Church Of St Mary The Virgin

The Church of St. Mary the Virgin is a parish church largely dating from the mid-14th century, with earlier elements from the 13th century and a significant phase of rebuilding in the early 16th century. A restoration was undertaken in 1874. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south transepts, a south porch, and a west tower. It is constructed of flint rubble, predominantly plastered, with freestone dressings. The roofs are slate, concrete plaintiled, and leaded, with parapet gables throughout.

Remains of 13th-century fabric are visible in the chancel, including a lancet window in the north wall. A double-bowl piscina, possibly from the 14th century but reusing late 13th-century bowls, and a pair of sedilia featuring a crouching hound, are also from around 1300. The nave and transepts, along with the porch, were extensively rebuilt in the mid-14th century. The porch includes an image niche, moulded cornices, and bargeboards. Several two-light windows with individual tracery date back to the 14th century, alongside a priest's doorway and large east and west windows.

The west tower, constructed around 1500, is notable for its flushwork tracery in the buttresses, plinth, and parapets. It features a good west doorway with traceried doors, above which is a reused 14th-century window. In the early 16th century, a clerestory was added to the nave, also incorporating flushwork tracery. The nave boasts a particularly fine ten-bay hammer-beam roof, richly carved and moulded; alternate trusses feature true or false beams, with the true beams carved as angels and the false beams supported by pendentive posts with carved bosses. Figures are situated within canopied niches at each wallpost. The chancel roof is simpler and was much restored in the 19th century.

A 15th-century octagonal limestone font, with alternating faces featuring figures and emblems, is present. The octagonal pulpit, dating from the reign of James II, exhibits strapwork-enriched arcading. The 19th-century choirstalls incorporate tracery from a former rood screen, along with four fine bench ends with carved figures. Six poppyhead pews, also from the 15th century, are incorporated into the 19th-century nave seating. A painted doom survives over the chancel arch, and another painting exists in the south transept (damaged). Fragments of 14th-century glass are also present. Further information regarding the nave roof and its imagery can be found in "The Fool in Medieval Church and Plays: Suffolk Review, April 1985: Timothy Easton," along with H. Munroe Cautley’s "Suffolk Churches" from 1937.