Church of St Mary is a Grade II* listed building in the East Suffolk local planning authority area, England. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Mary

WRENN ID
half-slate-thrush
Grade
II*
Local Planning Authority
East Suffolk
Constituency
Waveney Valley MP: Adrian Ramsay (Green)
Country
England
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Mary, Church Lane, South Elmham Otherwise Homersfield
OS grid reference
TM 285 854
Coordinates
52.41881, 1.35976
Source
Historic England listing

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

Description

The Church of St. Mary is a parish church that dates from the 12th, 14th, and 15th centuries, with extensive restoration carried out in 1866. The building consists of a nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch, constructed from random flint with some traces of old render, freestone dressings, and slate roofs. The nave and chancel feature stepped buttresses. There is one Norman slit window with a deep inner splay on the south side of the nave, while the remaining windows are 2- and 3-light in various styles, including one with flowing tracery and another with a flat Tudor hood-mould. Although all windows have been repaired, they have not been replaced and are filled with diamond-leaded clear glass, some of which is old. The east window is a 3-light design from the 14th century with panel tracery.

The south porch is primarily from the 14th century but has been heavily modified in the Victorian era. The small, unbuttressed west tower is built in three stages, featuring a string course between the second and third stages and a simple crenellated top. It has a Norman slit window on the west side of the second stage and Y-tracery windows on each face of the top stage.

The interior is almost entirely from the 1866 restoration, featuring arch-braced roofs in a traditional style, benches, a pulpit, a lectern, and all chancel fittings from that period. There is a square font in Norman style and a double piscina in the chancel in Early English style, possibly a copy of an earlier feature. The chancel arch and tower arch are plain and pointed, rendered. Additionally, there is a mid-18th century black ledger slab on the chancel floor.

Local climate

Church of St Mary sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 69% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 23 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 76% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 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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