Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the East Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 7 December 1966. A Medieval, Victorian Church.

Church of St Mary

WRENN ID
burning-window-yew
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
East Suffolk
Constituency
Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP: Patrick Spencer (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
7 December 1966
Type
Church
Period
Medieval, Victorian
Address
Church of St Mary, Church Road, Farnham
OS grid reference
TM 362 599
Coordinates
52.18735, 1.45485
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Mary is a parish church featuring a nave, chancel, and west tower. It is primarily constructed of coursed flint with stone dressings, with some repairs made in red brick. The tower, built in the late 15th or early 16th century, has four stages and includes semi-circular headed bell chamber openings and a crenellated parapet, likely added in the 19th century. The west face has diagonal buttresses and a notable two-light west window made of brick.

On the south wall of the nave, there is a 12th-century slit window with a deep splay, a larger blocked 12th-century window now partly hidden by a 19th-century buttress, and a broad lancet window from the early 14th century. Four heavy sloping brick buttresses were added during a late 19th-century restoration when the south doorway was blocked. The north wall of the nave features another 12th-century slit window and two renewed 15th-century windows, with a doorway leading to a late 19th-century shallow timber porch that has a gabled roof and a plain 12th-century arch inside.

The chancel, dating from the 14th century, has two broad lancets and a Priest's doorway in the south wall, along with a fine two-light east window. The nave boasts a 15th or 16th-century scissor-braced roof with a moulded wallplate, while the chancel has a common rafter roof with additional bracing at the collars. Inside, there is a good set of early 19th-century box pews with original fittings, a matching pulpit, and a modern font designed in the style of the 13th century. Two traceried panels from the rood screen are mounted on the west wall of the nave, and original stairs to the rood loft can be found in the north nave wall. Additionally, there is a holy water stoup in the south nave wall near the former doorway and a piscina with a moulded segmental-arched head in the south sanctuary wall. The church is listed as Grade II* for its well-preserved medieval features and interior fittings.

Local climate

Church of St Mary sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 84% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 61% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 12 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 89% of listed buildings. Of these, 7 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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