Debenham is a small town skirted by the river Deben (little more than a
stream at this point), in central Suffolk some 8 miles E of Stowmarket. It is
built on a hill, small but steep-sided, with the church at the summit and the
High Street running past it from N to S. The church provides a perfect example
of the development of English medieval architecture. Its sturdy W tower is
11thc.; its chancel is 13thc. Early English; the nave
is 15thc. Perpendicular and the W Galilee is 14thc. Decorated. In more detail,
the lower parts of the flint tower probably date from the first half of the
11thc., before the Conquest, and show long and short work at the angles (best
seen at the NW) and coursed and herringbone masonry.
On the S wall are two simple round-headed lancets, but they are not identical.
The lower is thinner with long and short masonry jambs and belongs with the
first phase described above. The upper is broader with a slight chamfer around the opening, pointing to a post-Conquest date.
The tower arch inside belongs to this second campaign. The tower received its
belfry stage, including the bell-openings, around 1380,
the date of a bequest of 20 marks from Walter Hart. The ashlar embattled parapet is a later addition. It apparently had a
small spire that was struck by lightning in the 17thc. and taken down in 1667.
There is no obvious trace of the Romanesque nave and chancel that belonged to the tower. The next phase of the
present building is the 13thc. chancel that replaced
its Romanesque predecessor. The N windows are plain pointed lancets but those
on the S, facing the town, are two-light plate tracery windows, indicating a
date towards the middle of the 13thc. The E window is renewed, but is a simple
triplet as might be expected. Inside, the piscina is
also 13thc. On the S side stands the impressive tomb of Sir Charles Framlingham
(d.1595) and his wife. The next campaign involved the building of the Galilee,
a two-storey W porch of flint with a knapped flint
façade and battlements on the lateral walls. It dates from the late
14thc. The Norman nave was completely remodelled in the first half of the
15thc., when aisles were added with tall, four-bay
arcades. The chancel arch was
replaced at the same time as the arcades were built.
Mortlock points out that the 13thc. jambs of the arch were raised by inserting
new sections, and new capitals were carved, like those of the nave
arcades. The arch became unstable, and by 1875 it was
propped up by a timber support, and the chancel was
blocked off as unsafe (Watling). It was restored in 1883. The nave aisles are
tall too, and lit by three-light windows with segmental two-centred heads. The
walls of the central vessel were raised to provide clerestories with two
triple-light windows per bay. The Perpendicular work
was faced externally with knapped flint, and embattled
parapets were provided for nave and aisle walls. The N and S doorways
are positioned below half-height windows in the aisles, and have no porches.
The original nave buttresses have flushwork panels, but two have been replaced
in the centre of the S wall, along with the section of aisle wall between them.
This work is done in red brick, and probably dates from 1567-68 when money was
bequeathed to repair the broken and decayed windows. The S aisle windows lost
their tracery and mullions during the 18thc, and were patched with brick and
timber, and in the same period the SE corner of the church was consolidated
with huge brick buttresses. These disfigurements were reversed in the
restorations of 1882-87 by H. J.Green of Norwich, who also restored the
chancel. The tracery of the new S aisle windows was
copied from those in the N aisle. Only the tower arch is recorded
here.
