Monument record KBA 004 - Church of St Mary

This church is n the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the archdeaconry of Sudbury and the deanery of Lavenham. Status: rectory (S1). The structure of the church is: chancel, N vestry, nave, S porch, W tower (S2).
The church is Decorated with a few Perpendicular insertions. The chancel contains a four-arched and pillared piscina and sedilia with moulded trefoil arches and fine heads at each end. They date from the C14; they take forms which suggest circa 1300. The C14 windows of the chancel are unusual. The reticulated E window dates from 1902. The nave is Norman. There is a Norman slit window (now blocked up) on the N side of the nave with an early C14 scroll printing on its internal splays. The nave roof has tie-beams and king posts supported by fascinating stone corbels. The font is a square-bowled C12 type which could well be Norman: it has big chevrons, not accurately placed, and strips of triangles as decoration. The tower is square and of flints, and is a good plain specimen of the Decorated style. It has diagonal buttresses reaching the base of the parapet at all four corners. The S porch is constructed of brick and dates from the C18; it contains the original C18 wooden seats and a Holy Water stoup. The S doorway dates from the transitional period between the Norman and Early English styles of architecture, i.e. late C12, early C13. The shafts and scalloped capitals are purely Norman, but the arch is pointed. Primitive dog-tooth ornamentation appears on the arch (S2).
The Kettlebaston Alabasters were discovered in the chancel wall in 1864, (only reproductions exist in the church today). They depict the Annunciation, the Ascension, the Coronation of the Virgin and the Holy Trinity. The originals, circa 1350, are priceless and, because of this, are housed in the British Museum (S2).
The church was restored in 1879 and the chancel in 1902 (S2).