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I Location

II General Description

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.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) Nave S doorway

Round-headed, of two orders. Clunch.

First order: Attached half-shafts with no bases surviving. The W capital has broad angle leaves with deep lobes and adjacent leaves linked with a circular notch between them. The upper rim of the bell is multi-lobed too, and above it is a square abacus with a groove around the centre. The necking is a plain roll. The impost has a lower roll and a quadrant hollow and at the top an overhanging beaked upper roll. The E capital has flat, keeled pointed leaves at the angles with the rims of a second row of leaves visible between them at the top of the bell. Abacus, impost and necking are as the W capital. The arch is plain with a rounded chamfer on the angle.

Second order: Detached en-delit nook-shafts with central triple-roll shaft-rings and double roll bases with square plinths. The W capital has a round bell flaring out towards the top and a thin double-quirked roll around the rim. Its abacus, necking and impost are as the 1st-order capitals. The E capital has flat, linked trilobed leaves at the angles, joined together with a circular notch between them. Around the rim a fluted multi-lobed leaf descends from the abacus on each face, and depending from each of these is a stem ending with a multilobed leaf hanging in each of the circular notches noted above. The abacus, necking and impost are as the first-order capitals. The arch has a keeled angle roll, hollows on face and soffit and further plain rolls beyond the hollow on face and soffit. The label is half-round with short returns at either end.

Dimensions

VII History

Before the Conquest, one free man, Alwine, held one carucate and 2 acres as a manor, with six acres of meadow and woodland for 60 pigs. This was held by Mainard from Count Alan in 1086. A further six pre-Conquest holdings, four of them manors, were united by 1086 and held by Walter of Caen from Robert Malet. They totalled one carucate and 218 acres (i.e. almost three carucates). One of these holdings had a church and another two churches. Walter of Caen was succeeded by his son Robert, reputedly the founder of St Peter's, and by Robert's son William de Cheney. On William's death in 1174 overlordship of his lands passed to his eldest daughter Margery (d. 1231), who married first Hugh de Cressy and then Robert, son of Roger of Clavering. By 1291 the rectory of Sibton church belonged to Sibton abbey.

Benefice of Yoxford, Peasenhall and Sibton.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The keeled arch moulding and capital forms imply a datec.1190-1210 for this doorway.

IX Bibliography