Church Of St Catherine

Church of St Catherine

A parish church of considerable architectural interest, with medieval origins and significant later additions. The building comprises a 15th and 16th century nave and chancel, a west tower dating to around 1500, and a north chapel added around 1560 with brick construction. The chapel was extended by one bay around 1733 to provide a squire's pew for the Knight family of Gosfield Hall. The walls are constructed mainly of flint rubble, sometimes plastered, with the north chapel and south wall of the chancel built in red brick. All roofs are of plain red tiles.

The exterior displays characteristic medieval parish church architecture. The chancel has a four-light east window with transom and vertical tracery beneath a two-centred head, with king and queen head stops to the label. Buttresses reinforce the northeast and southeast angles, the latter including one positioned at the former angle of the chancel. The south wall features a stone corbel table, two buttresses, and two 16th century four-light windows with transoms under square heads. A central square-headed doorway with moulded label has a three-board door with muntins.

The nave's south wall contains four buttresses and three 15th century two-light windows with tracery under two-centred heads. A 15th century south doorway has moulded and shafted jambs with crenellated capitals and a moulded two-centred arch; the doors are double three-board with tracery and crenellations, supplemented in the 19th or 20th century by an enclosed glazed porch with flint base and gabled red plain tiled roof. A gault brick and flint chimney stack pierces the nave roof. The north wall contains two similar 15th century windows, one partly blocked by the north chapel.

The north vestry is a lean-to structure with a two-light window under a flat head; its west wall has a two-centred doorway with a vertically boarded door. The north chapel is constructed of red brick in three bays, with the western bay overlapping the nave and separated from the others by an 18th century wall. It features a moulded red brick parapet to the east and west walls, a brick corbel table to the north wall, and a plastered brick plinth with panels to the east wall. Above the eastern window is stepped chequerwork. A northeast stone-dressed brick buttress displays a painted star emblem over it—the mullet of the De Vere family who founded a church here around 1190, possibly original to that structure. The chapel has three other buttresses, an eastern 16th century window of four lights with transom under a square head and label, and three square-headed four-light windows with transoms and stone labels on the north wall, the western one being blocked. An off-centre 16th century brick doorway has a moulded four-centred arch in a square head with moulded label. The west wall has an 18th century Venetian window and two circular windows above it.

The west tower is plastered and crenellated, rising in two stages with a square stair turret to the southeast. The plinth is moulded with brick and stone chequerwork. The west window contains three lights in two tiers with tracery over in a segmental moulded head. The upper ground storey has small trefoiled lights to the north, south and west walls, while the bell chamber has louvres of two lights under segmental pointed heads. A vertical slit light serves the stair turret.

The interior is of considerable richness. The chancel has a five-cant roof with carved bosses and crenellated wall plate, with a crenellated tie beam resting on crenellated corbels carved with heads. The north wall contains a mid-16th century arcade of two bays with four-centred arches on piers with moulded capitals and bases. A 15th century two-centred chancel arch has two moulded orders with a moulded label to the west face, the carved stops being angels with shields, a raven for Rolf and a chevron with three scallops for Hawkwood. The responds have moulded capitals.

Against the south wall stands an altar tomb to Thomas Rolf of 1440, bearing a brass figure in the robes of a sergeant-at-law with a Latin inscription. The side panels are decorated with quatrefoiled circular panels containing shields of arms, interspersed with narrow trefoiled panels. Poppy-head choir stall ends feature crenellated and carved panelling with foliate swags, grotesque heads and urns, beneath which is linenfold panelling to the north and south choir-stalls. Three wall hatchments are displayed, and there is a 19th century altar rail. The 19th and 20th century stained glass includes an east window by Clayton and Bell dating to 1880, with additional glazing from around 1980.

The north chapel, also known as Wentworth Chapel, was built by Sir John Wentworth, whose altar tomb of Purbeck marble stands between the chapel and chancel altars, featuring a moulded base and slab with cinquefoil side panels between smaller trefoiled panels and fragments of brass inscription. An altar tomb of Purbeck marble to Sir Hugh Rich of 1554 likewise has a moulded and panelled plinth, moulded slab with remains of brass inscription, and shields with panelling and tracery to the side slabs, and may be reused. The roof is flat with square panels and curved braces with carved spandrels to the tie beams. To the west, a private pew of around 1733 is approached by stone steps with iron balusters and Venetian double doors, each of three panels with a semi-circular light over and side lights with glazing bars, all set in a moulded surround. The interior has enriched panelling, with moulded and dentilled door and side light surrounds featuring four Ionic pilasters. A Venetian window faces west, and a recessed opening with panelled shutters and semi-circular light over addresses the south wall. The ceiling is plastered. Four hatchments decorate the walls.

The north wall displays a fine marble monument to John and Anne Knight by Rysbrack, featuring a raised centre-piece with a man to the left dressed in Roman costume leaning on an inscribed urn, whilst his wife in similar robes reclines toward him from the right. An enriched broken pediment crowns the composition with lower scrolls and coat of arms at the apex. The inscription reads: Anne Crags. Married 1st James Newsham 2nd John Knight 3rd Robert Nugent died 22/11/1756 age 59. Smaller plinths with urns flank the monument; that to the right bears an inscription to Margaret Nugent, sister to Robert Earl Nugent, 1794. Six constables' staves of William IV's reign are mounted on a window rack.

The nave has a seven-cant roof with moulded wall plates and moulded arched braces to two east bay collars. The west bay features a moulded and crenellated tie beam with moulded arched braces and traceried spandrels, probably the reused head of the former rood screen, possibly originally supported by the buttress above the pulpit. A piscina in the south wall has a four-centred head with head stops and moulded jambs. The 18th and 19th century box pews and wall panelling remain, with windows containing stained glass including some early fragments in the north window. A moulded royal coat of arms is mounted over the south door. An octagonal 18th century panelled pulpit with fret decoration stands on an octagonal stem.

The tower arch is of two-centred form with three chamfered orders, crenellated capitals and moulded bases. A vertically bead-boarded and nailed door serves the stair turret with a four-centred arch in a square head over. An octagonal font has quatrefoiled panelling to the bowl and cusped two-centred arches to the stem.

The bells comprise one by Thomas Potter of Norwich dating to 1420, one by Miles Graye of Colchester from 1637, one by Henry Pleasant of Sudbury from 1704, and three by John Taylor of Loughborough from 1962.