Monument record HGW 008 - Church of St Ethelbert

St Ethelberts is within diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, archdeaconry of Sudbury, deanery of Mildenhall. Status : rectory (S1).
The structure is : chancel, nave, S transept, embattled W tower. In 1869 a fire destroyed the church and it had to be rebuilt by Sir Arthur Blomfield. Thus two distinct churches have existed on the site.
The earlier church (ie pre 1869) had a chancel with a 3-light E window. On each side of the E window was a niche with pedestals at the bottom. In the S wall, at the E end of the chancel, was a piscina and sedilia. The side windows of the chancel had geometrical and flowing tracery and on the N side was a 'blocked up' doorway. The nave windows were generally early Decorated. The font was Norman of stone and circular. The panels of the bowl showed the serpent tempting Eve and other grotesque figures on the N and W sides; the other sides were ribbed in different forms. There was a chapel on the W side of the church. This was 14 feet 1 inch long from E to W and 15 feet 10 inches from N to S, and in its S wall was a deep niche. The S transept contained two good Decorated windows and a poor piscina. The S porch was early Decorated, it had square-headed windows and a water stoup on the right side of the door. The 'new' church (ie built after the 1869 fire) has an Early English style of architecture. The chancel has a "low-side" window which is the lower half of a C14 window formed by the introduction of a transom. The nave has C12 engaged columns to quoins at the NE and SE corners. They indicate the size of the original Norman church. The tower is incorporated into the walls at the W end of the nave. The S N and E walls of the tower, on the inside, are supported by arches and detached columns and buttressed by flying buttresses at the SE and NE corners. After the rebuilding of the church a great many fine windows were inserted. These include windows by Christopher Whall, Jasper Brett, and James Clarke. A series of memorial windows to the Davis family is particularly fine (S2).