Hi Church crawlers For those of you who can’t resist pushing on the door of a country (or town) church for a look round when you are passing, you may like to note that Clive Paine (broadcaster, lecturer, author, historian - of some repute) is spending an evening at St Mary at Stoke Church, Stoke Street, Ipswich on Friday evening 11 July starting at 7.00 pm talking about ‘The Church on Stoke Hill’. For researchers, a few FH publications will also be laying around to look at, together with a fascinating storyboard display of Stoke history by the Over Stoke History Group. They will also have a variety of local history publications on sale. St Mary’s is one of the only two Grade 1 Anglican Churches in Ipswich – not especially on account of its beauty (like St Margaret’s) but because of its provenance – being the only Ipswich church to have had the Midas touch of William Butterfield, the genius gothic revival church architect of the Victorian era. He was commissioned to design and build a very large extension to the church in 1870 which could cope with the local population explosion due to the arrival of the railway in the parish. Amongst his masterpieces are Perth cathedral and the Cathedral of the Isles on Great Cumbrae in Scotland, and cathedrals in Adelaide, Melbourne, Bombay, and Fredericton in Canada not to mention substantial parts of The Rugby School, Bailiol and Keble Colleges Oxford, and a number of magnificent churches in London – in addition to the many hundreds of other churches across the land (including Suffolk & Essex) where he did restoration exercises. All the proceeds from the evening (£5 at the door which includes a glass of wine) will go towards church maintenance. For any further details, please contact me off list. John Barbrook