Church Of St John The Baptist

TM 24 SW 3/1

BRIGHTWELL Church of St. John the Baptist

16.3.66

II* Church, medieval, with alterations of c.1656 for Thomas Essington of Brightwell Hall, and further restoration C19. Nave, chancel, west tower and south porch. Medieval work of plastered flint rubble with limestone dressings; C17 work in red brick, perhaps once plastered. Mid C19 porch of gault brick with parapet gables. Plaintiled roofs; the tower roof flat behind parapets. Several windows of c.1300, some with Y-tracery (some blocked for monuments); the east window of 3 lights with intersecting tracery. Early C14 south doorway with original boarded door and sanctuary knocker. The tower of c.1656 was placed upon existing walls at west end of nave, the east face supported on giant Tuscan columns. Parapets have obelisk corner pinnacles, clasping buttresses and arched recessed belfry openings. Similar obelisk pinnacles placed at apex of east gable and at base of east and west end gables. Fine mid C14 font of limestone, with octagonal bowl having traceried facets, and moulded stem and base; painted cover of c.1656. Octagonal oak- panelled mid C17 pulpit. Fine marble wall tablets to Thomas Essington (d.1651), his sister Anna (d.1660), and to Arthur Barnardiston (d.1734). A marble C18 floor slab inscribed "The Barnardistons Vault"; another to Thomas Essington,snr. (d.1656) and his daughter Anna (d.1660). 4 painted C18 escutcheons of the Barnardiston family on the nave wall.

Listing NGR: TM2496643529