Church of St Botolph is a Grade II* listed building in the East Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 16 March 1966. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Botolph

WRENN ID
woven-gargoyle-bone
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
East Suffolk
Constituency
Central Suffolk and North Ipswich MP: Patrick Spencer (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
16 March 1966
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Botolph, Culpho
OS grid reference
TM 210 491
Coordinates
52.0963, 1.22529
Source
Historic England listing

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

Description

The Church of St. Botolph is a medieval church that was restored in 1884. It features a nave, chancel, and a south-west tower with a porch. The building is constructed from flint rubble, with some parts of the nave plastered, and has limestone dressings. The roofs are covered with plain tiles, and the tower has a pyramid-shaped tiled roof with open eaves.

The chancel dates from the mid-13th century and includes a south doorway with a hoodmould and corbel faces, as well as single-light windows on the north and south sides. There were early 14th-century alterations, which added three-light windows with intersecting tracery in the north and south walls, and Y-tracery two-light windows in the nave side walls. A 14th-century nave doorway features roll-and-fillet moulding with a square label and retains its original oak door with moulded ribs; inside, there is a stoup.

Additionally, there is a 14th-century trefoiled piscina next to a dropped-cill sedilia cut into an earlier south chancel window, and another piscina for a south nave side-altar. A plain 14th-century south doorway has been blocked by 17th or 18th-century brickwork. The tower, which includes a porch on the ground floor, was added in the 15th century and has a simple doorway. The upper stage of the tower was removed around 1700.

The nave roof was rebuilt in the 17th century and features moulded wall-pieces, although it is otherwise plain. An archdeacon's report from 1602 described both the nave and chancel as "exceeding ruinous." The chancel arch is made of moulded stucco with flanking red brick walls and has a Gothick form, possibly from the late 17th or early 18th century. The scissor-braced chancel roof, installed in 1884, includes sections of moulded cornice that may have been reused from the 14th century.

The church also contains an octagonal limestone font from the 15th century, which is traceried and has a restored 17th-century oak cover. Inside the nave, there are three painted panels from the late 18th century depicting the Credence, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments.

Local climate

Church of St Botolph sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 96% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 63% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 22 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 77% of listed buildings. Of these, 11 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.

More on this building

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