To know the motive for this small church being devoted to St Botolph and being a chapel of ease to the church on the close by village of Redgrave would take a number of paragraphs however Simon Knott has already carried out this on the Suffolk Churches website. So it is a lot simpler for me to direct you there!
The web site explains the historical past of this constructing from Catholic occasions to Protestant and it is use as a faculty .
Botesdale itself is an uncommon village because it joins on to the village of Rickinghall and the chapel is much more uncommon as it’s hooked up to a home.
It is because of the web site that I do know this inscription above the door was given by a rich particular person to ask for prayers throughout the Black Demise, most likely within the 1470’s, though it has a later window reduce via it.
It says in Latin Pray for the souls of John Shrive and Juliana his spouse. Pray for the soul of Margaret Wykys.
Stepping via the door right into a room with wooden panelling, discover boards and chairs – it appears like the varsity it was.
To match the scale of the chapel the font is far smaller than these in greater church buildings.
Inside is small and neat with pews and woodwork from different church buildings relationship from C19 and earlier.
A kneeler on the altar
From the altar trying again you possibly can see the weird gallery – very like a Baptist or Methodist church would have. The organ is up there however the door is stored locked so the gallery cannot be accessed.
I shall attempt to go to the ‘mom’ church at Redgrave someday though it’s now not in use and is within the care of the Church buildings Conservation Belief and stored locked. The parish walked away from it when the maintenance was an excessive amount of and hoped somebody would take care of it. Folks in Redgrave now have a ‘trendy’ church within the village corridor – all very controversial within the early 2000’s.
Again Quickly
Sue
