredos. Howson was also responsible for arranging the old glass in the south chancel window. This consists of three restored 15th Century East Anglian angels standing on wheels, and four large evangelistic symbols, the winged man of St Matthew, the winged lion of St Mark, the winged calf of St Luke and the eagle of St John. These seem likely to be of the early 16th Century and are out of scale for a parish church, so presumably all this glass came from elsewhere originally.

NCC will register Heydon 153
Title
Leche (Letch), Robert de, vicar of Magna Trillowe
Date(s)
1378 (Creation)
Level of description
Item

Link: Image of document at AALT
County: Suffolk.
Place: Westminster.
Date: Two weeks from St. Martin 5 Edward III [25 November 1331]
Parties: Gilbert Pecche and Sibilla his wife, querents and William de Gretton, clerk, and Thomas le Graunt of Multon, deforciants
Property: The manor of Magna Trillowe with appurtenances
Action: Plea of covenant.

[1] Norfolk records office

[1] CP 25/1/219/71, number 1.
Link: Image of document at AALT
County: Suffolk.
Place: Westminster.
Date: Two weeks from St. Martin 5 Edward III [25 November 1331]
Parties: Gilbert Pecche and Sibilla his wife, querents and William de Gretton, clerk, and Thomas le Graunt of Multon, deforciants
Property: The manor of Magna Trillowe with appurtenances
Action: Plea of covenant.

[2] Identity area
Reference code
NCC will register Heydon 153
Title
Leche (Letch), Robert de, vicar of Magna Trillowe
Date(s)
1378 (Creation)
Level of description
Item

Context area
Name of creator
Diocese of Norwich, Consistory Court; 11th century-; ecclesiastical court; Norwich, Norfolk
(11th century-)
Repository
Norfolk Record Office