Church Of St Andrew

RAVENINGHAM RAVENINGHAM PARK TM 39 NE 6/125 Church of St. Andrew 5-9-60 GV II*

Parish church. Tower C12 with C13 top; C15 nave, C14 chancel. Flint with limestone dressings, the walls almost entirely rendered over. Slate roofs. West tower, nave, north aisle, chancel, vestry, south porch. C12 round base to west tower with C13 octagonal bell stage. Lancet openings in SW, SE, NW and NE faces. Double-stepped castellated parapet with corner pinnacles and flushwork panels, C15. C15 south porch with moulded kneelers to gable parapet. Details of entrance arch obscured by later render. Very fine C12 ironwork on south door in the form of foliated crosses. Restored 2-light high level nave window above porch. Nave fenestration C15: tall 2 and 3- light windows with pointed segmental arches with stilted hoodmoulds. Chancel c.1300 with blocked lancet at south-west corner and blocked priests door with raised cill. Blocked 2-light Y tracery window and renewed tall lancet at south-east corner, flanked by massive raking buttresses. East window of three lights with cusped Y tracery. North wall of chancel has one blocked lancet flanked by raking buttresses. C19 flint vestry in angle of chancel/north aisle; 2-light square headed windows to east and north. Octagonal red brick chimney stack at junction of nave and aisle. North wall of aisle has three 2-light windows, much patched and renewed, but probably C14. Blocked north doorway. Nave clerestorey of three bays with square headed 2-light windows arranged in pairs. 2-light west window to aisle with cusped Y tracery. Interior: nave and chancel roofs renewed, C19 or C20. North arcade of four bays with double chamfered arches and octagonal piers. Wide semi-circular chancel arch with double chamfer and polygonal responds. Splayed reveals to clerestorey window. Elaborate early C19 arcading in chancel, echoing the early C14 tomb recess in the centre of the south wall: a cusped and pointed trefoil in the spandrel. Within the recess, a memorial slab to Roger Castell (d.1708) in the chancel floor, many memorial slabs to the Bacon and Castell families including brasses to Margaret Castyll (d.1483) and John Castle (d.1593) and his wife Francis (d.1614). C17 and C18 slabs in nave floor. C14 piscina with petalled bowl in south wall of chancel. Stone coffin slab set in east wall of north aisle. Large free standing monument at south-west corner of nave to Edward Hodge (d.1815): square base surmounted by urn, all in white marble. Font C15, octagonal with four lions around the stem, and four figures and the signs of the Evangelists around the bowl.

Listing NGR: TM3978896399