Holy Trinity, Boxted

Holy Trinity, Boxted, is a small ancient church, dating back to the 14th century. I didn’t take a picture because there is a more than adequate one in the East window (above left).

On the right is the Hall, where the Poley (pronounced Pooley) family have lived for 600 years. At the bottom are bunnies and birds celebrating the local fauna. The window is 20th century, the work of William Aikman, commemorating Hugh Hallifax-Weller-Poley, killed in WW II serving in the RAF. Another window in the chancel, commemorates Hugh’s parents, Sir Edward and Lady Ursula H-W-P.

On the left is his father wearing his WW I uniform and on the left his mother who, when widowed in 1948, became an Anglican nun. Both windows are good pieces of modern stained glass. However, as so often in small, remote churches there are unexpected monuments of exceptional quality.

First, in the chancel, two recumbent effigies carved in oak in the late 16th century. They are William and Alice Poley and dog; he died in 1587.   Her prayer book has the Poley and Shae Arms. Now come to the North Chapel where there are two alabaster monuments. Dame Abigail died in 1652 but her monument was not erected until 1725 and is thought to be the last English monument made of alabaster.

Her husband, Sir John Poley, died in 1638 and his depiction in alabaster, late 17th century, is by John Bushnell.

The inscription reads a “man famous for his bravery in arms and for military skills to be reckoned amongst the first commanders”. He served Henry IV of France for three years and King Christian of Denmark for twenty-two years. There is something most unusual – in his left ear he has an earring depicting a frog.

A bit of a mystery but ‘a frog he would a wooing go, with a Rowley, Poley, Gammon and Spinach’ may refer to the Suffolk families Roley, Poley, Bacon and Greene and account for this most unusual embellishment on a magnificent, flamboyant sculpture.