Lakenheath is a large village in the NW of Suffolk, between Ely and
Thetford and only 10 miles from either. To the W is the fenland that runs into
Cambridgeshire, and the Cut-off Channel, built in 1964 as part of the fen
drainage system, runs alongside the B1112 that forms Lakenheath High Street. To
the E was once Lakenheath Warren, set up by the prior of Ely in 1251 as a
source of rabbits for the table — a practical solution to the
exploitation of land that was unsuitable for crops or pasture. Over the
centuries the land was over-grazed by the rabbits, and soil erosion became a
problem. In the 1660s sand dunes spread over 1000 acres at Lakenheath warren.
The site of the warren is now Lakenheath airfield, built for the RAF in 1941.
In 1948 the Americans moved B-29 bombers in, and they took over the
administration of the airfield in 1951. Today Lakenheath is home to the 48th
Fighter Wing of the USAF, England's largest USAF operated fighter base.
St Mary's is a large, imposing flint and ironstone church with brick
repairs and traces of lost mortar rendering, situated on the E side of the High
Street and standing in a spacious churchyard. It consists of an aisled and
clerestoried nave with five-bay
arcades, an unaisled chancel and a W
tower with a Hertfordshire spike. There is a two-storey western extension to
the tower. This was built after the Reformation, with stone from the old church
at Eriswell, as a schoolroom, and it was still used as the village school in
the 19thc. It is also recorded that it was used as the manor office. The
earliest work in the church is the chancel arch, of
c.1130-50, and the W end of the chancel with the
remains of 12thc. wall-arcading and a blocked window on
the N wall. The chancel was remodelled in the 13thc.
and given a N chapel (now removed and its arches to chancel and aisle blocked but still visible). A doorway
pierced through the blocking has itself been blocked. The S chancel doorway also belongs to the 13thc. remodelling and the
font, described by Pevsner as the finest 13thc. font in the county, also dates
from this period. The chancel has been heightened with
brick and ashlar and its present slate roof with tile cresting is 19thc. The nave arcades
have octagonal piers and moulded capitals with
chamfered arches. Pier 3 of
the N nave arcade is a short stretch of walling with
responds, indicating to Pevsner that this was the position of the 12thc. W end.
E of this, the arcade is early 14thc., and to the W it
is mid-14thc. with slimmer piers. The S
arcade is uniformly mid-14thc. The aisle windows are
likewise reticulated on the N (c.1320) and Perpendicular on the S. Both
lateral nave doorways have porches; the N Perpendicular and the S rebuilt in
the 19thc. There is also a fine 14thc. W doorway with continuously moulded
orders, now inside the western extension. The nave is
much taller than the chancel and has a fine 15thc.
angel roof with alternating hammerbeam and tie beam trusses. Its clerestory and
battlements are Perpendicular. The tower is early 13thc. in its lower parts,
late 13thc. at the bell-stage and Perpendicular at the parapet, which has
battlements and a chimera. The lead spike relates more to churches in
Cambridgeshire than Suffolk. Romanesque work recorded here comprises the
chancel arch, the remains of the wall-arcade in the chancel N wall and a
section of string course re-set in the N chancel
wall.
