Monument record BTM 003 - Church of St Mary

The church of St Mary lies within diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, archdeaconry of Sudbury, deanery of Mildenhall. Status : rectory (S1). The structure is : chancel, nave, N aisle, S aisle, S porch, W tower (S2). The style of architecture is mostly Decorated, the W tower is perhaps a little earlier. The chancel contains an E window of 5 lights with reticulated tracery and two low side windows, both rebated for shutters. There is an aumbry in the N wall of the chancel and two consecration crosses, one on the N wall and one on the S side. The chancel piscina is C14 and has ogee arches, beside this is a dropped window sill sedilia. The font is a stone octagon with a mason's pattern book of tracery motifs on the C14 bowl; the shaft is modern. The pulpit is Jacobean. The arcades are Decorated and consist of four arches on each side of the nave which are double-chamfered and have hood-moulds on the heads; the supporting pillars are octagonal. The E window in the S aisle contains Decorated glass and depicts the figures of St John the Baptist and St Edmund. In the S wall there was a piscina, but this was stopped up. In a window in the N aisle are the arms of John de Dreux, Duke of Brittany, created Earl of Richmond in 1268. A green bird with yellow wings is the motif in most of the other N aisle windows. At the E end of the N aisle is an image bracket. The S porch is Perpendicular. A C14 stoup from the S porch now lies outside the N door of the nave. A damaged stoup remains inside the S door. The tower is divided into two stages: the lower stage and the Decorated W doorway are late C12. It has many features of supposed Anglo-Saxon work and "long-and-short" work at the angles. The church contains some good open seats with poppyheads and a C14 chest of seven feet in length which is partly iron-bound. A considerable quantity of old glass, largely C14, remains in the church (S2).
In 1883 the church was repaired. In 1903 the chancel was repaved and decorated and new prayer desks and carved oak seats were installed. Another restoration took place in 1905 (S2).
Dagger, C15, fluted pommel, down-curved arms to guard, blade 11 inches, tang 3.25 inches, pommel 1.25 inches. Dug up in the churchyard in 1920 (ex Rev H A Harris collection)(S3).