Church Of St John The Baptist

The Church of St John the Baptist is a parish church, primarily rebuilt between about 1470 and 1500, although it incorporates earlier fabric. Until 1901, it served as a chapel of ease and runs parallel to the High Street, aligned north-west to south-east. The church comprises a nave, chancel, and a south porch with a bell-turret, with no structural division between the nave and chancel. The construction is flint rubble with significant amounts of flushed flint and limestone rubble, featuring freestone dressings. A plain tiled roof covers the building; the upper portion of the nave roof is flat and leaded. Large, three-light windows from the 15th century are present at each bay. Between and at each corner of the bays are flushwork-panelled buttresses, those on the south side incorporating a canopied niche supporting an angel. An inscription at the upper stage reads "Christ his have merci on us.” A similar inscription appears on a tablet above the priest’s doorway. The latter incorporates reused moulded stonework from the 13th century but is mainly late 15th century, and the door features carved arms, including those of William Grey, Bishop of Ely (1458-1478). A mid-14th century window at the north-east corner suggests the survival of 13th and 14th century fabric at the east end.

The fine hammerbeam roof over the nave is a remarkable example of its kind in Suffolk. A report from 1920 indicates that the lower half of the roof had been damaged by an 18th century coved ceiling, which was subsequently removed, and the roof restored in 1880 with new hammerbeams. The nave roof consists of six bays, with arch-braced hammerbeams projecting from a deep 19th-century coved cornice. Tall posts with pendant bosses are at the ends of the beams, connected at mid-height by cambered and arch-braced straining beams, and again at the head by arch-braced camber-beams supporting the flat roof. Slender 19th-century ties connect the posts to the trusses at one-third height, and heavier beams at two-thirds height, upon which stands the timber-framed clerestory. Trefoil-headed clerestory windows are in each bay. The main beams are embattled and brattished, with richly carved spandrels in foliate and floral designs on the braces. The hammerbeam construction, providing a clear span of thirty feet and supporting a clerestory, is considered a culmination of 15th-century carpentry design in Suffolk. The chancel roof was rebuilt with arch-braced collar-beam trusses in 1880. The south doorway has moulded and shafted jambs, a square label over the arched head, and a pair of moulded framed doors with vinescroll-carved panels. A similar pair of doors existed at the north doorway until about 1900. A roodloft staircase from about 1500 is in the north wall; no remains of the rood screen are present. In 1883, the south porch was constructed on the site of an early 16th century red brick porch bearing the initials T.R., likely representing Thomas Raven, a clothier. Internal fittings date from the late 19th and 20th centuries.