Church of St Mary

Church of St Mary

This is a medieval church at Santon Downham with extensive alterations carried out mainly in 1893. The building comprises a nave, chancel, north porch, and west tower.

The structure is built of flint rubble with freestone quoins, except for the tower, which is faced in flushed flints with random squared limestone rubble. The roofs are plain-tiled with parapet gables; the tower roof is flat behind crenellated parapets. A moulded pinnacle surmounts the east nave gable, possibly reset from the tower.

The development of the church during the 12th and 13th centuries is complex. The core of the nave dates to the 12th century and retains north and south doorways with spiral-carved jamb shafts and scalloped capitals. The south doorway preserves a roll-moulded round-arched head and is surmounted by an oblong plaque with good carving, perhaps depicting a wolf attempting to devour the Tree of Life. The north doorway was altered in the 14th century with an arched head and mask dripstones to the hoodmould. Above it stands a 15th-century niche for the Virgin Mary. The door itself is medieval, possibly 14th-century and boarded. The nave contains two windows with 12th-century broadly splayed inner arches, later adapted in the 13th century for larger lancets.

The chancel was probably rebuilt around 1200. Its south doorway has a round-arched head with dogtooth enrichment, possibly reset in antiquity from the north wall where a matching lintel spans a blocked opening. Two early 13th-century lancets occupy the north wall; between them are a tomb recess and an aumbry. A blocked 13th-century window in the south nave retains painted scrollwork. Two double lancets in the south wall date to the later 13th century, one of which has been altered. The chancel arch with moulded pilasters dates to around 1300, as does a fine contemporary screen with heavy oak framing. The screen features drop-tracery to the doorway and turned mullions and tracery to the side-lights, possibly restored in the 19th century. The boarded lower section retains early painted decoration. A blocked early 14th-century opening in the north nave wall formerly led into a chapel that was later demolished. Beside the arch is a piscina. Also from the early 14th century is a two-light window in the south chancel, beside which stands a 15th-century piscina. The east window was renewed in the 19th century in the 14th-century style.

The parapet-gabled porch dates to the 15th century and was built against the pre-existing chapel; it retains that chapel's wall, accounting for its asymmetry. An image niche sits above the arched doorway.

The tower was constructed in the late 15th century in three stages with two-light belfry openings. The set-forward plinth features a frieze with flushwork tracery and inscribed names: John Watt, John Reeve, Sir John Downham, Margret Reve, Jafrey Skytte, and William Toller, all known from documents dating between 1463 and 1504. The tower arch has an inner order on corbels with supporting angels. All roofs were renewed in 1893: the nave roof is of arch-braced collar-beam type with arched queenposts; the chancel roof is boarded in seven cants.

The simple 14th-century octagonal limestone font has a 17th-century oak pyramid cover. An octagonal mid-17th-century pulpit features carved panels. Four bench ends of 15th-century date are reused in 19th-century pews. Two coped 14th-century tomb-slabs occupy the chancel floor, along with four marble slabs dating to around 1700.

Wall tablets on the chancel wall commemorate Thomas Wright, his wives and five children (died 1757), and Ann Wright (died 1807). Two further wall tablets flank the tower arch: one to Charles Sloane, Earl Cadogan (died 1807), and another to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Cadogan (died 1813). A wall tablet outside the north door commemorates George Wright, Minister (died 1814), and his wife Francis (died 1822).

The 19th-century stained glass windows are by Kempe, located in three lancets on the north side and in the west tower window.