Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary, Depden

This aisleless church of flint and septaria rubble with stone dressings stands isolated at the end of a quarter-mile footpath. Its construction spans from the 12th century to the 17th century, with significant later additions and restorations.

The earliest surviving feature is the mid-12th-century south door, now accessible only from inside, which displays a roll-moulded inner order on plain imposts and an outer chevron roll on shafts with cushion capitals. The nave was refenestrated in the mid-13th century with Y-tracery windows: one on the north side and two on the south, together with a lancet to the west of the south porch. The north door, also 13th-century, has a pointed head with two continuous moulded orders.

The chancel was rebuilt in the early 14th century and features two exceptionally fine two-light windows on the north and south sides and a three-light east window, all with 4-centred heads. Large diagonal north-east and south-east buttresses of knapped flint with crocketed finials, probably added in the 15th century, flank the chancel.

The substantial west tower, dated by will evidence to around 1451, is embattled with north-west and south-west diagonal buttresses. The north-east and south-east buttresses are aligned with the nave west wall, a local characteristic, and the south-east buttress incorporates a stair turret, also typical of the area. The tower's two-light west window and bell stage windows feature 4-centred heads, with a small trefoiled window to the north.

The north porch is 17th-century and has been clad in 20th-century panelling but retains internal tiers of balustrading. The 19th-century south porch, with a plain round-arched opening and brick dressings, is now used as a kitchen.

The interior underwent substantial refitting in the 15th century, when the chancel arch was rebuilt. The chancel arch is tall with double chamfered moulding and dying mouldings, flanked to the north by a tall, narrow statue niche with an ogee head and miniature vault. The chancel has a keeled plastered ceiling. The tower arch is tall and narrow with a hollow-chamfered inner order on cylindrical responds with embattled capitals; the bell frame appears medieval. Following a fire in 1984 that gutted the nave, the church was sympathetically restored with a new arch-braced roof completed in 1985. The south porch was refitted as a kitchen and is accessed from the nave through glass doors of circa 1985.

A mid-to-late 13th-century double piscina in the chancel features two trefoiled arches beneath a larger pointed arch, with a foiled bar-tracery circle in the spandrel. An unusual octagonal stone font of the early 18th century survives, decorated with armorial badges and one IHS panel in alternating carved relief and painted Rococo cartouches; recolouring has occurred, though some original colour remains.

From a formerly complete set of 15th-century benches, a handful survived the fire and are positioned at the west end of the nave, displaying two tiers of blind tracery and poppyhead finials. A Stuart communion table also remains at the west end. The chancel contains simple 19th-century choir stalls with poppyhead ends and a 19th-century two-sided stone pulpit divided into panels by shafts with fleurons. Minton floor tiles appear in the chancel, alongside Royal arms of 1836 in the tower and a contemporary charity board.

The chancel windows retain interesting medieval glass, including 14th-century canopy work and 15th- and 16th-century scenes and fragments. Fine 16th-century Netherlandish glass depicts Old and New Testament subjects. The heads of the nave windows contain brightly coloured glass of circa 1800. An early 20th-century Madonna and Child appears in the nave south-west lancet.

A very fine brass monument of 1572 commemorates Lady Anne Jermyn and her two husbands—George Waldegrave (died 1528) and Sir Thomas Jermyn—showing kneeling figures set within a carved stone frame.

Depden church is mentioned in Domesday Book. The church escaped over-restoration in the 19th century but was badly damaged by fire in 1984. The sympathetic restoration by the Whitworth partnership, with contractors Valiant & Sons, won an award from the Suffolk Association of Architects.

The nave roof is of red tile, the chancel and south porch of slate. The north porch is of red tile.