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1. St Margaret, Herringfleet, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Margaret's has an aisleless nave, chancel and round W tower. The nave and chancel are rendered; the nave thatched and the chancel roofed in tiles. There is a 12thc. window in the N chancel wall. The nave has a 12thc. S doorway under a later porch and a 13thc. N doorway, now blocked. The flint tower is of two storeys, the upper rendered. There are small round-headed lancets in the lower storey; two on the N side, two on the S and one on the W. The upper storey has 12thc. double bell openings in the cardinal directions, alternating with plain round-headed windows of brick with chamfered jambs. 12thc. features described here are the S nave doorway and the bell openings of the tower.
2. St Mary, Hinderclay, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Hinderclay is a village in N central Suffolk, 6 miles W of Diss. It stands in rolling arable land and consists of a cluster of houses around a crossroads with the church off the southern arm and the hall just 180 m to the S of it. Nearby, on the edge of Hinderclay wood, were found the remains of an early Iron Age settlement, and there were Roman pottery kilns in the wood too.
3. St Peter, Holton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Holton is on the northern slope of the Blyth valley; the village has been engulfed by the westward spread of Halesworth, and although its churchyard setting is spacious, the surroundings are industrial. Holton is home to one of Bernard Matthews' three UK turkey processing factories.
4. All Saints, Honington, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Honington is in the N of the county, 6 miles S of Thetford and just 4 miles from the Little Ouse that forms the boundary with Norfolk. The benefice takes its name from the Black Bourn, a stream that winds its way N through most of the parishes in the benefice before it joins the Little Ouse N of Euston. It is an agricultural area of small villages and farms. RAF Honington to the W of the village was opened as a bomber base in 1937, but no aircraft have flown from here since 1993 and it is now the RAF Regiment depot. All Saints church stands in the centre of the village, surrounded by a very small churchyard. It is of flint and consists of a nave with a W tower and a chancel with a N vestry. The nave is aisleless and has an elaborate 12thc. S doorway under a fine 15thc. porch with battlements and flushwork decoration. The N doorway is 13thc., tiny and plain. The nave windows were all replaced in the 14thc. (S) or 15thc. (N), but the chancel arch is 12thc. and very small. The chancel is 14thc. with an ogee-headed window and a piscina in the S wall. The tower and its arch are 14thc. with a battlemented parapet. A polygonal SW stair turret of brick has been added. The interior had its 15thc. benches removedc.1914 and replaced with pitch-pine pews, but some of the bench ends have been incorporated into the chancel choirstalls. It was all whitewashed in the 1940s, and a set of wallpaintings (see Cautley) covered up.
5. St Mary, Horham, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Horham is in the arable land of the East Anglian plain in central N Suffolk, 7 miles SE of Diss. The land falls away to the E of the village to the valley of a tributary of the Waveney, running form S to N, and on a plateau to the NW of the village is the site of a World War II US airfield. The church is in the centre of the village, alongside the B1117 Eye to Stradbroke road.
6. St Andrew, Ilketshall, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Andrews is a flint church with nave, chancel and W tower. The tower is round in its lower part, which has a pointed lancet of c.1200 to the S and an inserted W window of c.1320. The upper part of the tower is octagonal with Perpendicular bell-openings on the cardinal faces and flushwork tracery on the others, and a battlemented parapet decorated with flushwork tracery. The nave has a 12thc. N window and 12thc. doorways to N and S, the N plain and blocked; the S more elaborate and protected by an early Tudor brick porch. It has been heightened and given Perpendicular windows. The chancel has one 13thc. lancet but otherwise appears 14thc. or later. Nave and chancel are separately roofed but there is no chancel arch. Wall paintings in the nave are currently under restoration. The only Romanesque features described here are the two nave doorways.
7. St Mary Elms, Ipswich, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Mary's is on Elm Street in the business centre of Ipswich; its parish including the three law courts, the police station and the civic centre as well as offices and shops. Few people live in the parish now, and the church's mission is directed to the business people who work nearby. To that end it stays open during the day and celebrates a daily Eucharist. There was an earlier church near this site, dedicated to St Saviour, but St Mary at Elms is known to have existed by 1204 and may be older. It was rebuilt in the early 14thc. The 14thc church had a nave and chancel, together occupying the length of the present nave, with north and south transepts, and presumably a tower. The north aisle and the west tower, both of brick, were added in the 15thc. At some stage the south transept was removed, and in 1883 a new chancel was added to the east, and the old chancel incorporated into the nave. This work was done by E. F. Bisshopp, and included the lengthening of the north aisle and the provision of an organ chamber on the south of the new chancel. Brick vestries were added on the north side of the new chancel shortly afterwards. An engraving by Henry Davy shows the church in 1842, before all of this work. What we have today is a 14thc flint nave and north transept with 19thc windows in a 15thc. style. Davy's view shows 14thc windows in the nave. The nave has a 14thc. flint porch with niches for statues, protecting a 12thc. south doorway, said by Toll (following Tricker) to have come from the old church of St Saviour. Battlements of brick have been added to the nave. The north aisle now has an arcade of five bays; the two easternmost of 1883 and the rest 15thc. The chancel arch, chancel and its vestry and organ chamber are all 19thc. The brick west tower is tall at 54 feet (16.5 m) high but wide too, so that it does not seem lofty. It has octagonal clasping buttresses and a battlemented parapet. Several 19thc restorations are known. In 1848 the south porch was repaired and the 12thc doorway restored. There was a restoration by R. M. Phipson in 1860, and the major rebuilding of the chancel by E. F. Bisshopp in 1883. Romanesque sculpture is found on the south doorway.
8. All Saints, Ixworth Thorpe, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Ixworth is 6 miles NE of Bury St Edmunds, and Ixworth Thorpe (the suffix indicating a marginal settlement) lies 2 miles to the NW of Ixworth and consists of the church and scattered farms and houses along the road to Thetford. The land here is flattish with low rolling hills and is given over to arable cultivation. All Saints church is alongside the road on the southern edge of the settlement. It has a nave and chancel and a low W tower of red brick with a timber bell-turret. The nave is only slightly higher than the chancel, and they share a thatched roof. The nave has a two-storey 15thc. brick S porch, and nave and chancel are mortar rendered. Both nave doorways are 12thc., the N now blocked, and part of the 12thc. chancel arch remains on the north. There is a N rood-stair entrance alongside it, but this is later. All the nave windows were replaced in the 15thc. The chancel is 13thc., with small pointed lancets surviving on the N side and a plain S doorway of the same period. The piscina dates fromc.1300, the S chancel window is 15thc. and the E window has wooden glazing bars and tracery — probably 18thc. Repairs were carried out by D. E. Nye and partners of Surrey in 1961-63, and repairs to the tower proposed in 1970-72 were not proceeded with. The N and S nave doorways are recorded here.
9. St Mary and St Peter, Kelsale, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Kelsale is a good-sized village in east Suffolk, a mile N of Saxmundham. Saxmundham, Carlton and Kelsale now form a continuous settlement, and all three are bypassed by a loop of the A12. As so often happens, the main road has effectively cut off part of the old settlement, so that the centre of Kelsale is to the E of the A12 while Kelsale Hall is a mile to the NW, on the other side of it. Kelsale is sited on the side of a hill with the church, at its eastern edge, above the rest of the village. The land falls to the S and W towards the valley of a stream that eventually finds its way into the river Alde. Kelsale church has undergone considerable changes since the 12thc. It originally consisted of an unaisled nave and chancel, and possibly a W tower, but in the 14thc. a broad N aisle was added, higher and wider than the existing church and this became the nave, turning the old nave into a S aisle. The new nave was as long as the old nave and chancel together, and the church was lengthened by the addition of a new chancel (rebuilt in the 1870s), perhaps at the same. The old nave was extended eastwards in the 15thc., alongside the new chancel, to form a two-bay S chapel, and a S porch was added to the aisle. The present church thus consists of a nave with a four-bay S aisle and S porch, and a W tower at the end of the aisle, and a chancel with a 19thc. N vestry and a two-bay S chapel. The 12thc. N doorway was set in the new nave, and an elaborate priest’s doorway was added on the S side of the new chancel chapel, constructed of material that perhaps came from the 12thc. S doorway. Construction is of flint except for the chancel and its chapel, which are of knapped flint. The present 14thc. tower has diagonal buttresses, bell openings with complex flowing tracery and an embattled parapet with flushwork decoration. The 15thc. work also included the insertion of new windows on the N side of the 14thc. nave, and the addition of a spectacular W façade with angle buttresses decorated with flushwork and a five-light W window. There was a restoration in the 1870s, when the S aisle (i.e. the original nave) and the chancel were completely rebuilt. Romanesque features described here are the doorways on the N side of the nave and the S of the chancel chapel. The entrance to the churchyard is through a curious Arts and Crafts lych-gate designed by E.S. Prior.
10. 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.
11. St Mary, Kettlebaston, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Kettlebaston is a tiny, remote village in west Suffolk, 3 miles E of Lavenham and 11 miles SE of Bury St Edmunds. It stands on a hill in rolling arable land and consists of a cluster of houses around the church. The bright interior of St Mary's, with its rood screen painted with figures of saints by Enid Chadwick in 1954, flanked by altars to the Virgin and the Sacred Heart, betrays its Anglo-Catholic background, and until the retirement of Father H. C. Butler in 1964 the Roman Mass was said here every day. The church consists of a nave, chancel and W tower. The late-12thc S doorway, under an 18thc. brick porch, and one blocked N window testify to the Romanesque origins of the nave. The remaining windows are 15thc., and the N doorway is plain and probablyc.1300. Inside, there is a rood stair to the NE of the nave, and the splay of the blocked N window has 13thc. foliage wallpainting. The nave is of flint, newly mortar-rendered at the W end of the S wall, and with traces of old render on the N. Brick buttresses have been added to N and S. The chancel is of flint and very long, with old mortar render on the N wall and a brick vestry added there too. The chancel is apparentlyc.1300 in origin; the sedilia and piscina date from this time, and there is a 14thc. Easter Sepulchre on the north side. One of the S windows is 14thc. too - an unusual two-light composition with ogee heads, but the remainder are either 15thc. (one N window partly blocked by the vestry) or 19thc. replacements. The three-light reticulated E window is a replacement. The W tower is of flint and has diagonal buttresses, a polygonal stair on the S and a battlemented parapet. Its bell-openings are reticulated, and the tower arch also indicates a 14thc date. It once had a small spire. The church is recorded to have been built anew in 1363 (Tricker), and this work apparently included the rebuilding of the chancel and the construction of the tower. There were repairs to the chancel (1864) and the nave (1879). There was a restoration including repairs to the roofs and floors by H. J. Wright of Ipswich in 1901-02, and in 1902-03 the chancel was reordered to the designs of the Anglo-Catholic priest / architect, Ernest Geldart. restorations in 1922 and 1924-25 by Hunt and Coates of Bury St Edmunds, aimed at repairing the nave walls and the roof, and underpinning the chancel east wall, and further repairs in 1943-44, 1951-52 (by B. A. Hatcher of Ipswich) and 1963-64 (by Caroe and Partners). Romanesque sculpture is found on the south nave doorway, and there is a carved 12thc. box font that, unusually, retains its staples and still has a lockable lid (dating from 1929).
12. St Lawrence, Knodishall, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Knodishall is a small village in E Suffolk, 3 miles E of Saxmundham and 3 miles from the coast. It comprises a few houses clustered near the church and the hall site on gently falling land on the N side of the Hundred River valley. It is now an outlier of Knodishall Common; a larger settlement a mile to the SE. The flint and cobble church comprises nave, chancel and W tower; the nave and chancel separately roofed by similar in height and width and with no chancel arch separating them. There are small modern vestries to N and S of the chancel, and the S side of the church has brick buttresses. The nave has no lateral doorways now; both having been blocked in their lower parts to serve as windows. Entry is through the W tower doorway. The blocked N doorway indicates a 12thc. date for the nave. The nave and chancel windows, insofar as they are medieval, are of various dates betweenc.1300 and the 16thc. The chancel contains the remains of a 14thc. piscina. The W tower can be dated toc.1460 by a bequest from John Jenney and his wife, whose brass is inside the church. It has diagonal buttresses and a plain parapet decorated with flushwork. In complete contrast to the attractively muddled exterior, especially on the S side with its mixed masonry, brick buttresses and jumble of windows of different dates and styles, the interior is uncluttered, brightly whitewashed and very well lit through the S windows. The only Romanesque work recorded here is the N doorway.
13. All Saints, Little Bradley, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The villages of Great and Little Bradley are in the Stour valley N of Haverhill; their churches less than a mile apart. All Saints has an aisleless nave, chancel and W tower. The nave is 12thc., with a plain Romanesque chancel arch and a 12thc. S doorway under a flint and timber porch. Its N doorway has been replaced by a 19thc. window. The eastern part of the chancel is early 12thc., with two plain lancets in the N wall (one blocked) and signs of two more in the E wall. The western section of the chancel has thicker walls and is presumably 11thc. The original eastern angles are visible on the present side walls, indicating that the original chancel was lower as well as shorter. Mortlock claims that there is long and short work here, but it is a later repair. At the W end of the nave, the tower arch is small enough to be called a doorway (and it was fitted with a door and a wooden tympanum to square off the opening in the 16thc.) This leads to a W tower, circular and presumably 11thc. in its lower stage, with flint course laid in herringbone patterns, and octagonal above, with a battlement with double stepped merlons. There are plain round-headed lancets in the lower walls to N, S and W, but they are all restored. Construction is of flint, with herringbone work on the lower part of the tower and the western part of the chancel. Romanesque work reported here is in the chancel arch, the tower arch and the S doorway.
14. St Andrew, Little Glemham, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Little Glemham is in central E Suffolk, between Wickham Market and Saxmundham, in the rolling arable land W of the Alde valley. Great Glemham, 2 miles to the N, is rather larger but both villages border the parklands of their respective halls; Great Glemham lying to the W of Glemham House, and Little Glemham to the SW of Glemham Hall. St Andrew's lies on the southern edge of Glemham Hall Park, 0.4 mile NE of the village centre. The church consists of a flint nave with a S porch of knapped flint, a large transeptal N chapel of knapped flint, a brick chancel and a flint W tower. The nave retains its 12thc. N doorway, but its windows and porch are 15thc. The tower is 15thc. with a polygonal SE stair, diagonal buttresses decorated with flushwork and a battlemented parapet, also with flushwork decoration. The W window and doorway are 15thc. and there are niches containing carved figures above the W doorway and the S porch entrance. The chancel is 18thc. and the N chapel was built to house the N family mausoleum, and is dominated by a large seated figure of Sir Dudley North (d.1829). The church was restored in 1857-58 by J. P. St Aubyn, the work including reseating, work on the gallery and repairs to the roof and windows. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the N doorway.
15. 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.
16. All Saints, Mettingham, Suffolk, England

Parish church
All Saints has a nave with a S aisle, chancel and round W tower, all of flint, partly rendered. The nave and arcade are 14thc., with Perpendicular windows but no S clerestorey. There is a S aisle doorway under a simple brick porch and an unprotected 12thc. N doorway. The nave is roofed with lead and the chancel with slate with 19thc. cresting. The tower has a Perpendicular W window and bell openings, and a battlemented parapet decorated with flushwork. The N doorway is the only Romanesque feature.
17. Holy Trinity, Middleton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Middleton is a substantial village in east Suffolk, midway between Aldeburgh and Southwold and 3 miles from the coast. The Minsmere River runs through the village on its way to the partially drained coastal marshland that now forms the Minsmere bird sanctuary. The village centre is on the rising arable land S of the river with the church at its northern edge. Holy Trinity church has a nave and chancel in one, under a single roof, with a S porch to the nave, and a W tower with a spire. Both nave and chancel are 12thc. The nave has a shaft at its SW angle and a chevron-decorated S doorway, and the chancel has the remains of 12thc. ornament around its interior western windows on both sides. The piscina also includes some 12thc. work. The 12thc. chancel must have been lengthened and a new piscina built incorporating material from the old one. The E window and two N windows are intersecting or Y-tracery work ofc.1300, and this was presumably when the chancel was extended. The nave also has one Y-tracery on the N. All other nave and chancel windows are 15thc. insertions, and there is no N doorway to the nave. The S porch is mortar rendered with flushwork panels, battlements and a stepped gable. It has a classical pediment over the entrance and may be 15thc., remodelled in the 18thc. The nave and chancel have been refaced in mixed knapped flints and rubble, laid to give a crazy-paving effect. The tall, slender tower is of flint with heavy quoins at the eastern angles that may be 12thc. At the W are added diagonal buttresses with flushwork chequers. It has been heightened, and its upper storey has a slight setback. The bell-openings are 15thc., as is the embattled parapet with its flushwork tracery panels. The spire is a slender lead spike, and was completely rebuilt in 1955. While the work was proceeding, the thatched roof of the church caught fire, and the blaze spread to the rest of the building. Villagers rescued most of the furnishings, and surprisingly little was irrevocably lost. Romanesque work is found on the S doorway, the nave SW angle shaft, the piscina and around two chancel windows.
18. St Peter, Milden, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Milden is situated in arable farmland on the rising ground on the S side of the Lavenham Brook, a tributary of the river Brett, some 5 miles NE of Sudbury towards the S of mid-Suffolk. In the field immediately to the S of the church, once glebe land, a stone marks the second highest point in the county (82 m, 269 ft) It is a dispersed settlement, sparsely populated, extending approximately 1¼ miles from Milden Hall in the W, with the motte of a 12thc. castle nearby, to the church in the E.
19. St Botolph, North Cove, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Botolph's has a slim W tower of flint and brick, 13thc. in its lower parts with a later knapped flint embattled parapet. The nave and chancel are of flint, with brick buttresses and repairs on the S. The roof is of thatch. The only Romanesque feature is the S nave doorway, now under a 14thc. flint and brick porch. The N doorway and one N window are 13thc. The chancel contains 14thc. wall paintings generally considered among the finest in the county, and showing Passion scenes and a Doom. They were restored in the 1990s, when a good deal of 19thc. overpainting was removed.
20. All Saints, Newton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Newton is a village 2 miles to the E of Sudbury. The main Sudbury - Colchester road runs through the village, but the church and hall lie at the end of a side road 0.4 mile N of the village centre. The church had fallen into a state of disrepair by the 1960s, the nave roof in particular being in a perilous state, and the decision was taken to retain the chancel for parish use and declare the nave and tower redundant, and these were taken into the care of the Redundant Churches Fund (now CCT). The two parts are divided at the chancel arch, which is blocked with large windows above and glazed doors below, giving the sense at least of a continuous space. The nave is unaisled and its N doorway, now blocked to form a window, is 12thc. The S doorway is 13thc. and protected by a timber-framed porch, and the lateral nave windows were replaced in the early 14thc. On the S side is the wall-tomb of a lady dating from c.1300 with an effigy, and the nave also contains 14thc. wallpaintings of Incarnation scenes, discovered in 1967. The chancel is entirely 14thc. with a five-light reticulated E window, contemporary sedilia and piscina. It contains the elaborate wall-tomb of Margaret Boteler (d.1410). The west tower is 14thc. too, except for the battlemented brick parapet. The church is of flint with brick-faced buttresses and a modern vestry of knapped flint has been added to the N side of the chancel. The only Romanesque feature is the N doorway.
21. St Peter, Nowton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Nowton is in the Hundred of Thingoe and stands in flat, arable land, recently given over to rape crops, only 2 miles S of the centre of Bury St Edmunds. St Peter's has a nave with a N aisle, a short chancel with a S vestry and a W tower. The nave has a S doorway in situ and a N doorway reset in the 19thc. aisle. Also reset in the E wall of this aisle is a plain 12thc lancet. The S nave windows are round-headed but 19thc. and the S wall of the nave is mortar rendered. The N aisle is neo-Romanesque (Pevsner says 'painful neo-Norman') dating from 1843. There is no clerestorey but a dormer in the roof. The arcade is of four bays, and the exterior wall in flint with stone dressings, has the usual overblown detailing on the windows and a gable over the doorway. The chancel is ofc.1300, but was restored, and the vestry added, in 1876. The flint west tower is 14thc. and has no buttresses but a tall plinth and a polygonal south bell stair. When the church was visited the interior was being repainted and no internal photography was possible. The only Romanesque work is on the two nave doorways.
22. St Mary, Offton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Offton is some 7 miles NW of Ipswich in the centre of Suffolk. The village stands on the rising ground on the S bank of a stream that rises near Great Bricett and joins the river Gipping at Bramford, W of Ipswich. The village is compact, and the church stands at the NE end of the centre, with a moated site 0.3 m to the S. St Mary's has a nave, chancel and W tower. The nave has a plain 12thc. S doorway, now protected by an attractive 14thc. timber porch. The 14thc. N doorway now serves as the entrance from the church to a 20thc. vestry and lavatory block. The present nave windows are all 14th -15thc. The chancel has a 13thc. lancet in its N wall, otherwise the windows are 14th -15thc. There is no chancel arch, and the chancel and nave widths are the same, although the chancel roof is lower. The tower is plain 14thc. work with a battlemented parapet embellished with flushwork. Otherwise the church is mortar rendered except for the knapped flint E chancel wall and buttresses. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the S nave doorway.
23. St Michael, Oulton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
In 1868 Oulton was described as a large and irregular village 2 miles W of Lowestoft, bordered by Oulton Broad on the SW and by the river Waveney. It was chiefly an agricultural village then, with a portion of the inhabitants engaged in the fisheries (National Gazetteer). Oulton Broad still forms a natural boundary to the S, and Oulton Marsh another to the W. Oulton Dyke, linking the broad and the river, runs through the marsh half a mile W of the western edge of Oulton. The church is on a low knoll on this western edge and the view over the marsh towards the dyke and the Waveney beyond is much as it must have been in 1868. This was the site of the old village too, but the centre has migrated away from the marshland to the N and W. Immediately to the E of the church now is a large housing estate, and immediately to the E of this is Lowestoft, which has spread to engulf Oulton village, stopping only at the edge of the marshes.
24. St Peter, Ousden, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Peter's has an aisled nave, central tower and chancel with a N chapel. The nave has original 12thc. features in one S window and N and S doorways (the N remodelled in the 13thc. and set under a modern porch; the S blocked to convert it to a window). The nave was extended westwards by some 20 feet (6 m) in 1861-63 by J. F. Clark of Norwich. There is an 18th-19thc. brick N chapel at the E end of the nave. The chancel has been rebuilt with a lowered roofline and a brick E wall, the side walls are rendered, but the E and S windows and the N doorway are 18th-19thc. and the entire chancel must be of this date. The 12thc. tower is a substantial flint structure with a later embattled parapet. There are small lancets at two levels of its lower storey on the N and S faces, and 12thc. single bell-openings in the set back upper storey. The angles of the upper storey have shafts. Inside, it has tower arches to E and W. Construction is generally of flint, except for the 18th-19thc. N chapel and chancel, which are of brick. There are a few courses of brick alternating with the flints around the SW angle of the tower's upper storey. Romanesque sculpture is found in the two nave doorways, the tower bell-openings and the tower arches.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. St Peter, Redisham, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Peter's is a flint church of nave and chancel with a wooden bellcote over the W end of the nave, replacing the tower, which collapsed in the 19thc. There is no chancel arch, but sections of wall with responds between nave and chancel. The nave has been heightened and repaired in brick, and the exterior walls were once rendered. The church was repaired and the present pews installed by J. D. Botwright and J. Clarke in 1861-62. The nave walls presumably date from the 12thc., since there are Romanesque N and S doorways in-situ, the N blocked and partly obscured by an inconveniently sited shed; the S protected by a simple brick porch.
29. St Andrew, Rushmere St Andrew, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Rushmere St Andrew is a village on the NE edge of Ipswich, its parish running S from the village in a long strip to include the housing developments of outer E Ipswich. Rushmere itself retains much of its village character, with the church at the W end of the main street, the open space of Rushmere Heath to the S, and farmland to the N, falling away to the valley of the river Fynn, a tributary of the Deben.
30. 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.
31. St Andrew, Sapiston, Suffolk, England

Parish church (redundant)
The church and Grange Farm stand together alongside a ford (now too deep for use) over the Black Bourn immediately SE of Honington in N Suffolk. In fact the churches of Honington and Sapiston are only half a mile apart. The two parishes were combined in 1972, and two years later Sapiston church was made redundant. The village of Sapiston has migrated N from the ford (at the Black Death according to local tradition), to cluster along the Honington - Barningham road, leaving church and farm to guard the ford in isolation. All Saints is a flint and septaria church of nave, chancel and W tower. The nave has a 12thc. S doorway under a 14thc. porch, but the windows are all 13thc. or later. Inside there is no chancel arch. The roofs indicate a two-bay chancel, but the chancel step is set one bay further E. The chancel windows indicate a date ofc.1300-50, and the N and E walls of the chancel are rendered. The tower is of three storeys and unbuttressed at the W; its arch is tall without capitals, and its Y-tracery bell-openings are ofc.1300. The nave and chancel roofs are of red tile, but the church was previously thatched. There was a restoration in 1847. The S doorway is the only Romanesque feature.
32. St Lawrence, South Cove, Suffolk, England

Parish church
South Cove is 1.5 miles from the sea, in the low arable lands between Southwold and Lowestoft. It hardly qualifies as a village, consisting as it does of the church and Church Farm alongside, with a cottage or two. Its parishioners were traditionally farm workers and fishermen. St Lawrence's church is of flint with a nave and chancel of equal width covered by a single thatched roof, and a tall W tower. The nave N and S doorways are 12thc., the S protected by a tiny 19thc. porch of knapped flint. The nave is earlier than this, however; the removal of 19thc. render in 1995 revealed a vertical joint at the NE angle of the nave, where it turned to meet a chancel that was originally narrower. This angle was of the large, uncut stones (erratics) typical of pre-Conquest masonry. The present chancel apparently dates from the mid-13thc. (piscina) and its Y-tracery windows were added c.1300. Some of the nave windows were replaced at that period too, and the other nave windows were renewed in the 15thc. There is no chancel arch. The tower is 14thc. and has diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet, both decorated with flushwork. The W window is 15thc. The W bell-opening has been replaced with a plain arched opening with a single central mullion. Romanesque sculpture survives in the two nave doorways.
33. St George, South Elmham St Cross, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The seven South Elmham villages; St James, All Saints, St Nicholas, St Cross, St Margaret, St Michael and St Peter, to which may be added Homersfield, sometimes referred to as South Elmham St Mary, lie in a scattered group between Bungay and Halesworth in NE Suffolk, to the W of the Roman road known as Stone Street. North Elmham (the centre of the see until 1071) is over 30 miles away, to the NW of Norwich, and both apparently took their name from Aethelmaer (bishop of E Anglia 1047-1070) the landholder before the Conquest. This is not certain; Tricker suggests that the name meant villages where elm trees grew. The land here is flat, generally arable and sparsely populated; the villages rarely more than a few houses clustered around the church without shops or pubs.
34. St James, South Elmham St James, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The seven South Elmham villages; St James, All Saints, St Nicholas, St Cross, St Margaret, St Michael and St Peter, to which may be added Homersfield, sometimes referred to as South Elmham St Mary, lie in a scattered group between Bungay and Halesworth in NE Suffolk, to the W of the Roman road known as Stone Street. North Elmham (the centre of the see until 1071) is over 30 miles away, to the NW of Norwich, and both apparently took their name from Aethelmaer (bishop of East Anglia 1047-1070) the landholder before the Conquest. This is not certain; Tricker suggests that the name meant villages where elm trees grew. The land here is flat, generally arable and sparsely populated; the villages rarely more than a few houses clustered around the church without shops or pubs.
35. St Margaret, South Elmham St Margaret, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The seven South Elmham villages; St James, All Saints, St Nicholas, St Cross, St Margaret, St Michael and St Peter, to which may be added Homersfield, sometimes referred to as South Elmham St Mary, lie in a scattered group between Bungay and Halesworth in NE Suffolk, to the W of the Roman road known as Stone Street. North Elmham (the centre of the see until 1071) is over 30 miles away, to the NW of Norwich, and both apparently took their name from Aethelmaer (bishop of East Anglia 1047-1070) the landholder before the Conquest. This is not certain; Tricker suggests that the name meant villages where elm trees grew. The land here is flat, generally arable and sparsely populated; the villages rarely more than a few houses clustered around the church without shops or pubs.
36. St Michael, South Elmham St Michael, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The seven South Elmham villages; St James, All Saints, St Nicholas, St Cross, St Margaret, St Michael and St Peter, to which may be added Homersfield, sometimes referred to as South Elmham St Mary, lie in a scattered group between Bungay and Halesworth in NE Suffolk, to the W of the Roman road known as Stone Street. North Elmham (the centre of the see until 1071) is over 30 miles away, to the NW of Norwich, and both apparently took their name from Aethelmaer (bishop of East Anglia 1047-1070) the landholder before the Conquest. This is not certain; Tricker suggests that the name meant villages where elm trees grew. The land here is flat, generally arable and sparsely populated; the villages rarely more than a few houses clustered around the church without shops or pubs.
37. St Peter, South Elmham St Peter, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The seven South Elmham villages, St James, All Saints, St Nicholas, St Cross, St Margaret, St Michael and St Peter, to which may be added Homersfield, sometimes referred to as South Elmham St Mary, lie in a scattered group between Bungay and Halesworth in NE Suffolk, to the W of the Roman road known as Stone Street. North Elmham (the centre of the see until 1071) is over 30 miles away, to the NW of Norwich, and both apparently took their name from Aethelmaer (bishop of East Anglia 1047-1070) the landholder before the Conquest. This is not certain; Tricker suggests that the name meant villages where elm trees grew. The land here is flat, generally arable and sparsely populated; the villages rarely more than a few houses clustered around the church without shops or pubs.
38. St John the Baptist, Shadingfield, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St John's is a flint church with a tall W tower and an aisleless nave and chancel forming a single space within, but separately roofed from the outside. The nave and chancel date fromc.1200 or slightly later, to judge from the N and S nave doorways and plain lancets in the N wall of the chancel and both walls of the nave. The S doorway is protected by a 16thc. brick porch. The square W tower is Perpendicular with diagonal buttresses decorated with simple flushwork. It is patched with bricks and underwent a major restoration in 1983. The nave walls are rendered. The nave doorways are described below, although they are likely to date from the 13thc. rather than the 12thc.
39. 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.
40. St Margaret, Somerton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Margaret's has an aisleless nave with a blocked N doorway and a porch protecting the S doorway; a chancel with a long S chapel under a separate roof and a W tower. The N doorway indicates that the nave is 12thc., and the S doorway is a 13thc. modification. The brick and flint porch is 16thc. The chancel and its chapel are 14thc. Both E windows are Perpendicular, but of different dates. The E wall has been mortar rendered and inappropriate barge-boards added. To the N of the chancel is a lean-to of brick, roofed with the chancel. The W tower is Perpendicular, with diagonal buttresses and flushwork panels on the plinth. Construction is of flint with ashlar dressings. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the blocked N doorway.
41. St Nicholas, Stanningfield, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Stanningfield is in central W Suffolk, 5 miles S of the centre of Bury St Edmunds, in the rolling farmland typical of this part of the county. The Roman road that forms part of the A134 from Bury to Sudbury runs a mile to the E of the village, which consists of scattered dwellings and farm buildings on a network of by-roads. The centre, such as it is, has migrated half a mile east to Hoggards Green, leaving the church surrounded by just a few houses. The seat of the lords of Stanningfield was at Coldham Hall, 0.8 mile SW of the church. St Nicholas's is a flint church with a W tower, a nave with a wooden S porch and a chancel. The nave is 12thc, judging from the small round-headed windows in the lateral walls and the blocked N doorway, but Y-tracery windows and a new S doorway were addedc.1300. The chancel, of the same height and width as the nave, dates from the same period. Its arch is tall and it has interesting tracery combining geometrical and intersecting features in its N, S and E windows. The S priest's doorway is blocked. On the N side stands the tomb of Thomas Rokewood (d.1521) with the shields of Rokewood and Clopton (Thomas's wife's family) in quatrefoils on the chest. The tower is low and of irregular knapped flints with brick and tile incorporated. It has a plinth and heavy integral buttresses, diagonal at the W and straight at the E, and a square SE stair. The W window is three-light Perpendicular with a transom. The bell-openings are simple lancets with triangular heads and the roof is pyramidal and slate-covered. The tower was taller, but the upper stage was removed when it became unstable in the 1880s, and the roof and bell-openings date from that period. Only the N doorway is recorded here.
42. All Saints, Stoke Ash, Suffolk, England

Parish church
The village of Stoke Ash consists of houses and farm buildings on loops of road off the A140 Norwich to Ipswich road, six miles S of Diss and 16 miles N of Ipswich. It lies between the river Dove, a tributary of the Waveney, and one of the Dove's own tributaries, in arable farmland. Stoke Ash was a Roman centre and the A140 a Roman road. Considerable finds of pottery, brooches and coins alongside the tributary suggest a waterfront settlement, and there is evidence of Roman industry and agriculture nearby. The church stands some 180 metres E of the main road, with the hall site nearby.
43. 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 reused, 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.
44. 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.
45. St Mary, Swilland, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Swilland is a village in central Suffolk, 5.5 miles N of the centre of Ipswich. It extends along a side road off the B1077 Ipswich to Debenham road running approximately N-S, with the church and hall at the N end and Swilland manor 0.3 mile to the NW. The landscape here is the typical arable farmland of the East Anglian plain.
46. 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.
47. St Peter, Theberton, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Theberton is a small village in east Suffolk, 3 miles E of Saxmundham and 2½ from the sea. It stands on a rise in the low country SW of the marshy Minsmere Level, with the church in the centre of the village and Theberton Hall 0.3 mile away to the NW. St Peter's consists of a nave and chancel in one with a thatched single roof, a S aisle and S porch at the W end of the nave, a modern brick vestry covering the N doorway, also at the W end of the nave, and a round W tower. The 12thc. church consisted of the present nave without its aisle and the western section of the chancel. A corbel table survives from this, occupying the western part of the chancel on both sides, and there is a 12thc. string course on the N side of the chancel only. The N nave doorway survives inside the modern vestry, and there is a 12thc. window, now blocked, in the N wall of the nave. The round tower is 12thc. too, although the octagonal upper story was addedc.1300. It has Y-tracery bell openings on its cardinal faces, and similar Y-tracery flushwork on the intermediate faces. The tower arch was replaced around the same time. The 15thc. embattled parapet also has flushwork decoration. A W window was inserted in the tower in the 15thc. The chancel may have been lengthenedc.1300, using a mixed facing of flints and reused material, including shaft sections and broken plain corbels. The S priest's doorway dates from this time, as does the Y-tracery N window inserted in the western section of the chancel. Its companion on the S side is 15thc., and those in the eastern section are 16thc. with brick mullions and arches. The E wall has been rebuilt in a curious mixture of flint, stone rubble and brick, more or less decoratively arranged. It contains a three-light 19thc. window in a Perpendicular style. Returning to the nave, a short S aisle with a porch at its W end was added in the 15thc. but the aisle was rebuilt by L. N. Cottingham under the patronage of the Rev. C. M. Doughty of Theberton Hall in 1846. This aisle is now called the Doughty Chapel, and its arcade is painted. Romanesque sculpture is found on the N doorway, the blocked N window, the chancel corbel table and the string course below it.
48. 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.
49. St Martin, Tuddenham St Martin, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Tuddenham St Martin is 3 miles NE of the centre of Ipswich (and only a mile from its outskirts), but the village occupies a spectacular site straddling the steeply sloping banks of the river Fynn. Its main street runs from E to W, falling to the bridge over the river and rising through the trees towards Tuddenham Hall on the other side. The houses and church are on the W bank; the church on a hill above the village on the S side of the High Street.
50. St Peter, Ubbeston, Suffolk, England

Private house, formerly parish church
Ubbeston is in central E Suffolk, towards the N of the county, 5 miles SW of Halesworth, in the arable boulder-clay plateau typical of High Suffolk. The church and hall site that are all that remain of the village are sited on the rising N bank of a stream that flows eastwards to join the river Blyth at Halesworth. There is a slightly larger settlement at Ubbeston Green, 0.4 miles to the S.
51. 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.
52. St Mary, Uggeshall, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Uggeshall stands in rolling arable land in E Suffolk, 6 miles S of Beccles and 5 miles inland. The church, along with Church Farm and Manor Farm form an eastern nucleus with Uggeshall Hall 0.7 miles to the N, and the main cluster of houses half a mile to the west. The church has a nave with a taller chancel, both thatched, and a solid and stocky W tower with a wooden bell stage, also thatched. The nave is of rendered flint and can be dated to the 12thc. by its N and S doorways. There is a 13thc. lancet at the W end of the S wall, and the other nave windows have Y-tracery or Perpendicular tracery, pointing to remodellingsc.1300 and in the 15thc. The flint chancel is not rendered. Its chequered brick and flint E wall is 18thc., and the entire chancel appears to have been remodelled in the 19thc. It has a variety of windows (plain lancet, geometrical, Y-tracery and flowing) all of which have been renewed. There is a N organ room, also 19thc. The flint and chequered flushwork masonry of the W tower is not as high as the nave, but its plan is large and has heavy diagonal buttresses and a polygonal stair turret in the middle of the S wall, adding to the impression of bulk. The tower was apparently never built any higher than this. The 19thc. wooden bell stage has a gabled roof. Inside the church there is no chancel arch and the tower arch is tall and 15thc. The chancel retains its 14thc. sedilia, but the rest of it has been remodelled in the 19thc. Curiously the chancel roof is lower than the nave roof inside the church. The N and S doorways are described below. The former is blocked, and the latter has been remodelled and is under a tiny timber-framed porch.
53. St Mary, Walpole, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Mary's is a flint church with ashlar dressings consisting of a nave with a three-bay N aisle, chancel and W tower with a short spire. The church was rebuilt in 1878 and at first sight it appears to be all of that date, but the S nave wall includes a doorway with a 12thc. arch, and the chancel has pilaster strips suggesting 11-12thc. fabric. The S doorway is the only feature described here.
54. St John the Baptist, Wantisden, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St John's is a remote church standing in flat arable land in SE Suffolk, 6 miles E of Woodbridge. There is no village and no dwellings near the church; the nearest settlement being Tunstall, a mile to the N. Wantisden Hall, a 16thc. brick building, is 0.6 mile S of the church. There has apparently never been a village of Wantisden, and at the beginning of the Second World War the entire area was requisitioned as an airfield: the USAF Bentwaters base. It remained active during the Cold War, and was closed in 1993, but much remains to the W of the church. The church is significant in having one of only two coralline crag towers in the county (the other is at nearby Chillesford), a 15thc. structure with diagonal buttresses and a polygonal S bell stair whose top has been rebuilt without battlements. The nave and chancel are of mixed flint, pebbles and crag rubble. They are 12thc. and from that period they retain a narrow chancel arch, a N chancel window and a S nave doorway. The N doorway is later, plain and pointed, and neither doorway has a porch. The nave has a later medieval SE rood stair, and the other nave and chancel windows date from the 14thc. to 15thc. There is also a 12thc. font, unusual in being constructed of ashlar blocks.
55. St Andrew, Westhall, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Andrew's is a flint church with a nave, S aisle, chancel and W tower. In fact the present S aisle is the original nave, and its smart W front, consisting of a doorway with a triple arch above, remains inside the early 14thc. W tower. A scar on the E wall of the tower indicates that the nave was originally taller and more steeply roofed. The 12thc. S doorway also remains in situ. An aisle was added to the N of the original nave in the 13thc., with an arcade of five bays, and was apparently widened, making it much wider than the original nave, in the later 14thc. The N nave doorway dates from this period. At this time the original chancel was abandoned and a new one attached to the N aisle. Signs of the original chancel arch remain on the exterior E wall of the present S aisle. A datestone (JW 1884) on this wall presumably refers to a restoration. Romanesque sculpture is found on the W and S doorways and the W window.
56. St Mary, Wherstead, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Wherstead is one of the nine parishes of the Shotley peninsula, the neck of land between the Orwell and Stour estuaries in SE Suffolk. The peninsula belongs to the Sandlings, and the sandy soils support arable farming in a landscape that rises fairly steeply from the Orwell estuary in the E. Wherstead is now just outside the loop of the A14 that forms the southern and western sections of Ipswich's outer ring road, cutting through Wherstead Park before crossing the Orwell on the spectacular Orwell bridge. The village itself consists only of a few houses clustered close to the stable block of Wherstead Park, which is now occupied by the offices of EON Energy, the company that runs Powergen. The church lies between this cluster and the Hall, half a mile to the E. According to Laverton, 'Wherstead church stands on one edge of a very large rectangular embanked enclosure of unknown date, and nearby is a Roman site that might have some connection with the supposed Roman river crossing of Downham Bridge, but neither of these is visible except in aerial photographs.' The entire peninsula displays evidence of continuous settlement going back to the Neolithic period.
57. St Andrew, Wissett, Suffolk, England

Parish church
St Andrew's is a flint church consisting of a long unaisled nave with N and S doorways, the S under a 15thc. porch; a chancel with a N vestry, and a round W tower. Both doorways are 12thc. work, but the nave windows are Perpendicular. At the NE of the nave is a rood stair. The chancel is a rebuilding ofc.1800. The W tower has a plain, narrow arch towards the nave, narrow round-headed lancets at the level of the nave roof and oculi in the next storey. The oculi were discovered blocked and the N one reopened in 1977. The bell-openings are pointed and above them an added top storey has gargoyles and a battlemented parapet with flushwork merlons. Romanesque features described here are the two nave doorways and the tower arch.
58. St Mary, Wissington, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Wissington (also known, most notably on the signpost to the church, as Wiston) is a parish of dispersed houses and farms on the N side of the river Stour, which forms the border with Essex. It has no village centre, although there are a few houses and a farmhouse near the church. This stands on raised ground in a moated site alongside the farmhouse. St Mary's is a simple two-cell church with a rectangular nave and a lower, narrower chancel with an apsidal E end. The present apse and its arch are entirely 19thc., but built on 12thc. foundations; a view of 1832 shows the church with a flat E end. The S priest's doorway in the chancel straight bay is 19thc., but this bay also has small 12thc. lancets and its original chancel arch, elaborately carved with chevron archivolts and decorated nook-shafts. The nave has carved 12thc. N and S doorways; the S under a timber porch, and the N now inside the 19thc. vestry. Small round-headed lancets survive in the N and S nave walls, but all of the nook-shafted windows, in both nave and chancel, are 19thc. work. Over the W gable of the nave is a 19thc. timber bell-turret with a pyramid roof. The church is of flint, the exterior mortar rendered and the interior plastered, with the remains of 13thc.-15thc. wallpaintings in the nave. Four 12thc. corbels have been re-set in the interior and exterior walls; one over the chancel arch, one over the apse arch, and on the outside, one above each of the chancel straight bay windows. There are several loose stones, at present behind the pulpit. The only one with 12thc. carving is a nook-shaft base.
59. St Mary Magdalene, Withersdale, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Withersdale is nearly 3 miles E of Harleston and a mile and a half from the river Waveney, which marks the border with Norfolk. The church stands alongside the B1123 and the moated hall site, with a medieval farmhouse, is 500 yards (457 metres) to the S. The rest of the village has migrated W along the road towards Harleston, forming the settlement of Withersdale Street.
60. St Leonard, Wixoe, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Wixoe is a village in the Stour Valley on the Essex border E of Haverhill. St Leonard's has an aisleless nave and chancel in one, sharing a single roof and with no chancel arch. The nave walls are slightly thicker than the chancel (visible on the interior by a ridge in the wall at the position of the chancel step), and the mortar used in the flint cladding is yellower in the nave. There is a 19thc. vestry on the N side of the chancel. The nave has a modern timber west bell turret. The N and S nave doorways are 12thc., the N blocked and overgrown; the S protected by a 19thc. timber porch. The S chancel doorway is 19thc.
61. All Saints, Wordwell, Suffolk, England

Parish church (redundant)
Wordwell lies alongside the B1106 Bury St Edmunds to Brandon road, just over five miles N of the centre of Bury. The tiny village lies at the SE corner of the enormous coniferous plantation of the King's Forest, and consists of just the church, a few houses, Wordwell Hall and the hall farm. The living was abolished in the 18thc. and the rectory demolished in 1736; after that date the church was served by priests from neighbouring parishes until the parish was combined with that of West Stow.
62. St Mary, West Stow, Suffolk, England

Parish church
Discoveries of flint tools give evidence of Neolithic occupation of the area, and the remains of an Iron Age settlement and finds of Romano-British pottery attest to the continuity of its occupation until the 2ndc. AD. Some time in the mid-5thc., Anglo-Saxon settlers established a village here that remained in occupation until c.650. Around that time the settlement moved 1½ miles upriver to the present West Stow village site. The old site was abandoned, and cultivated as ploughland until the end of the 13thc., when a storm covered it with blown sand, effectively preserving the 5th.-7thc. village. From the mid-19thc. onwards, rich finds of early Anglo-Saxon grave goods were discovered in the area of the unsuspected village, but a major excavation was not undertaken until 1965-72, when a team headed by Stanley West uncovered most of the settlement. In 1972, West broached the idea of a reconstruction of the village on site, and this is now open to visitors as West Stow Anglo-Saxon village.