Hargrave, Suffolk

Back on course I found St Edmund surprisingly open given its location up a lane and quite isolated and charmingly rustic. You enter, unusually, via the chancel - which is separated from the nave by a simple screen with naive carvings in the spandrels -  and immediately the simplicity of the building enwraps you. I have to say that St Edmund was my favourite visit of the day.

ST EDMUND. Plain Tudor brick tower with buttresses and a Perp stone window. Nave and chancel. The S doorway Transitional and very simple. The chancel windows E. E. but all C19. Humble N aisle of 1869. - SCREEN. Perp, rather raw; the top parts must have been odd. (On the E face carvings of a dragon, a fox, fishes, a unicorn, etc. Carved rood beam above. LG) - PLATE. Cup 1663.

HARGRAVE. In this charming corner of England, now with a hall, church, and rectory among the cornfields away from the village, the Normans built a church, but only their plain doorways are left. The brick tower was built in the 15th century when the chancel was 200 years old. There is a 15th century font with an old cover, and an old carved roodbeam; but the best possession is the 15th century oak screen, with fine carvings of a fox and a unicorn, with dragons, fishes, and eagles.

Flickr.