Blundeston is in Lothingland, the northernmost hundred of Suffolk. It is
a tongue of land enclosed by the Waveney which turns N after leaving Beccles so
that it may reach the sea at Yarmouth rather than Lowestoft. The land here is
low-lying and arable, and its villages have usually managed to resist
encroachments by their giant neighbours to the N and S. Blundeston could be
considered a suburb of Lowestoft, but it has not been overrun as Oulton was. It
is a good-sized village of some 300 inhabitants, most of whom commute to
Yarmouth or Lowestoft. Blundeston prison, at the southern edge of the village,
dates from 1963. The church and hall are half a mile apart on either side of
the village centre.
St Mary's is a flint church with a nave, chancel
and round W tower. The tower is off-axis towards the N of the nave. It is tall
and slender with a change of masonry halfway up and another just below the
bell-openings, and its fenestration repays study. Its low W window is an
insertion of the 15th -16thc. in brick, and the only other window in the lowest
masonry is a very narrow round-headed S lancet at the level of the
eaves of the nave. The first masonry break comes
halfway between the nave eaves and the apex of the nave roof, and there are small 12thc. lancets at
this level facing S and W. Then near the top of the nave roof are six large
round-headed openings, evenly spaced around the tower and all blocked with
brick. These were doubtless the original bell-openings. Alternating with them
are another six small 12thc. lancets, at the level of their arch heads. Then
comes the second masonry break, a change from flint to brick. Finally there are
four pointed bell-openings immediately below the battlemented parapet. Inside,
the tower arch is extremely narrow and 12thc. Its offsetting to the N reflects
a widening of the nave, so that while the N wall is in its original position,
with a 12thc. doorway (now blocked), the S has been rebuilt much further S.
Parts of the 12thc. S doorway were reused, but it is largely of the 14thc.,
under a 15thc. porch of knapped flint. The nave
windows on N and S are all 14thc. (flowing) or 15thc. The chancel is of knapped flint with flowing tracery windows of
c.1350. The chancel arch and piscina are also 14thc. The chancel
was rebuilt in 1851. The N and S doorways are described
below.