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I Location

II General Description

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.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) Nave, N doorway

Round headed, of three orders. The doorway is now enclosed by the brick N vestry. It is of clunch.

Dimensions

First order

Plain, square sectioned jambs and arch with quirked hollow-chamfered imposts.

Second order

Coursed nook-shafts on roll/hollow bases carrying cushion capitals with plain, worn neckings. The cone of the E capital is decorated with a fan of incised grooves descending to the necking on the main angle, while the W capital is more damaged but retains traces of a triangular palmette on the angle of the cone. The imposts are as the first order, and the arch is decorated with a sinuous form of centrifugal chevron lateral to the face, of roll/hollow section with a cogwheel inner edge.

Third order

As second order except for details of the capitals and the arch profile. The E capital is a cushion with an angle tuck containing a broad triangular wedge; the W is a cushion with an angle tuck and grooves to define the lower edges of the shields. The arch is decorated with a sinuous form of centrifugal chevron lateral to the face, of roll/roll section with a cogwheel inner edge. There is no label.

2. Windows

(i) Nave N window

Round headed, single order, blocked. On the interior, the inner face of the splay has jambs with angle rolls and fictive cushion capitals supporting quirked chamfered imposts, the W one broken. The arch has a heavy angle roll and a face hollow outside it.

3. Exterior Decoration

a. String courses

(i) Chancel N wall, W end

The western part of the chancel (i.e. the 12thc. section) has a simple quirked chamfered string course slightly above halfway up the wall.

c. Corbel tables, corbels

(i) Chancel, N and S walls, W section.

The western part of the chancel on both sides (i.e. the 12thc. section) has a plain nebuly corbel table, the corbels and arcading outlined by a groove.

VII History

Before the Conquest, a free man, Swart Hoga, held Theberton from Ulf, with 60 acres and two acres of meadow as a manor. In 1086 it was held by Hubert from Robert Malet. The church of Theberton was alienated to the Premonstratensian abbey of Leiston in 1380.

Benefice of Middleton cum Fordley and Theberton with Eastbridge.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The distinctive sinuous treatment of the chevron ornament on the N doorway is typical of chevron carved in clunch in Suffolk. Similar nebuly corbel tables have not been noted in Suffolk, although examples survive at Fletton and Little Stukeley (both Cambs).

IX Bibliography