Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A parish church dating principally to the 14th and 15th centuries. The building comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, north and south aisles, a sacristy to the north of the chancel, and a south porch. The walls are constructed mainly of plastered rubble with freestone dressings, and the roofs are mostly leaded; the chancel roof is slated. The building is distinguished by embattled parapets and parapet gables featuring a number of fine medieval gargoyles.

The nave arcade consists of five bays. The piers on the north side display mid-14th-century mouldings, while those on the south were rebuilt in the early 15th century when the clerestory and roof were added. The roof is a six-bay crownpost design with tie-beams featuring massive arch-braces. The wall-pieces beneath are decorated with angel corbels. The crownposts are octagonal with moulded caps and bases and four-way bracing. The clerestory windows contain some medieval glass in the spandrels.

The chancel features a 14th-century east window with intersecting tracery. The side windows date to around 1500, and one has a dropped cill with a linked piscina. The canted and boarded roof is a restoration of 1905 that retains perhaps some medieval work. The 15th-century chancel arch has image niches on either side and a complete but blocked rood loft stair with doors. The screen of around 1500 retains its original vaulting ribs springing from figure corbels, and the solid panels at the base retain some original colour.

The mid-14th-century tower features a west doorway and a traceried window above; the upper stage was rebuilt around 1880. The early 16th-century doors have carved panels comparable to those at Needham Market Church. The tower arch has shafts springing from good grotesque corbels.

The three-light windows in the north aisle are 15th-century, although one has inserted mullions, jambs and reveals of terracotta executed by the same craftsman responsible for the windows at Shrubland Old Hall, Coddenham, dating to around 1520. The aisle features a good early 16th-century lean-to roof with principal members enriched with vinescroll decoration. At the east end of the aisle is the chapel of St John, which contains a good linked piscina and sedile, and above is a disused doorway, possibly to a former roodloft. A fine parclose screen of around 1500 has restored original colour, and the east window contains some original glass. The south aisle possesses mainly early 16th-century windows and an 18th-century roof, though stone corbels remain from two or more earlier roofs. In the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a good late 13th-century piscina, and the parclose screen dates to around 1500 as in the north aisle.

The 14th-century porch is plain, with image niches beside the doorway. Inside, the late 13th-century south doorway has good carved details, with a death's head at the head of the hood-mould and a pair of mask drip stones at the base. Beside it are a stoup and a painted 17th-century text above. A complete 14th-century sacristy contains barred windows and a newel stair rising to a priests' chamber above. The doorway from the chancel is double; the 14th-century inner doorway has an arched oak frame and plank door with a massive lock and other ironmongery, while the outer door is in two parts with good 15th-century tracery.

A fine octagonal 15th-century font of limestone has a bowl with sunk panels containing alternate angels and evangelists, and alternate lions and wild men support the stem. The oak tabernacle-type cover is in the 15th-century manner, though it was restored or renewed in the 19th century. An 18th-century panelled pulpit is present. About six of the 19th-century poppyhead benches have 16th-century ends. A large pew in the chancel has panels with blind arcading appearing to come from the 15th-century roodloft. Within are 16th-century poppyhead benches, and a fragment of a choirstall bears carved figures on the armrests. Late 17th-century communion rails survive. The south chapel contains three good late 18th-century wall monuments.

The chancel floor contains approximately eight slabs, mainly of the 18th century, with a 16th-century example among them bearing indents for brasses. About fifteen further slabs in the nave and aisles include a few 15th and 16th-century examples also with indents. Two painted coats of arms are present, including one of Charles II. On canvas panels in an 18th-century wooden frame are painted the Creed and Commandments.