Church Of St Mary

Church of St. Mary, Feltwell

Parish church of mixed medieval dates with 19th-century additions. The building comprises a mid-14th-century chancel, 15th-century west tower and south aisle, and a north aisle built in 1861–63. Construction is flint with ashlar dressings, rendered to the clerestory, beneath slate roofs.

The west tower rises in three stages on heavy plinth mouldings with angle buttresses and a polygonal stair turret to its north-east. The arched west door is below a 2-light reticulated window. The ringing chamber is lit by lancets to north and south, while the belfry contains 2-light reticulated windows. Below the parapet runs a string course of alternately wide and narrow trefoiled panels. The parapet centre steps up and is decorated with shields and figures, with four corner pinnacles completing the design. The west end of the south aisle was repaired with brick in the 18th century.

The south aisle is pierced by four 4-centred 3-light Perpendicular windows with transomes. A gabled south porch is illuminated from its sides through 2-light trefoil-headed windows. The south clerestory contains five 2-light cusped Perpendicular windows beneath 4-centred arches. The aisle and chancel are buttressed with flat buttresses, set diagonally to the east. The chancel has three 3-light reticulated south windows, the easternmost shortened to accommodate internal sedilia. A string course below the low parapet completes the external detail. The chancel's splendid 5-light east window dates to the mid-14th century, with trefoiled lights arranged as 2-1-2 supporting a cusped petal motif of five lobes.

The 19th-century north aisle, supported by flat buttresses set diagonally to east and west, contains a 3-light east window in lancet formation, two 3-light reticulated windows to the narrower east bays, and four 2-light Geometric windows to the remainder. A 4-light Geometric west window lights the aisle, and a corbelled parapet crowns the walls. The north door is set between two buttresses with jambs enlivened by two orders of shafts.

Internally, the 14th-century south arcade comprises five bays with quatrefoil piers, rolls between the lobes, moulded bases and capitals, and double sunk quadrant arches. Clerestory windows light the spandrels. The 19th-century north arcade is of similar design but taller, with lugged plinths. A tall tower arch with semi-circular responds and a chancel arch in the style of the south arcade complete the arcade system.

The 15th-century nave roof features roll-moulded tie beams dropping on arched braces and wall posts to corbels. The corbels to the north are 19th-century replacements; those to the south are 15th-century figures of angels. Each alternate tie beam is supported on shorter arched braces and carries a carved figure of an angel on each side. The major trusses possess pierced spandrels and Queen post struts to moulded principals, with one tier of moulded butt purlins and a ridge piece. The south aisle roof, restored in 1860, retains small carved angels with shields.

The nave contains 36 15th-century benches with pierced backs, poppyheads and mutilated animal or figurative handrests. The chancel screen, originally of the late 15th century but much altered, comprises three bays right and left of a 4-centred opening with tabernacle work and canopies in its head. The dado displays two crocketted ogees in each bay, and nine angels with musical instruments decorate the stiles below the canopy. A 2-bay 19th-century arcade opens from the chancel to a north aisle chapel, supported on a circular pier with annulated subsidiary shafts bearing stiff-leaf capitals and figures of King David and angels. The chancel roof, dated 1860, features principals on arched braces. Fourteen 15th-century poppyhead bench ends serve the 19th-century stalls.

Flamboyant ogeed stepped sedilia and a piscina adorn the chancel. The chancel windows contain stained glass by Didron of Paris, dated 1860.

Monuments include a 1590 wall monument to Francis Moundeford in the chancel, showing a kneeling figure of a knight in a semi-circular panel flanked by strapwork pilasters, with an inscription panel in the apron below and an achievement above the entablature. Also in the chancel is a wall monument to Osbertus Moundeford dated 1580, depicting a kneeling knight with wife and daughter in a trefoil arcaded panel flanked by strapwork pilasters, with similar treatment to the inscription panel and achievement. The chancel south wall carries a brass to Margaret Mundford dated 1528, while the north wall displays a large brass to Reverend William Newcombe dated 1846.