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1. St Lawrence, Brundish, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Brundish is towards the N of E Suffolk, in a hilly arable region of dispersed settlements. It is 4 miles N of Framlingham and 9 miles SW of Halesworth. The old centre was clustered around the church and Brundish Hall immediately to the NE, with a second nucleus at Brundish Street, a mile to the NW, centred on Brundish House. Brundish Hall was demolished in the 1920s, and reputedly shipped to the USA to be rebuilt there, so the church stands alone in its graveyard, and Brundish Street now represents the centre of the village. St Lawrence's has a 12thc. W tower of flint with ashlar quoins. It retains traces of round-headed windows, now blocked; one at a low level and a pair at a higher level on its N, S and W faces. On the E face, the more elaborate 12thc. double bell-opening remains higher still, but the other three faces have 15thc. bell-openings at the same level. There is an embattled parapet, also of flint. The tower arch is small, plain and partly blocked with a doorway set in it. The tall nave and chancel are of flint and entirely 15thc. There is a S porch decorated with flushwork and repaired with red brick, and the nave and chancel buttresses also have flushwork decoration. The church is famous for its brasses; a 14thc. brass of Sir Edmund de Burnedissh, a priest, and 16thc. ones to the Colby family. Several of the Brundish brasses were stolen in the 19thc. and that of Sir Francis Colby (c.1570) has since been rediscovered in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Attempts by the Parish Council to repatriate it have so far been unsuccessful, although the museum has supplied a replica to hang in the church (The Guardian). The church also contains 18thc. box-pews encasing medieval benches, and carved bench-ends. The chancel was restored in the 19thc., and repairs to the church were carried out by C. B. Smith of Woodbridge in 1962-63. Romanesque features recorded here are the tower arch and the east bell-opening.
2. All Saints, Kenton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Kenton is a village in mid-Suffolk, 13 miles N of Ipswich. The nearest town is Debenham, 2 miles to the SW. The land here is the usual arable farmland of the East Anglian plain. A tributary of the Deben runs to the E of the village, and the church is in the village centre with the moated site of Kenton Hall, now a 16thc. building, half a mile outside the village to the S.
3. St Nicholas, Little Saxham, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Little Saxham is a small village in W Suffolk, just 3½ miles W of the centre of Bury St Edmunds. The church stands in the centre of the village. It is of flint and septaria and has a round W tower, a nave with a N aisle and a chancel with a N chapel, now used as a vestry. The tower is described by Pevsner as 'the most spectacular Norman round tower in Suffolk' on account of its arcaded bell-storey. It also has its original W window; small but decorated with chevron ornament and a tall, very narrow tower arch. The S nave doorway is 12thc. too, under a 14thc. porch, and another 12thc. doorway is now set inside, in the W wall of the nave, S of the tower arch. The N aisle, with a three-bay arcade of simply-moulded continuous arches with chamfered orders, dates fromc.1300, and to the same campaign belong the S clerestorey and the plain N nave and chancel doorways. The aisle windows have flowing and reticulated tracery and must have been added towards the middle of the 14thc. The chancel arch is tall and broad with Perpendicular capitals and bases. The nave S wall was remodelledc.1500 or slightly afterwards. It was heightened and given battlements and three-light windows in the plainest of Perpendicular styles. The N chapel was built as a chantry chapel by Sir Thomas Fitzlucas, Solicitor-General to Henry VII, in 1520. It has battlements and a window like those of the nave S wall. Fitzlucas died in 1531 after building his own tomb, decorated with shields in quatrefoils, but he was buried in London. He left a bequest for remodelling the chancel and adding battlements like those of the nave, but although the E window appears to date from this period the battlement was never added. Romanesque features described here are the S nave doorway, the re-set doorway and the windows, blind arcading, string course and tower arch. of the W tower.
4. St Mary, Pakenham, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Pakenham is just under 5 miles E of the centre of Bury St Edmunds in rolling arable land. The village is just over half a mile long, running from Pakenham Manor in the W to the church at the E end. The village lies in the shallow valley that runs from Grimstone End in the N to Bartonmere in the S, and the church stands on a promontory overlooking the village.
5. St Mary, Polstead, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Polstead stands on a hilltop on the N side of the Box valley, some 8 miles N of Colchester and 11 miles W of Ipswich, set in a landscape of woodland and pasture. Church and hall are close together at the W of the village. St Mary's is a flint church with an aisled nave, chancel and W tower with a spire. Evidence of a unaisled 11thc. church can be seen in the long and short quoins alongside the tower in the W wall of the S nave aisle. The 12thc. nave arcades are of four bays, the westernmost bay being separated from the rest by a short stretch of walling. Above the arcade arches are the blocked openings of the 12thc. clerestory, now rendered obsolete by the raising of the aisles. At the W end can be seen the inside of the 12thc. facade, with the rere-arch of the W doorway and a window above. The elaborate front of the W doorway is now inside the 14thc. tower. At the E end, the chancel arch is also 12thc. and goes with the arcades, and the narrow, boxy chancel has a blocked 12thc. window. The most surprising feature of this campaign is that the arches of the arcade and chancel arch, the rere-arch of the W doorway, all the windows and the chancel quoins are of brick and tufa blocks. Both Pevsner and Mortlock point out that this is unlikely to be reused Roman brick, as the size is wrong. These may therefore be the earliest English bricks in the country — certainly predating those of Little Coggeshall Abbey (Essex) ofc.1200, which are similar in size. The nave aisles were been heightened and widened in the 14thc.; the E windows of the nave aisles are reticulated (S) or flowing (N), perhaps ofc.1350, but the lateral aisle windows are late Perpendicular, as is the chancel E window — evidence of a major campaign around 1500. The 14thc. campaign also included the building of the tower, the addition of two-light lateral chancel windows and the replacement of the nave roof timbers. At the same time the lateral nave doorways and porches were added, and a start was made on replacing the nave arcades with pointed arches. The W bay of the S arcade was replaced, and some work done on the E arches of both arcades, but the project was abandoned. The exterior of the nave roof is now double-pitched with a flat top. Thefts of lead from the roof led to the cladding being replaced with stainless steel in 1983-88, and dormer windows were added at this time to compensate for the lack of a clerestory. Romanesque sculpture recorded below is found in the W nave doorway, the nave arcades and the chancel arch.
6. St Mary, Poslingford, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Poslingford is in the SW corner of Suffolk, 2 miles N of the Essex border and 6 miles E of Haverhill. The village lies in the valley of a stream that runs S into the Stour at Clare, and a road following the same course forms the High Street. The church is in the village centre alongside this road, on the rising ground on the W side, and Poslingford Hall is immediately to the S of it.
7. St Mary, Santon Downham, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The village stands on the southern bank of the Little Ouse that forms the boundary with Norfolk. The tiny village of Santon, which was subsumed into the parish in 1963, is over the river in Norfolk. Santon Downham is in the middle of Thetford forest and is now the home of the headquarters of the Forestry Commission for the East Anglian district. Downham Hall, N of the church, near the river, was the focus of a sporting estate until the early years of the 20thc., but the Mackenzie heir sold up in 1918, the Forestry Commission acquired the land in1924, and the hall was demolished from 1925. New houses for the Commission workers were built around the green, to the W of the church, in the 1950s, effectively shifting the village centre to the SW. Between 1920 and 1970 Santon Downham was almost entirely devoted to forestry, with almost all of its male inhabitants employed by the Commission. Since the '70s many of the residents have exercised their right to buy their houses, and less than one in twenty of the 250 present inhabitants work in forestry. The area was anciently dominated by warrens, with Santon Warren to the N, Santon Downham Warren to the S. These were set up in the Middle Ages (see Preface to Suffolk), often by the monastic houses of Ely and Bury. As at Lakenheath, the sandy soil was prey to sandstorms, especially if it was overgrazed by the rabbits, and one such engulfed the village of Santon Downham over a period of several decades, culminating in 1668.
8. St Peter, Sibton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Sibton is set in rolling arable and woodland on the S side of the Yox valley in W Suffolk, 5 miles S of Halesworth and 4 miles N of Saxmundham. It is immediately E of Peasenhall, on the Roman road that is now the A1120. The church stands on the A1120 at the eastern end of the village, and to the N of it is the site of Sibton Abbey, founded around 1150 and the only Cistercian house in the county. It is now ruinous and surrounded by woodland. Half a mile further E is Sibton Park and the hall site. St Peter’s has a nave with a N aisle and S porch, a chancel with a N organ room and vestry and a W tower. The flint nave has ac.1200 S doorway under a 19thc. porch, and the S windows, replaced in the 19thc., have plate tracery. The knapped flint N aisle dates fromc.1500, and has a four-bay arcade, broad, three-light windows and a battlemented parapet outside. The N doorway to the aisle is a re-set 13thc. piece. The flint chancel was rebuilt in the 19thc., with a S doorway that copies motifs from the 12thc. nave doorway. The tower has a plain and continuous pointed arch to the nave, but is substantially 15thc. and constructed of flints, knapped flints and septaria. It has diagonal buttresses with flushwork decoration and a battlemented parapet with flushwork and gargoyles below. A clear masonry break shows that the bell stage has been rebuilt or raised. The only feature recorded here is the Transitional S nave doorway.
9. St Margaret, Stoven, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Stoven is in E Suffolk, 5 miles S of Beccles and 5 miles from the coast. The village consists of the church, a few houses and a public house on a low hill in a landscape that is otherwise is flat and arable. A moated site 300 yards N of the church may indicate a hall. St Margaret's was entirely rebuilt in a neo-Norman style between 1849 and 1858, but the 12thc. S doorway was re-used, and provided sources for much of the Victorian ornament. As it stands, the church consists of a nave and chancel, both mortar rendered, and a flint W tower. Where the mortar is flaking on the N side the body of the church is seen to be of flint and bricks. In 1808, before the rebuilding, the church was described by Davy who reported that it had a nave and chancel under a thatched roof and a small square steeple of flint. An 1823 description records that there were no buttresses on the side walls, and that there were three small pieces of stone with grotesque carvings let into the wall above the N door. These carvings are now lost.
10. St Mary, Sweffling, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Sweffling is in East Suffolk, between Saxmundham and Framlingham. The village is on a hill overlooking the river Alde, in rolling arable land. The church is in the centre of the village, set well back from the high street. St Mary's has a nave with a S porch and a N vestry at the W end, a chancel and a W tower. The nave has large, 12thc. quoins at the angles, and N and S doorways ofc.1200; the N now in the vestry and the S under a 15thc. gabled, knapped flint porch with a battlement, niches for sculpture and flushwork decoration. The nave itself is of flint and septaria, but the walls have been heightened with brick. The nave windows date from the 15thc. The N vestry is modern and mortar rendered. The flint chancel walls have not been raised like those of the nave, and the pitch of the roof is much steeper. In the E wall is an intersecting tracery window ofc.1300, and this wall contains the blocked heads and jambs of two small 12thc. windows; one near the apex of the gable and the other to the N of thec.1300 window. Neither is likely to be in its original setting. On the N and S walls are pointed lancets, and the segmental-headed S chancel doorway may be 14thc. Inside, the piscina, with cusping in the arch, is of the same date, but the chancel arch is low, broad and segmental, probably dating from the 18thc. Pevsner describes the tower as Dec. but it may be earlier as its diagonal buttresses are an addition, as is the upper storey of c.1300. The W window dates from the same time, and a flushwork panel has been added below it, with more flushwork on the buttresses. The parapet, unusually, is not embattled but has flushwork decoration. Repairs to the church were carried out by C. P. Cleverly of Stowmarket in 1978-82. Only the two nave doorways are recorded below.
11. St Ethelbert, Tannington, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Tannington is towards the E of the county, 14 miles N of Ipswich and 4 miles NW of Framlingham. The land here is arable and fairly flat. The village consists of a few dwellings and farms scattered in a triangle bounded by the three residences of Tannington Hall (to the N), Tannington Lodge (to the E) and Tannington Place (to the W). Braiseworth Hall is also nearby (not to be confused with the other Braiseworth near Diss, just 7 miles away). The church stands in fields alongside Tannington Place. It consists of a nave and chancel in one, with a S porch to the nave and a N vestry to the chancel, and a W tower. Nave and chancel are of flint, the nave only rendered with mortar. The nave has a blocked 12thc. N doorway. The S nave and chancel doorways and the nave and chancel windows all date from the 14thc. to 15thc. The battlemented S porch, decorated with flushwork and with a niche for sculpture over the entrance, is dateable by wills toc.1450. The E window has the intersecting tracery ofc.1300, and the piscina is of the same period. Inside there is no chancel arch. The tower is 15thc. and built of knapped flint with diagonal buttresses, a SE bell stair and a plinth decorated with chequered flushwork. It has a battlemented parapet. A date of 1879 on the rainwater heads indicates a restoration. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the N doorway of c.1200.
12. St Mary, Thornham Parva, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The Thornhams, Magna and Parva, flank Thornham Hall and its park. Until the end of the 19thc. the estate boasted a hall, Tudor with an 18thc. facade, surrounded by an extensive park. Most of the hall was demolishedc.1900, and the rest was destroyed by fire in the late 1940s. The present hall is modern, and the estate has been converted for use as a field centre, a commercial market garden and a site for small businesses. Excavations in the estate have provided evidence of continuous occupation in the area from the Neolithic period to the present. The surrounding landscape is flattish and given over to arable cultivation. Thornham Parva lies to the N of the hall, some 2 miles W of Eye in central North Suffolk. The settlement is dispersed and sparsely populated with no real centre apart from the church, which lies just off the road from Thornham Magna and the Hall.
13. St Mary, Ufford, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Ufford is a substantial village in SE Suffolk, clustering around a network of by-roads off the old road from Woodbridge to Wickham Market, and now bounded to the W by the new road - the A12 Ufford by-pass. To the E of the village the river Deben flows from N to S, and the church overlooks the pastures of its water meadow.