Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday, 19 May 2026

Marian Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Melford


This is an addition to the itinerary and stays in Suffolk, taking the Pilgrimage to the famous and spectacular parish church at Long Melford.

Long Melford is situated on one of the routes that leads to Walsingham in north Norfolk and there was at the church a miraculous statue venerated as Our Lady of Melford.


Long Melford Church

Image: Flickr - Spencer Means


The church at Long Melford was almost entirely rebuilt between 1467 and 1497, largely, it would appear, at the behest and expense of John Clopton (1423-97) of Kentwell Hall in the parish. It has been suggested that this was in thanksgiving for being the only one of those arrested who escaped execution in 1462 for his involvement in the plot centred on the Earl of Oxford to restore King Henry VI to the throne. Wikipedia has a biography of him at John_Clopton
..


John Clapton 
A portrait of him amongst the superb surviving fifteenth century glass in Long Melford Church

Image: Wikipedia 

Wikipedia has a description of the church at Holy_Trinity_Church,_Long_Melford and Great English Churches had a detailed account and numerous illustrations here

Towards the latter part of this rebuilding programme  Clapton planned to be buried in the Lady Chapel, which I assume contained the devotional image, in the churchyard, but his wife’s death led to the creation of a new chantry for them in the main church. The Lady Chapel lies south of the main church alignment and may in part be the earlier structure at the west and east ends, around which Clapton in 1496 built an all-embracing ambulatory which is, surely, based on the similar structure built in the 1440s over and around the Holy House at Walsingham. Clapton’s work included a clerestory to the original chapel, which was lost after the chapel was reroofed sometime after 1613, and the chapel served as the town’s school from 1670. The chapel was not finished when Clopton died in 1497 and he made provision in his will for its completion.


The ambulatory and entrance to the inner chapel in the Lady Chapel at Long Melford Church

Image: Facebook - Chris Droffats


The interior of the Lady Chapel

Image: Great English Churches

There is much more about the church and the creation of the Lady Chapel in a 2010 article which can be accessed at Z6KvX5PW8TDD773T

May Our Lasy of Melford intercede for us and our intentions

                           Jesu mercy, Mary pray


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)