Church Of The Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a medieval parish church located in Stonham Aspal. It largely dates to the 14th century, with some 15th-century and 17th-century additions and alterations. A north organ chamber and vestry were added around 1871. The main construction is flint rubble with limestone dressings, and a slate roof. The nave has fine 15th-century parapets with freestone tracery, and clerestory windows with inner shafts and some original glass.

The 14th-century tower features a hood-moulded doorway with grotesque corbels. It was raised in 1742 with a timber-framed and weather-boarded belfry stage, featuring boarded pinnacles and two square, louvred openings on each face, and restored in 1986. The chancel is mainly of mid-14th century design, including an east window with net tracery and external image niches. It retains its original scissor-braced coupled-rafter roof, now plaintiled, with a parapet gable, and is covered by a lead roof. The south aisle also has 14th-century windows. Doorways on the north and south sides have good 14th-century multiple mouldings; the north door is possibly original and has a wicket door. The west window has intersecting tracery and adjacent buttressing, one with an image niche. The nave is arcaded in four bays with 14th-century moulded pier capitals. The north aisle was remodelled in the 15th century, its traceried windows mirroring those of the clerestory. A 15th-century north porch has a shafted outer doorway. A 14th-century piscina is located in the south aisle, with a restored piscina and associated triple stepped sedilia in the chancel. A recessed tomb from around 1330 is set into the north chancel wall, containing a recumbent limestone figure of a knight displaying the Arms of Aspal. The octagonal font dates to around 1300, featuring shallow cusped arcading on the bowl and stem, and a moulded plinth. Much original 14th and 15th century window glass remains. The early 17th-century pulpit is octagonal, with arcaded faces, and its sounding board has been reused in a table bearing the date 1616. Two 16th-century tomb slabs are in the sanctuary, with sinkings for brasses; two further 18th-century marble slabs are also present. A set of 16th-century nave pews are of 19th-century construction but retain 16th-century poppyhead ends, adorned with animal figures on the buttresses. Ten aisle pews, also of 19th-century construction, have 17th-century carved ends. Painted Arms of George III are visible within the church.