Church Of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a parish church located in Flixton, near Bungay. While a church existed at Flixton as early as the Domesday survey of 1086, the present building was largely rebuilt during the 19th century. It is constructed of black knapped flint with extensive stone dressings, and has lead roofs with battlemented guttering.

The west tower, erected in 1856 by Salvin, replaced an earlier tower, believed to be Saxon, which had collapsed. Built in a Saxo-Norman style, the tower features two-light Saxon windows to the top stage and a helm roof covered in plain tiles. A weathercock tops the roof. Salvin based his design on what he believed to be evidence from the earlier remains, though an 1818 sketch by Isaac Johnson does not confirm it.

The nave, dating to 1861, has gabled buttresses in a 14th-century style and two-light traceried windows. The chancel, from 1894, is in a Romanesque style with single-light round-headed windows, circular windows, and a Lombardic frieze below the eaves.

Inside, the nave and north aisle have benches with carved poppy-head bench ends. The early 14th-century north arcade is the sole remaining element of the medieval structure, consisting of four bays with piers of quatrefoil section and arches with two wave mouldings. A 16th-century octagonal pulpit stands on a slender base, featuring a double row of square panels, some with heraldic carvings and others with linenfold ornamentation. The floor of the nave contains a small brass memorial to Elizabeth, wife of John Tasburgh, who died in 1583, and various black ledger slabs, commemorating members of the Tasburgh and Adair families. Two tablets are set into the south wall of the nave, one commemorating William Adair, who died in 1783, and featuring a relief of the Good Samaritan. Three 18th-century marble and stone tablets are on the north wall.

At the rear of the north aisle is a small octagonal memorial chapel in an Early English style, with a groined stone roof, constructed in 1895 in memory of Theodosia, Lady Waveney, who died in 1871. The chapel holds a life-size kneeling figure of Lady Waveney, a significant work by John Bell.