Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Ashfield cum Thorpe

St Mary's church was built in 1853 in Gothic Revival style, designed by William Constable Woollard of Long Melford and commissioned by Lord Henniker of Thornham Magna, the local landowner. The church was constructed for £2,000 and designed according to Ecclesiologist principles, featuring a traditional arrangement of nave and chancel with worship based on pre-Reformation liturgical practice. It was built seemingly on the site of the medieval Church of St Mary, which had become ruinous by the mid-19th century following gradual decline after the Reformation, with apparently only the base of the square tower remaining. Remains of the old church may survive beneath the present building.

The church is constructed of orange and red brick generally laid in Flemish bond, with headers and string courses in blue brick creating a chequered effect. It has a gable roof with peg-tile covering. St Mary's has a simple two-cell plan with a small brick porch to the south and vestry to the north. The roof is adorned by a small bellcote with timber louvres at the west end and a small stone crucifix at the east. At each corner are diagonal buttresses with stone copings. The pointed arch windows have small diamond leaded lights with plain glass and contrasting stone surrounds and mullions with cusped heads. Those in the chancel and the larger tripartite east and west end windows have intersecting tracery, whilst those in the nave have decorative Y-tracery.

The interior is plain and painted with a brick pamment floor. In the chancel, there is a simple wooden altar with three central panels, carved columns, foliate arches and spandrels. The altar rails are punctuated with simple arches with cusped heads, and there is a small pipe organ of unknown date. The nave contains two small war memorials to the dead of the parish. The low pulpit, erected in 1939, incorporates carved woodwork probably of the 18th century with a scripture quotation. The pews are apparently of later 19th-century date with plain joinery. At the west end, the font has a stone plinth of some antiquity, but the font itself appears to be 20th century in date. The roof is clad with timber and has a decorative truss on carved brackets.