Church Of The Holy Innocents

The Church of the Holy Innocents is a parish church dating primarily to the 13th century, with later additions and a 19th-century restoration in the 1850s. It comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower. The construction is predominantly random flint with freestone dressings. Distinctively, the aisles and clerestory feature a mixture of black knapped flint and small freestone blocks, evenly set, while buttresses and crenellated parapets are faced in stone. Slate roofs cover the building.

The 15th-century south porch is constructed of red brick, displaying trefoil arcading at its base, topped with a crenellated gabled parapet. Diagonal buttresses flank the porch, and the south face is rendered and lined, incorporating a large sundial above the entrance. Gargoyle heads are positioned on the east and west sides, and there are two-light windows. Eight Perpendicular windows are found in the clerestory. The south aisle incorporates a 2-light east window with flowing tracery, alongside Perpendicular windows on the south side. The north aisle features four gargoyle water-heads. The 13th-century chancel includes a simple priest’s door on the south side with a pointed arch and nook-shafts, and an arched tomb recess with a heavy gable supported by corbels. Further features include north and south windows with plate tracery, a lozenge and quatrefoil design recessed at the head, and a 3-light east window with lancets and circles at the head, also with recessed quatrefoils. A blocked low-side window is located on the south-west. Unusual polygonal buttresses with stone pinnacles are situated at the east end.

The west tower rises in four stages, separated by string-courses, and displays a chequerwork base composed of stone and black knapped flint, with diagonal buttresses on the west side. The walling incorporates small red bricks and stone blocks interspersed with flint rubble. A stair turret, capped with a conical roof, projects on the south side. A simple west doorway has continuous moulding, while each face of the top stage features a 3-light window with panel tracery. The tower’s impressive parapet incorporates flushwork decoration, reminiscent of St. Mary’s, Rougham, and features stepped and panelled crenellation with a quatrefoil frieze.

Inside, the nave has a simple, shallow-pitched single hammerbeam roof across eight bays, mirroring the clerestory bays. Folded-leaf decoration adorns the purlins and ridge-piece, and the hammer posts are supported by headless recumbent figures. The arcades consist of four bays; the south arcade is early 14th century, with one octagonal and two circular piers, while the north arcade is Perpendicular. Fragments of medieval glass remain in the heads of the three windows in the north aisle. The pews feature traceried ends and poppyheads, some dating back to the 15th century, with many being reproductions from 1856. A simple, 13th-century octagonal font is supported on a central column surrounded by four outer columns, and it is covered by a tall, 19th-century carved wooden cover in an East Anglian style. The chancel has a simple plastered keel roof, with remnants of a pinnacled 13th-century piscina and sedilia. Other fittings are 19th century. Numerous wall memorials commemorate members of the Bunbury family.