Church Of St Mary Magdalene

Church of St Mary Magdalene, Westerfield

This is a church with a late 12th-century core, developed through the 13th century with a nave and chancel. Evidence of 12th-century fabric survives, including reused zigzag decoration in a south window. The west tower dates to around 1300, with the entrance originally through a north doorway now inside the 1980s church extension. The church underwent major refurbishment around 1400, when the exceptional hammerbeam roofs were constructed.

The materials include a flint tower with freestone and some brick dressings, rendered nave and chancel, and a tiled roof.

The exterior shows diagonal buttresses to the chancel. The east window is a 3-light design with intersecting uncusped tracery and a moulding below the sill with carved ends. The south side features Y-tracery windows, one blocked trefoil-headed lancet, and a priest's doorway with red brick jambs and semicircular arch. The north side has one lancet window, with the other partly concealed by the parish room. The tower has an internal southwest stair turret, diagonal buttresses decorated with flushwork, and an embattled parapet also featuring flushwork. Large one-light belfry windows occupy the tower, with the west window rebuilt in brick. A 15th-century west doorway with carved spandrels sits below a 3-light Perpendicular traceried west window. Both the west and north doors are late medieval.

The interior is painted and plastered. The nave and chancel division is marked by a doubled truss with a moulded rood beam. The exceptionally fine hammerbeam roof covers both nave and chancel. The nave roof has one tier of purlins and king posts above the collar. The posts below the hammerbeams rise from corbels carved with demi-figures; the chancel carvings are winged angels. The hammerbeams themselves are decorated with carved demi-figures of kings and queens at 45 degrees, largely intact with original heads. The nave figures hold shields with symbols of the Crucifixion, while the chancel figures are winged angels. The post lengths are adjusted to accommodate window openings.

A timber reredos of around 1938 features blind tracery, cresting, and a central canopied niche for the cross. Matching panelling extends across the east wall of the sanctuary. The reredos and altar were designed by H. Munro Cautley (1876–1959), architect and diocesan surveyor, and executed by Ernest Barnes of Ipswich. The lectern, reading desk, communion rail, and altar are all in matching style. Cautley designed the lectern as a post-World War II memorial, and it was presented in 1957. Choir stalls with tall panelled backs occupy the north side, featuring shouldered ends with poppyhead finials. The nave benches date to 1867 and have shaped shouldered ends. A 19th-century timber drum pulpit on a wineglass stem bears panels carved with large-scale linenfold panelling. The font is late medieval with an octagonal bowl carved with the symbols of the Evangelists alternating with angels holding shields, set on an octagonal stem carved with stylised seated lions and slender buttresses. Ledger stones lie concealed beneath the carpets. Wall monuments are mostly early 19th and 20th century, including a white marble monument with a nowy-headed frame to H. Munro Cautley and his wife. Cautley wrote extensively on Suffolk and Norfolk churches, and his father was rector of this church. The stained glass includes three windows by William Morris Company—notably a fine example in the west window—and two windows by Powell and Sons, with the east window designed by J. Bouvier.

The church was refurbished around 1400 when the hammerbeam roof was constructed. It was restored in 1867 when it was re-seated. The sanctuary was reordered in 1938, and a church room was added to the north in 1986–1987.