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.