Church Of St Mary

Church of St Mary

A mediaeval church with restorations undertaken in 1892 and 1904, located on the High Street in Lakenheath. The church comprises a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north and south porches, a west tower, and a west schoolroom.

The walling is rubble with freestone dressings. The 12th-century work is constructed in Carrstone rubble, later reused in subsequent alterations which also employed rubble of limestone, flint and clunch. 18th-century repairs are in gault brick, and the west extension of that period is built in flint rubble with random headers and quoins of pink brick. The roofs are mainly flat and leaded with parapets and parapet gables; the chancel roof is slated.

Part of the 12th-century chancel survives, featuring a chancel arch with a round-arched moulded head on three orders of engaged columns with scalloped capitals. A small section of wall arcading on the north wall was originally continued around the apsidal east end. A blocked 12th-century lancet is visible in the north wall. The 14th-century south nave arcade stands on the stumps of circular columns, apparently of 12th-century date, with octagonal bases, suggesting a former 12th-century south aisle.

The chancel was extended in the mid 13th century. The north wall contains a lancet and a broad blocked arch into a chapel, now demolished; a 13th-century doorway was moved into this arch later. The tower was added in the mid 13th century, featuring blocked lancets in the north and south walls, a pointed tower arch, and a west doorway with a niche above. A three-light south chancel window was added around 1300. The north aisle was added in the mid 14th century in two stages, with two- and three-light windows with net tracery, a moulded north doorway, and a circular east window over the side-altar. The south arcade was rebuilt in the 14th century; the octagonal piers have shallow blank arches carved just below the capitals. In the later 14th century, the tower was raised with two-light belfry windows, crenellated parapets, and a moulded cornice with carved mask gargoyles. Limestone figures stand on each corner of the tower. The south and north porches were added in the late 14th century, the south featuring mask-carved kneelers to the parapet gables; both have the bases of gable-crosses. The south doorway is of 14th-century date, though the aisle walling was almost entirely rebuilt in the 15th century, with three-light square-headed windows; a similar window with a segmental head was inserted in the east wall of the chancel.

The nave roof was raised in the 15th century, featuring five bays of arch-braced tie-beams with wall-pieces on limestone corbels, queen posts, principal rafters and purlins. Secondary trusses have angel-carved hammer beams. Angels also embellish tie-beams and cornices, and spandrels are filled with tracery. Two-light clerestory windows are present, and another of three lights, now blocked, stands over the chancel arch.

A schoolroom was added to the west wall of the tower in the 18th century, featuring a pointed chamfered arched doorway with 18th-century panelled pair of doors and a fanlight above. The north and south walls contain reused 15th-century single-light windows, and the west wall has a four-light traceried window; these are believed to have been taken from the ruinous church of St Peter, Eriswell. The chancel roof was rebuilt in 1892.

The interior contains a fine 13th-century font in the north aisle, octagonal in form with the bowl carved with crocketed arcading and the stem having detached shafts at each corner. Fine late 15th-century pews with poppyhead ends are present throughout the church, featuring buttresses with carved animal and human figures and pierced backs; eight examples survive in the south aisle, with twenty-one further examples in the nave, some altered; one retains carved 17th-century panelling. Four 15th-century bench ends have been reused in 19th-century choir stalls. A fine 15th-century octagonal pulpit with buttresses at corners and traceried panels is also present. A restored family pew of around 1600 stands in the south aisle.

Traces of wall painting survive in several areas. The north nave arcade contains extensive areas including a 14th-century figure of St Edmund and others, overpainted with trailing foliage and abstract patterns. A figure of Christ stands beside the chancel arch, and the south arcade bears a black-letter inscription of around 1600. The south aisle contains a Purbeck altar tomb to Simeon Steward, died 1568, with Gothic tracery and an arched canopy on engaged shafts; his coat of arms is carved in the recess. A marble plaque inset in the south wall nearby bears the coat of arms and inscription of Joan, widow of Simeon Steward, died 1583. A painted coat of arms of Charles II dated 1678 is displayed in the south aisle. The nave and south aisle floors contain a number of limestone and marble slabs, mainly unmarked, some probably mediaeval.