Sotterly church was a spontaneous decision on the way back from Ravingham with Rupert. He’d been before, but this time we went across the fields. What a glorious approach, over a style, beware of the cattle if you have dogs (as some people have been killed (a new line) in other places), into a classic estate landscape of deer/cattle eaten bases of ancient huge old oaks. And a very unusual and ancient Hornbeam, silver like an old man, so warped and wrinkled and twisted, the tell tail Hornbeam sinues all exaggerated.
Entering through a protective enclave of tall old Yews, we come to the church. The seat of the Soterleys, Playters, and latterly the home of the Barne family. The grand 17th century monument to Sir Thomas Playters and his two wives (handily both called Anne) and their ‘diverse’ children. Simon Knott: By Anne I he had two sons and two daughters, but Anne II bore him a jaw-dropping eighteen children. What makes the memorial so remarkable, though, is the way the 22 children are shown as weepers on the panel beneath. Instead of the usual uniform kneeling figures united in sorrow, each child is given its individual character – in short, they all look like different people, and are doing different things. Some kneel in formal prayer, but others are distracted; one turns round to chat to her sister, while others gaze out at the viewer.’
Kaliwood 