Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church, primarily dating to the 15th century, with earlier and later additions and alterations. It is located in a setting typical of a rural Suffolk village. The church is constructed mainly of random flint with stone dressings, with knapped flint to the tower, and a red brick chancel with dark headers. The roofs are plaintiled with crest tiles.

The west tower is of four stages, crenellated, with diagonal three-stage buttresses, stone string courses, and flushwork decoration to the plinth and parapet. It has two-light bell chamber openings on all four sides, a west doorway with fleurons to the arch, a hoodmould with carved shields in the spandrels, and a plank door. Above the doorway is a figure of Christ within a cinquefoil-headed niche. The south wall of the nave features mostly renewed 15th-century windows. A considerably restored 19th-century porch incorporates a cinquefoil-headed glazed niche containing a figure of St Andrew above the doorway. The south nave doorway also has fleurons to the arch and a plank door, with a 19th-century painted inscription reading 'This is the Gate of the Lord' above the arch. A 12th-century doorway on the north side has a single order of colonettes, an arch with one order of roll moulding, and crude, unfinished beakheads. It is flanked by two three-light 15th-century windows, mostly original. The chancel was rebuilt in the 18th century and restored in the mid-19th century, featuring windows in a 13th-century style. A north transept was built around 1830 to accommodate the North monument, with splayed ends and a flat roof. The nave and chancel have good 19th-century braced collar roofs.

A notable feature is a 13th-century octagonal font, with a Purbeck marble bowl displaying two shallow pointed arch panels to each face, a central stem with eight surrounding columns, and an octagonal base. Original features include a 19th-century stone pulpit and benches, and a large, probably 18th-century, painting on the north nave wall depicting the Commandments, Creed, and Lord's Prayer. A fragment of a Trinity carving is incorporated into the south-east chancel wall. The north transept is in a classical style with four fluted Greek Doric columns, an entablature, a coffered elliptical vault with a centre light, and an ornate wrought iron screen dividing it from the chancel. This transept contains a monument to Dudley North (died 1829), created in Rome in 1833 by John Gibson, and featuring a seated white marble figure. The west wall of the north transept holds three 16th-century brasses commemorating members of the Glemham family. The east wall displays tablets for Nicholas Herbert (died 1775), Barbara, Countess of Aldborough (died 1785), and Ann, Relict of the Hon. Nicholas Herbert (died 1789). Four tablets dedicated to the North family are on the east and south chancel walls, including those for Catherine North (died 1715), Dudley North (died 1729), Dudley North (died 1764), and Sir Dudley North (died 1691), all with elaborate classical surrounds. Some 19th-century stained glass is found in the nave and chancel, with a 20th-century window in the south-west of the nave. The church is Grade I listed, recognizing the significance of its medieval fabric and interior monuments.