Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

Parish church on Thornham Road, Gislingham, with a 14th-century chancel, late 15th-century nave and north porch, and a west tower rebuilt in 1638–40 by bricklayer E. Petto after the original collapsed in 1598. The building is constructed of flint rubble with some red brick and ashlar dressings, the nave rendered; the tower is built in English bond red brick with reused ashlar dressings. The chancel roof is tiled, and the nave roof is of grey-green slate.

The church comprises a long and wide 5-bay nave, a shorter and narrower chancel, a north porch, and the west tower. The unbuttressed chancel has a fine east window of four tall lights with cusped reticulated tracery in a segmental pointed arch, with wave-moulded surround, quoining, and moulded kneelers to a coped gable-end parapet with ridge cross. To the south the chancel has a low side door with a chamfered pointed arch and hood mould, flanked by restored 3-light windows with ogee-headed lights and rectilinear tracery in 4-centred arched brick heads; two similar windows face north. The slightly taller nave projects further to the south, with a shallow gable parapet to the east adorned with carved angels at each end.

To the north, the nave is divided by five 2-stage buttresses with moulded plinths, and features three large 3-light Perpendicular windows with trefoil-headed ogee lights (taller to the centre) and brattishing to rectilinear-traced segmental arched heads with hood moulds terminating in mask stops. Above the north porch is a smaller 2-light Perpendicular window. The south side of the nave has four identical large windows and five similar buttresses, with an entrance at the centre beneath a double-moulded pointed arch and hood mould. The west wall of the nave retains quoining and a double plinth from the earlier tower.

The north porch displays an outer pointed arch with semi-octagonal responds bearing moulded caps decorated with fleurons. The mouldings run across the shafts; the inner chamfer and outer order carry Tudor flowers and small shields, with an angel at the apex holding the arms of the donor, R. Chapman, and his wife. The outer spandrels bear two shields of arms—that of St Edmund to the west—with hood moulds resting on two crowned lion stops. Above the arch is a panel inscribed with R. Chapman's dedicatory text. An embattled parapet features pointed-arched knapped flint panels with a small central gable and finial above a vaulted canopied ogee niche, outer pinnacles carrying flushwork. The plinth has three-stage diagonal buttresses with flushwork panels on their outer faces, plain returns with embattled parapets. The porch roof was renewed by churchwardens and is inscribed 'WS 1661 TO'; it has notched ovolo-moulded principals and purlins. The inner pointed entrance arch has a double order with hood mould; the C17 double doors retain strap hinges.

The west tower rises in four stages separated by string courses with a moulded plinth. A pointed double-chamfered entrance arch to the west, above which between the two lower stages is a 3-light window with intersecting tracery in a segmental pointed arch, the voussoirs alternating between gauged brick and stone. The belfry stage has chamfered round-headed louvred openings with Y-tracery. Semi-octagonal buttresses at the angles taper gradually, each middle stage having three steps and the belfry two; an embattled parapet carries corner and intermediate pinnacles. To the north is a round-headed light in the third stage; to the south a semi-octagonal stair turret capped with stone under a relieving arch and bearing a painted sundial dated 1910. A stone to the north in the second stage is inscribed 'John Darbie Gave One Hundred Pounds Unto this Worke, 1639 MD'.

Interior: The chancel arch is a tall pointed arch set slightly off-centre to the chancel, with chamfers flanking a hollow moulding dying away into broadly chamfered responds. The tall pointed tower arch has five moulded orders; the two inner orders are stopped on semi-octagonal responds with moulded caps. The nave features a fine 10-bay double hammerbeam roof with stone mask corbels supporting moulded posts, arched braces to brattished hammerbeams (from which all terminal angels except to the east have been removed), and arched braces to brattished collars. One truss retains tracery above the collar. Roll and hollow-moulded double purlins and a ridge piece run above ashlaring to a coved and moulded cornice with embattled and Tudor flower brattishing. From two collars and one hammerbeam towards the east hang early timber pulley blocks. The chancel roof has four bays with arch-braced brattished collars and similarly moulded purlins and ridge piece; ashlaring rises to a similar cornice with embattled brattishing. Posts on the walls bear grotesque figure terminals. In the tower a pointed-arched door leads to the stair turret. Hollow-moulded heads appear to the rear arches of the nave windows. On the south wall of the nave is a pointed-arched tomb recess with hood mould. To the north of the chancel arch is a squint opening. The south wall of the chancel contains sedilia with cusped heads in a window embrasure.

At the centre of the nave stands a late 15th-century octagonal font given by R. Chapman, comprising a double-stepped base with inscription, stem with four seated lions and crocketed pinnacles with fleurons and angels rising to the bowl, which bears four Evangelist symbols and four angels carrying shields of arms. Towards the west end are early benches, partially restored, with 15th-century poppy-headed bench ends (one damaged figure remaining). Towards the east end are fielded, panelled, and numbered box pews of 1802, which incorporate fragments of earlier benches. At the centre to the north stands a triple-decker pulpit with ball-finiated newel posts and panelled frontal to the clerk's desk; the semi-octagonal pulpit has fielded panels, scrolled brackets to the reading board, a panelled backboard, and an octagonal tester with ornamental frieze, dentilled and guilloche bands to the cornice, and an iron hour glass holder. The west end of the nave contains a late 19th-century boarded gallery. The chancel has late 19th-century chair stalls, communion rails, and a Gothic reredos with inscribed panels. Traces of early painted inscriptions appear on the nave walls. The Royal Arms of George III hang in the tower arch.

The chancel north wall bears an aedicule mural memorial to A. Bedingfield, died 1652, in varied marbles, depicting a kneeling figure with a prayer book, below which is a fielded panel inscribed in Latin and Greek. The aedicule features consoles below Corinthian columns and dosserets to a broken segmental pediment, behind a round arch, with an oval cartouche above. The chancel south wall has an inscribed tablet to J. Darbye, died 1639, with a marble obelisk above, and to his wife Mary, died 1646, a convex marble oval with draped sides. Numerous 17th and 18th-century floor slabs are laid in the chancel. Painted names of bellringers with ornamental surrounds appear in the tower, along with a panel dated 1822 commemorating a ringing. The nave windows retain fragments of 15th-century glass, including a Coronation of the Virgin, St Catherine, and a shield of arms towards the east on the north side.

At the time of inspection certain fittings—including a 17th-century font cover, a 17th-century communion table, and a 15th-century parish chest—were temporarily removed from the church.