The church consists of a tall, diagonally-buttressed W tower, a tall nave
with a small S. porch, and a chancel. The tower
(shown left, from the southeast)
is of very curious appearance: it now rises in four stages but the
bell-stage comes third and the fourth above, with its battlements and prominent pinnacles, is
entirely open to the elements - roofless and with unglazed lancet windows.
In fact this is an addition built at the expense of the talented but
eccentric Bishop of Derry and 4th Earl of Bristol (from 1779 to 1803),
builder of the equally strange Ickworth House two miles to the northeast,
who wanted a more picturesque view of the church from his park. The
rest of the tower is Perpendicular and is distinguished only by its basal
frieze of trefoil-cusped flushwork arches and by the pairs of narrow
flushwork arches recessed in the lowest stage of the buttresses.
Internally the arch to the nave displays a series of wave mouldings running
round it, without intervening capitals.
The nave is Norman in origin, as witnessed by the round-arched doorways, of
which that to the south (inside the porch) is decorated by a roll and a line
of dogtooth, and by two orders of side-shafts with leaf volute capitals. (See the photograph below.)
Dogtooth moulding is
usually
associated with the Early English style, however, rather than the Norman
period, and so its presence here must surely indicate that the date is
late - c. 1200 or a little afterwards. Perhaps the restored and
very simple N. doorway was the original entrance for there is nothing to
indicate an equally late date for this, nor for the little Norman window to
the east (immediately behind an intervening buttress). Other windows
in the nave comprise one Early English window on each side, with differing
forms of plate tracery, and two Perpendicular S. windows with supermullioned
tracery. The nave roof was once of couple type, with little arched
braces at the sides supported on nicely carved angel corbels (still
surviving at the east and west ends) and with traceried spandrels above, but
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, tie beams were added, one of
which is dated 1590, and two, 1638, the first also bearing the name
'Thomas Frost' and the others, the initials 'C.P.' and 'S.P.'.
The open, half-timbered S. porch has been partially rebuilt but retains its
original (perhaps fourteenth century) outer arch, its early date indicated by the
cruck construction.
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The chancel is lit by restored lancets at the sides and by a five-light
Tudor-style window to the east (short and square-headed, with four-centred,
uncusped lights), which in fact dates from 1697 when the length of the
chancel was reduced. Presumably this is also the date of the chancel
roof, which is much too low-pitched to look right here, even though the
beams are proudly carved with the name 'Edward Grove', and the
motto, 'Soli Deo' ['to God alone']. The chancel arch, however (shown left),
'is very original and successful' (Nikolaus Pevsner & James Bettley, The
Buildings of England: Suffolk West, New Haven & London, Yale University
Press, 2015, p. 185) and consists of a narrow central arch with hollow
chamfered mouldings above moulded semicircular corbels, and large side
arches, constructed, in Pevsner's view, to hold side altars.
There are a few items of woodwork to mention. The
chancel was dramatically refurbished in the 1980s when the modern stone
altar was placed in the centre and nearly all the furniture was removed, but
it does still contain one short and two long mediaeval benches, all with
poppyheads and traceried bench-ends, as well as an excellent chest, probably
of Decorated (early fourteenth century) date, closely covered with tracery and carvings of animals, fish and birds.
The nave retains eleven old benches (mostly at the back) with traceried
bench-ends and figure poppyheads, while above the S. door hang the arms of
George I, clearly dated 1726.