Dronehorizons

Crowfield, All Saints is a Church of England church in the Deanery of Bosmere, which is in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Although once a Chapel of Ease to St Marys, Coddenham, it is independent and has its own parochial church council. Lying away from the present-day village centre, the church remains an important symbol to the village of Crowfield.

Orford Castle is a castle in Orford in the English county of Suffolk, 12 miles (19 km) northeast of Ipswich, with views over Orford Ness. It was built between 1165 and 1173 by Henry II of England to consolidate royal power in the region. The well-preserved keep, described by historian R. Allen Brown as "one of the most remarkable keeps in England", is of a unique design and probably based on Byzantine architecture. The keep stands within the earth-bank remains of the castle's outer fortifications.

St. Peter’s church in Alresford, Essex was built by Anfred de Staunton around 1300. It is situated about a mile away from the Alresford town. Unfortunately the church was destroyed by a fire in 1971 and was beyond repair. The exact cause of the fire remains unknown. As the church was given Grad II listed status in 1966 the ruins still remain, a church to replace it was built in Alresford town a few years later. Whilst the haunted history isn’t clear, the ruins are a big attraction for paranormal teams. The ruins are said to be used for witchcraft. Paranormal teams have reported on a lot of spirits present, most happy for people to explore, but others not so pleasant.

St Mary the Virgin's Church is a former Anglican church near the village of Little Bromley, Essex, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building,and is under the care of The Churches Conservation Trust.The church stands to the south of the village, adjacent to Little Bromley Hall. The nave dates from the early 12th century. In the 14th century the chancel was rebuilt. The lower stages of the tower date from the early 15th century, and its upper stage was rebuilt in the 16th century. Also in the 16th century the south porch was added. Restorations were carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries.

St Andrew's Church is a partly redundant Anglican church in the hamlet of Covehithe in the English county of Suffolk. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building,Part of the church is in ruins and this is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.The church stands on a lane leading directly towards the sea, in an area of coast which has suffered significant ongoing erosion.The parish of Covehithe has been combined with neighbouring Benacre. The oldest fabric in the original large medieval church dates from the 14th century, although most of it is from the 15th century. During the Civil War much of the stained glass was destroyed by the local iconoclast William Dowsing. By the later part of that century the large church was too expensive for the parishioners to maintain, and they were given permission in 1672 to remove the roof and to build a much smaller church within it.This small church is still in use, while the tower and the ruins of the old church are maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust.

St Mary, Antingham It was June 2019, and I was exploring some churches to the north of the Broads that I'd not revisited for fifteen years. So much had happened in that time to me, but not to most of these quiet little churches. Antingham churchyard sits beside the busy North Walsham to Cromer road, but it was still a lovely place to come back to. The churchyard has two churches, St Margaret and St Mary. St Margaret is now a ruin, but is still a spectacular sight, sitting parallel to St Mary across the graveyard. In fact, by the end of the seventeenth century they were both in a parlous state, and the decision seems to have been taken to demolish parts of St Margaret to mend St Mary. However, this does not disguise the fact that St Mary is a church of the Decorated period, and was probably complete before the intervention of the Black Death. Its current shipshape state owes a lot to the major restoration of 1865. I've not come across a record of who the architect was, but he seems to have been a person of taste, because windows were commissioned from the rising firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & co. The best of these depicts the Blessed Virgin flanked by St Mary Magdalene and St Martha. The central figure is fairly typical Burne-Jones work, but the outer two figures are better, St Mary Magdalene by William Morris himself and best of all the figure of St Martha with her pots and pans by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The figure of Mary Magdalene was also used at Westerfield on the outskirts of Ipswich. Martha is shown holding a clumsy collection of pots and pans. The Blessed Virgin is shown at the Annunciation, holding her prayerbook and lilies. Mary Magdalene looks as if she is holding a can of Special Brew, but I'm sure that can't be right. The Magdalene looks like Morris's work, although you can't help thinking that Martha might have been a more appropriate subject for Morris, being as sober and industrious as he was. Whatever, Rossetti's work is rare in Norfolk, and this is worth a visit. Burne Jones was also responsible for glass across the nave depicting three angels ringing bells. The font is one of those off-the-peg Purbeck marble jobs of the 13th century, which many churches seem to have around here, and apart from that the church is essentially 19th century in character. The great exception is an intriguing memorial brass up in the chancel. It is to Richard and Anne Calthorpe. Her figure has been lost, but the piece is fascinating for three reasons. Firstly, because the date is 1554, and the inscription records that this was in the first and second years of King Phillip and Queen Mary. Secondly, there is a head of Christ the Man of Sorrows as part of the brass, which has been vandalised, probably by puritan reformers. And lastly, the brass beneath the inscription shows their children, no less than nineteen of them. The poor woman must have died of exhaustion.

The Chappel Viaduct is a railway viaduct that crosses the River Colne in the Colne Valley in Essex, England. It carries the Gainsborough Line which now is a short branch linking Marks Tey in Essex to Sudbury in Suffolk. The line previously, however, extended to Shelford in Cambridgeshire. It was completed in 1849 by the Eastern Union Railway, which was later absorbed into the Great Eastern Railway. It is the longest bridge in the East Anglia region at 1,060 feet (320 m), and one of the largest brick-built structures in the country. It was listed at Grade II in 1967. The viaduct consists of 32 30-foot (9.1 m) semi-circular spans, with tapered piers; it is 1,060 feet (320 m) long and rises to a maximum height of 75 feet (23 m). The piers consist of two shafts, separated by a 6-foot (2 m) opening, joined at the top and bottom by arches. Each shaft contains a hollow void up to 4 feet (1.2 m) by 3 feet (1 m), partially filled with concrete to the level of the bottom arch. The running level of the viaduct has a gradient of 1 in 120.