Risby, Suffolk

St Giles, open, is a Norman round tower church - so that's a winner in itself - but in addition to that it's full of interest; an east window of re-used medieval glass, wallpaintings, a good chancel screen and a fantastic font. I think on a normal day this would have been my church of the day but so many today had been outstanding it falls into the class of the best last church I visited.

ST GILES. Norman round tower. Two tiers of arched openings at the top. Rude arch with one order of shafts into the nave. Norman nave  - see the top of one former window visible inside. The windows mostly c. 1300; also of that date the doorway. Norman chancel arch, or at least Dec chancel arch in which Norman imposts and abaci and a whole order of Late Norman arch decoration are re-used. To the l. and r. of the wide pointed arch richly Dec niches, two l. and two r., with crocketed ogee gables. The chancel is clearly Dec. The tracery is of the reticulated kind. To the l. and r. of the E window niches with ogee arches. Also ogee-arched PISCINA. Contemporary a small and pretty N doorway with hood-mould on head-stops. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with the Signs of the Evangelists and the Annunciation. - PULPIT. Jacobean.-SCREEN. Narrow but uncommonly fine. l. and r. of the entrance one three-light division (three-light divisions are unusual in Suffolk). Crocketed ogee lights with a trellis of cusped tracery over. - BENCHES. With poppy-heads and decorated seat-backs. - WALL PAINTINGS. A memorable series, though only dimly recognizable. On the N wall, near the W end, a large Ecclesiastic, c. 1200 or a little later. Of the same time scenes in arcades a little further E: the Nativity Story above (e.g. Massacre of the Innocents, Flight into Egypt), Lives of Saints below. Much scroll-work of the C13. Noli me tangere, W of the w window, late C14. - ALTAR CROSS, designed by Pugin. - STAINED GLASS. Chancel SE many C14 fragments. - Nave SE by Kempe, c. 1892. —PLATE. Silver-gilt Paten c. 1580 ; silver-gilt Chalice 1633.

RISBY. It is delightful with shady lanes and lovely gardens, a pool by a row of trees, and a pleasant green; and it has a long narrow church chiefly built when the Norman style was turning into English but the round tower, with its narrow window slits, is Norman. There are old crosses on the gables, and a scratch dial on the 15th century porch, which shelters a good doorway. The Normans built the tower arch and decorated the columns of the chancel arch, which was finished by their successors. On either side are carved niches coloured blue and gold, one having a modern figure of the church’s patron, St Giles, with a fawn. The 15th century screen is delicately carved, and with it still are the doorway and stairs to the roodloft. There are richly carved old benches with poppyheads, a 500-year-old font, an ancient ironbound chest, and traces of painting done in the 14th century when the chancel was built and most of the windows were made. What is left of the old glass is collected in two chancel windows, where saints and kings look out among the brilliantly coloured fragments.

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Westley, Suffolk - St Thomas A Becket

St Thomas A Becket, ruined, is a lovingly maintained but ultimately dull remnant - the ivy covered partial east and west end walls are all that remain and are of little interest.

Of the medieval church of ST THOMAS A BECKET there remains in a field, 1 m. W of the new church, the E wall with the void of the E window.

WESTLEY. It has seen the Romans come and go, and the museum at Bury St Edmunds has a Roman burial urn broken here by an English plough. One of its leafy lanes runs past charming thatched cottages to an orchard and a field where the ruined walls of a church stand, forlorn but hallowed by centuries of prayer. Not far away is a concrete church a little over a century old, with one relic of the mother church - a piece of oak from the ancient chancel screen, carved with a curious face.

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Westley, Suffolk - St Mary

On paper an 1835 concrete church should be appalling but actually St Mary, locked, no keyholder, is a triumph of style over substance. Having checked with Suffolk Churches I didn't miss much inside but the exterior more than made up for it being LNK. I think Pevsner is unduly harsh.

ST MARY. 1835 by W. Ranger. Roman cement, in the lancet style, with a SW tower and a very crude and ignorant spire. - PLATE. Paten 1564; Flagon 1703.

WESTLEY. It has seen the Romans come and go, and the museum at Bury St Edmunds has a Roman burial urn broken here by an English plough. One of its leafy lanes runs past charming thatched cottages to an orchard and a field where the ruined walls of a church stand, forlorn but hallowed by centuries of prayer. Not far away is a concrete church a little over a century old, with one relic of the mother church - a piece of oak from the ancient chancel screen, carved with a curious face.

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Fornham St Martin, Suffolk

St Martin, open, is so thoroughly restored that I took it for a Victorian build - it's not, only the south aisle is from 1870, the nave is old. It's a very dark interior although to be fair by the time I got here storm clouds were gathering. The highlights of the interior are the misericords, unusually re-used in the lectern and reader's desk, and some good stained glass [for the record I don't recall Pevsner's gilded altar putti and if the brass is extant I missed it, also I'm not sure how Mee could misread the misericords so badly]. Despite first impressions I came away feeling that this was really rather special.

ST MARTIN. Perp with a S aisle of 1870. The W tower has unusually tall two-light bell-openings with a transom and battlements with flushwork chequerboard decoration. Nave tracery with straight-sided arches. N porch of brick with a stepped gable. - FONT. Perp, octagonal, simple. - MISERICORDS. Two, re-used in lectern and reader’s desk. They represent St Martin and the Martyrdom of St Thomas Becket. - SCULPTURE. On the altar two small gilded praying putti from some Baroque altar, perhaps in Germany. -  COMMUNION RAIL. Mid C17. - PLATE. Cup c. 1566. - (BRASS. To a man in academic dress; c. 1460. LG).

FORNHAM ST MARTIN. Its 15th century church has a sturdy tower, chequered at the top and with gargoyles under the battlements. There are windows with good pictures of the life of Our Lord, carved stalls, a cherub on each side of the altar, and a font carved about 500 years ago. But we remember more especially two quaint little carvings here, one of a man and a woman on horseback between two winged figures, the other of a knight beheading a lady who is kneeling between a bishop and another knight. There is an inscription to a faithful servant of the church who came to blow the organ Sunday after Sunday for 40 years, and another to Sir Harry St George Ord, who last century gave the best years of his life in the service of the Empire. It was in memory of him that his friend the Sultan of Johore built the village hall. Sir Harry was the first Colonial Governor of the Straits Settlements, and, though a man of Kent, he settled down here for the last few years of his life, which began in 1819 and ended in 1885.

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Timworth, Suffolk

It took me a while to find St Andrew, locked, no keyholder, and as I drove down through the fields I was fairly sure it was going to be LNK. I've visited remoter churches and found them open but with no houses nearby I knew this church would either be locked or permanently open - sadly it's the former. The location is stunning and the south west tower is a relative rarity. It's a shame it's inaccessible because this is a lovely place. Pevsner's so short I wonder if he even visited.

ST ANDREW. Though called rebuilt in 1868, much is clearly of the old building, especially the S porch and the early C14 doorway. Dec nave, E.E. chancel. - COMMUNION RAIL. With twisted balusters.

Another one Mee missed - have I mentioned before that he's very unreliable?

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Ampton, Suffolk

St Peter, locked, keyholders listed but they're all in Great Livermere and I couldn't be arsed to turn around and seek, possibly futilely, them out - searching on Flickr and reading Pevsner this was a mistake so a revisit is required.

I revisited [Mar 2019] and found the keyholder and can confirm this is a wonderous interior.

ST PETER. Nave and chancel and W tower. Much restored by Teulon about 1848. The only interesting part is the N chantry chapel, built, according to its inscription, as a Capella Perpetue Cantarie Johis Coket. The foundation was granted in 1479. Four-centred arch from the church with cresting over. The arch is panelled inside. Nice boarded chancel roof with painted bosses, etc., re-discovered in 1889. - COMMUNION RAIL. Late C18. - PLATE. Paten 1631; Cup 1637; Flagon 1639; Almsdish 1714. - MONUMENTS. Brasses probably of Cokets: kneeling Civilian and Wife, c. 1480 (18 in.); Lady of c. 1480 (17 in.); Lady c. 1490 (12 in.; palimpsest of portion of a lady of c. 1460); two Sons (only 6 in.) c. 1490. All nave floor, except the Lady of c. 1490. This brass is on the N wall of the nave. - William Whettell d. 1628 by Nicholas Stone. Rather flatly modelled frontal bust in an arched niche. Good. - Sir Henry Calthorpe, by John and Matthias Christmas, 1638. Two frontal demi-figures holding hands; in a circular niche. Small figures of children in the ‘predella’ below. Two columns support an open segmental pediment. - Dorothy Calthorpe d. 1693. Kneeling figure in an arched niche, a conservative motif. - James Calthorpe d. 1784. Oval medallion with head in profile, before an obelisk. Attributed to Bacon in Suff. Arch. Soc. vol. I, but not signed.

AMPTON. A lovely village along a quiet road, it is best approached from Ingham by a way through wonderful pine woods where it is dark at noonday. The hall stands in nearly 700 acres of woods and meadows, and has a splendid lake; in its park, among many other fine trees, are Chilean pines, cedars of Lebanon, cork trees, and tulip trees. The great house itself is modern, but its predecessor was the birthplace of Ampton’s famous man, Admiral Fitzroy, one of our pioneer meteorologists. He was born in Trafalgar year in the home of the Calthorpes, and entered the Navy at 14. He was on the famous voyage of the Beagle in which Darwin started his career, and he became interested in forecasting the weather, beginning the first official forecasts in 1861.

There is much to remind us of the Calthorpes in the little 15th century church. A massive marble monument shows Henry Calthorpe of 1536 holding hands with his wife while their sons and daughters kneel below; and near by is a marble bust of Sir Henry of 1628 in his fur-collared robe and ruff. An 18th century tablet shows the profile of James Calthorpe, and an elaborate monument shows Dorothy who founded the charming almshouses in 1693. We see her at prayer, and her inscription begs us to let her rest::

I troubled no man's dust; let others be to me as just.

The chancel has a painted roof, part of which is Jacobean, and an attractive east window of Christ and four saints, Peter, Paul, Edmund, and Ethelred. The chantry was built at the beginning of the Tudor Age by John Coket, and has a fine arch with modern mosaics at the sides, one of St Christopher and one of St George. In the nave are three 15th century brasses with figures of a man, two women, and six children, all unknown; on the wall is an inscription to Jeremy Collier, rector here from 1679 to 1684, historian of the Church and a great controversalist. Macaulay said, “he was, in the full force of the words, a good man.” ‘The rare treasure of the church is its “Sealed Book,” of which neither the British Museum nor the Bodleian has a copy. It is a revised Prayer Book of 1661, with a signed and sealed certificate at the end to prove that it had been examined and found to be a perfect copy of the original parchment Prayer Book attached in 1662 to the Act of Uniformity and called The Book Annexed.

The churchyard has some very old tombstones, one near the porch being to William Sakings of 1689, who during his 78 years was in the service of three Stuart kings. The lovely rectory has a walled garden with a charming cottage and a riotous profusion of flowers.

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Great Livermere, Suffolk

St Peter, open, is a delight but I'm not quite sure why! It's partly the location, partly the wallpaintings, a lot to do with the pulpit and largely the sanctuary altar rails [what at first sight appears to be a pub sign hangs in the west end but on further examination transpires to be a memorial to William Sakings, falconer to Charles 1 & 2 and James 2 - I've never seen anything like it, so that also helps].

ST PETER. The W tower stands only to roof-height. Above that a weatherboarded top with pyramid roof. The stone parts are Dec, see the W window and the tower arch. Dec also the chancel in its present form, though blocked lancet windows tell of an earlier, C1I3, state. Dec E window of three lights. Four-centred arch. The tracery consists of arch-heads upon the three arch-heads of the lights and in the two main shapes thus produced two small cusped reticulation motifs one below the other. Inside, niches l. and r. of the window. The nave windows are Dec too, though the simple N doorway seems to be of c. 1200. A large niche inside, in the N wall, Perp. Also the outline of a Perp Easter Sepulchre in the chancel N wall. The chancel roof has beautifully carved broad wall-plates with various leaf and tracery patterns. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with tracery patterns. - PULPIT. A three-decker of the rare date c. 1700; with acanthus foliage. - BENCHES. One end with elaborate tracery. Three later ones with very coarse, under-developed poppy-heads. One of them is dated 1601. - SCREEN. With broad one-light divisions and ogee tops. - COMMUNION RAIL. Three-sided. Very thin, twisted balusters; Georgian. - WALL PAINTING. Two standing C14 figures, perhaps part of the story of the Three Quick and the Three Dead (nave N wall). Also a Noli me tangere, much faded (nave S wall), and some scroll-work (chancel S wall). - PLATE. Paten c. 1690 ; Cup 1809 ; Almsdish 1823.

GREAT LIVERMERE. It has all the charm of the cottages Suffolk delights in, peeps of a park, and a thatched church which preserves a scratch dial which told the village the time in the days before clocks. The 700-year-old chancel is oldest of all; the chancel arch was made by the 14th century men who built the tower with its odd cap of grey tiles showing just above the nave. The font is 14th century and the porch 15th. On the walls are traces of old paint. By the altar are two canopied niches. There is a 500-year-old screen, and we found here a great rarity, a box-pew with two piscinas in it. The chancel roof is finely carved, but the best possession is the attractive three-decker pulpit, rich with foliage and standing near a vaulted recess in the wall.

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Little Livermere, Suffolk

SS Peter & Paul, ruined, sits in a farmyard and there's a very prominent sign on the gatepost reading PRIVATE PROPERTY KEEP OUT which is, of course, perfectly reasonable but it does mean that it is, sadly, inaccessible. Inaccessible is probably the wrong word as it's ruined but you know what I mean.

ST PETER AND ST PAUL. In ruins. The W tower was heightened, it is said, to be seen from the Hall, no doubt in the C18. Nave and chancel in one with Y-tracery in brick surrounds, i.e. also C18. The N chapel is an C18 addition with a Gothic plaster vault. The N doorway, however, has a decorated Norman lintel, and the NE corner Saxon long-and-short work. The former BOX PEW arrangement is described by Cautley.

Mee missed it.

Troston, Suffolk

St Mary, open, is not just an attractive building in aa attractive setting but it is full of interest with good poppyheads, a Jacobean pulpit, a fine chancel screen, an excellent Harry Stammers east window, a James I set of arms and, it's crowning glory, a very good set of wallpaintings. On top of all that it also was sporting There but not there silhouettes in the pews. On a day of good churches it could easily be the church of the day. Annoyingly I missed the rood screen dado behind the altar.

ST MARY. E.E. chancel with lancet windows N and S (broad rere-arches inside) and an E window with three stepped lancet lights. W tower of c. 1300. Fine, steep tower arch. Dec nave, the two-light windows have in the tracery head the favourite figure of the four-petalled flower. The nave roof has scissor-bracing above as well as below the collar-beams. Perp S porch with flushwork panelling. Entrance with fleurons etc. Three niches above it. Battlements with initials. - PULPIT. Two decker, made up of various parts. The pulpit itself Jacobean, the reader’s desk with parts which may be Italian. - SCREEN Of one-light divisions, with ogee arches and tracery over.* - ROOD LOFT. The E front re-used behind the altar, a rare survival. - COMMUNION RAIL. Jacobean. - BENCHES. With poppy-heads and animals on the arms. - WALL PAINTINGS A large C15 St George, a large C15 St Christopher, a smaller St George of c. 1250, and a Martyrdom of St Edmund. Fragment of a Doom over the chancel arch. - STAINED GLASS. Canopies etc. in the N windows. - PLATE. Almsdish inscribed 1715; Set 1778.

* A will proved in 1459/60 leaves 6:. 8d. to the new making of the candle beam (ARA).

TROSTON. It has many things that make a village charming: timbered cottages in the shade of great trees, delightful gardens, an old barn, a quaint round house with flint walls, and an ancient church with a magnificent medieval porch. The door itself is ancient, its ironwork being 600 years old. The tower and the nave are 14th century and the chancel 13th. The nave has windows with fragments of old glass; the chancel has a double piscina and two rare rings once used for hanging the Lenten veil.

There is a 15th century screen, tall and richly carved; a 13th century font on a big round base; a modern pulpit with a reading desk beautifully carved, and a collection of old and new seats with poppyheads among them, a monkey and a dog and one or two odd beasts. The stairs to the roodloft have gone, but the doors are still here. On some of these walls medieval paintings can still be seen, though most of their glory has vanished. Over the chancel arch is part of a Doom picture, and elsewhere we see a quaint St Christopher with two fishes between his feet, a spirited St George with his horse leaping forward as he slays the dragon, and a scene of the martyrdom of St Edmund with two 13th century soldiers.

The village has two houses each with a memory in the realms of literature. One is the rectory among its fine trees, where Thomas Carlyle came to see an old pupil; the other is Troston Hall on the road to Ixworth, a charming Elizabethan house of red brick with two gables, twisted chimneys, and clipped yew hedges. It has some fine plaster ceilings, a richly carved frieze in the library, and its original hall and staircase. At the beginning of last century it was the home of Capell Lofft, one of the first patrons of Robert Bloomfield.

Edward Capell was one of the earliest commentators on Shakespeare and spent 20 years on a ten-volume edition of the plays. He is said to have transcribed the whole of Shakespeare ten times and he quarrelled with Garrick for speaking many speeches without understanding them. His nephew Capell Lofft inherited Troston Hall at his uncle’s death in 1781, and not only helped Robert Bloomfield but was one of the staunch supporters of Wilberforce in his fight against the Slave Trade.

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Sapiston, Suffolk

St Andrew, open, is in the care of the CCT and is therefore, as you'd expect, rather special. The Norman south door is spectacular, the interior whilst spartan, again as expected, is fantastic [I particularly liked the nave roof] and the location is stunning - it's almost alone out in the fields away from the village. All in all lovely.

ST ANDREW. Nave, chancel, and W tower; S porch. All c. 1300 and a little later. The only older element is the S doorway: Norman, with two orders of shafts, single-scalloped capitals, and arch with an unusual ornamental motif.

SAPISTON. It was here that little Robert Bloomfield did his first day’s work. Suffolk’s nature poet, he was a very small boy when he came to live on William Austin’s farm, half an hour’s walk from the cottage he was born in at Honington. A peaceful spot was the village then, and it seemed to us peaceful now, for we passed through it seeing only one man, and he asleep in his garden. Sapiston has a few pleasant houses on a wooded hill, where we look to Honington over green fields. It has a bridge over the Blackbourne stream, a group of ancient elms, and a 15th century church sharing the loneliness of a beautiful farmhouse. It has a fine Norman doorway with a stone face Robert Bloomfield must have looked at many times, and a Norman font with part of the iron ring to which the lock was fastened when the holy water was guarded against witches. The pulpit and oak reredos are 19th century, but the ancient stairs to the roodloft are still here, and the piscina is curious for having a big opening and a little one, a sort of pigeon-hole 500 years old.

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Culford Heath, Suffolk

St Peter, redundant, has been converted in to a house. This is an extraordinarily remote building and was missed by both Pevsner and Mee. Whilst trying to find a postcode for it I came across this site which documents its conversion. Simon Knott did some research on it and his discoveries can be found here.

Barnham, Suffolk - St Gregory

Whilst it is true to say that St Gregory, open, has suffered from a brutal restoration and that there's not much internal interest, I really liked this church. I may have been influenced by a] they had really gone to town on the 100th armistice remembrance décor, b] the lovely, chatty Vicar who was bustling around when I arrived and c] after the disappointment of finding Elveden LNK it's welcoming open status. Whatever, I really liked this charming church and its rather good AK Nicholson east window, even if Pevsner is sniffy. Whilst writing this I find I've altogether missed the ruins of St Martin - I'll have to go back.

ST GREGORY. Slate roofs. Altogether the church is far too restored to have an architectural story to tell. The only reason for the architectural traveller to enter is the PISCINA of the late C13 with a pointed-trefoiled arch and a pointed trefoil in bar tracery over it. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup; Flagon 1755; Almsdish c. 1756.

BARNHAM. Set among stately firs and by lonely heaths, it is like a corner of Suffolk centuries behind the times, with some of its best possessions tucked away where no car can take us. We came down a lane by a thatched house and the old forge to find a cottage with a vine laden with grapes, and the ruined tower of a vanished church, which has been standing among all this loveliness for 700 years.

Barnham’s quaint houses, not far from the Little Ouse, are as enchanting now as when Robert Bloomfield came this way; he loved it all so much that he put it into a poem in this way:

Fresh from the Hall of Bounty sprung
With glowing heart and ardent eye,
With songs and rhyme upon my tongue,
And fairy visions dancing by,
The midday sun in all his power
The backward valley painted gay;
Mine was the road without a flower,
Where one small streamlet crossed the way.

The old windmill was working in his day, but its long years of service were just over when we called. Close by is the small church, its simple tower in among the trees, its nave sheltering a 13th century font, and in the chancel an exceptionally fine piscina, with tracery above beautiful shafts.

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Elveden, Suffolk

SS Andrew & Patrick, locked, no keyholder, is an astonishing building with two towers and a cloister. It's essentially new build having been enlarged by Duleep Singh in 1869 and then embellished by the first Lord Iveagh in 1904-6. Despite it being new build it is, as I say, atsonihing and full of external interest. Looking at Simon Knott's entry the interior is even better....so of course its kept LNK!

ST ANDREW AND ST PATRICK. Lord Iveagh behaved as lavishly to the church as to the Hall. There was an old church N of the Hall. It had a Norman nave, see one S window, a W tower of c. 1300, with flushwork panelling at the foot, a Dec S chapel (four-light E window with flowing tracery, shafted inside), and a Late Perp S aisle. This was enlarged by Duleep Singh in 1869. Then, in 1904-6, Lord Iveagh employed Caroe to raise this to the standard of the Hall. Caroe added a new N nave and chancel, and in 1922 a new S tower connected with the old church by a long cloister-walk. All his detail is of the most ornate Gothic, that version of c. 1900 which can be called Art Nouveau Gothic. It is full of unexpected and unauthorized turns. The new front e.g. has a small NW turret to balance on the S the projecting tower of the old church. The piers between the end and the old nave defeat description. The roof is of the double-hammerbeam type, but the chancel is so low that the effect is completely different from that in medieval predecessors. The new S tower is more correct, though again sumptuously decorated with flushwork. - STAINED GLASS. E window of the old church by Kempe, 1894; W window of the new church by Sir Frank Brangwyn, 1937. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup ; Paten 1724; Set of 1863-5.

ELVEDEN. Here a Maharajah walked and an admiral was laid to rest, and there are two fine sights for the pilgrim, a church as lovely as any of its kind built in our own day, and a great house with something of the splendour of an Eastern temple.

A mile or so away is a Corinthian stone column 113 feet high, an imposing peace memorial to the men of Elveden, Eriswell, and Icklingham; it is crowned by an urn and inside is a stairway of 148 steps. From this great column the road passes among thousands of stately firs until it brings us to Elveden’s lovely little almshouses by the park gates. Between Elveden and Brandon are miles of heath where the Stone Age men were knapping flints before the dawn of history. (We have seen men doing it still at Brandon.)

The park is glorious with immense firs and pines, and very imposing in it is the great brick house with its stone parapets and balustrades, and with scores of windows looking over lovely lawns and a lake, avenues, and a noble company of cedars. The home of Lord Iveagh, it has a handsome south doorway and a majestic north portico on great columns; but the most striking feature is the immense copper dome above a wonderful hall built last century by the Maharajah Duleep Singh, who rebuilt Admiral Keppel’s old house and lived here long enough to find England as much a home as India. It was he who had the Indian Hall made of richly veined marble, with 28 columns and three big galleries and remarkable doors covered with beaten copper strangely ornamented. For four years 150 men were working here and today the hall with its many treasures is one of the most surprising sights in Suffolk.

Not only the great house, but the church, he lavishly restored; and he lies in a tomb in the churchyard. The church had been here 100 years when Chaucer was a boy, but of the old building only the 14th century chancel arch, the 15th century tower, and fragments of the nave and south porch are left. The rest has been changed into something rich and strange, something Elveden will be proud to show for many years to come, a masterpiece of modern building, notable even in Suffolk where fine churches are everywhere.

The grand tower with its old flintwork looks down on a west doorway with a porch under a fine window, the buttresses panelled, the wall enriched with a saint in a niche, and stone saints and angels taking the place of pinnacles. It is all fine, and the stone and flint patterns delight the eye. A modern arch outside the chancel wall shelters an ancient stone coffin, and at the south side are charming cloisters bringing us to a detached tower where the churchyard meets the park. The cloisters and tower were built in 1922 in memory of Lady Iveagh, and the tower is very beautiful, one of the noblest sights for miles around, a massive pile of stone and flint with panelled buttresses and lovely windows. It has a peal of eight bells and a vaulted roof over an entrance whose archway frames a delightful picture of the hall and its grounds.

Within the church are an east window with fine tracery, a choice piscina and a stone seat, and a south arcade with four arches on panelled pillars with curious capitals. Among a host of elaborate modern things is a simple Norman window, and two other windows are remarkable for curious stone bridges, from which spring the wooden beams of the beautiful roof.

Nearly everything is enriched with excellent ornament. There are two arches from the chancel to the south chapel, where a door brings us to a curious little vaulted room, a sort of lobby for the cloisters. The chancel floor is black and white marble; and the alabaster font is crowded with decorations that have a touch of the East about them and a richness that must have delighted the Maharajah. Another treasure is the alabaster reredos, with canopied niches and a panel showing the Twelve Apostles and 32 smaller saints. There is a lovely screen in the south chapel; a group of oak stalls with delightful carvings showing a man writing, one reading, a king, and a little boy holding a book for his master; and, finer still, the nave roof with its hammerbeams exquisitely carved and its choir of over 30 angels.

There are memorials to men of Elveden who gave their lives for peace, and to heroes who came back, and a window of the Wise Men in memory of Prince Duleep Singh, who also brought rich gifts to the service of the Lord. But the name most honoured here (there is a small wall-monument) is that of Admiral Augustus Keppel, who sleeps amid all this splendour that he never saw. He had seen much fighting abroad and had suffered at the hands of his enemies at home, but his last months were spent in the quietness of Elveden, where he died in 1786. Edmund Burke said that he had ever looked upon him as one of the greatest and best men of his age, and that he loved him accordingly.

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Norton, Suffolk

St Andrew, open, really was pushing it as the light was going fast but was hugely rewarding - and actually the lowering sun flattered the exterior. After Stowlangtoft it provided a more intimate experience but also has fine bench ends, misericords, good glass and an outstanding font.

ST ANDREW. Chancel of c. 1300, see e.g. the lancet window above the priest’s doorway. The E window however looks transitional between Dec and Perp. The N aisle (see the doorway) must have been built in the early C14, and the tower at least begun. Money was left for its completion in 1442. Of that time or later most of the windows. The S aisle has at its base some flushwork chequerboard patterning. S porch with flushwork decoration and a niche above the entrance. The arcade of three bays has concave-sided octagonal piers, each side provided with a shallow blank ogee arch-head (cf. Lakenheath and other places). Double-hollow-chamfered arches. - FONT. Perp, octagonal, and richly carved. The stem is square and has panels and four figures carrying shields, one of them a Wild Man. On the bowl  the four Signs of the Evangelists, and in addition a double eagle, a unicorn, a pelican, and a griffin. - STALLS. Three sections are preserved. They have exceptionally good MISERICORDS, the Martyrdom of St Edmund, the Crucifixion of St Andrew, a Pelican, a Woman warming her feet (January?), a Monk writing, a man whipping a boy’s buttocks, a Lion devouring a Wild Man, etc. - BENCHES. In the aisles. The ends with poppy-heads and animals on the arms. - STAINED GLASS. In the chancel on the S side. Whole figures in the tracery. - PLATE. Paten 1722; Almsdish 1761.

NORTON. Most of its ancient treasures are in the church, standing aloof in a narrow lane with a tall avenue bordering the pathway to its porch. The tower is 14th century, but the church is mainly 15th. The chancel has kept its ancient roof with embattled beam and cornice, and the vestry door still has its old iron handle. A chancel window has delightful old glass with canopies and six saints, among them Andrew in a white robe and Christopher with the Child. An aisle window has more ancient glass with four saintly figures. The finely preserved medieval font is one of the best in Suffolk. The bowl has panels showing a pelican with her young, a unicorn, a double-headed eagle, and a curious figure half-bird and half-beast. Under the bowl are winged angel-heads, and at the corners of the shaft are a lion and a goat, a wild man with a club, and a demon with the world at his feet, which are 15th century.

There is a curious rough-hewn chest, and some old benches with poppyheads and figures on their arm-rests, among them a crowned cockerel, a priest at prayer, and creatures from a nightmare zoo. But the rarest wooden treasures here are eight beautiful stalls, their misereres showing the martyrdoms of St Andrew and St Edmund, a lion devouring a man, a pelican feeding her young, a woman with a book, and greyhounds. On the arms of the stalls are a kneeling priest, a man beating his son, and grotesque animals. Rare treasures indeed are these stalls, 600 years old, and fit for a cathedral.

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Stowlangtoft, Suffolk

I very nearly made a major error at St George, locked, keyholders listed, by almost not seeking out the key - the light was beginning to go and the exterior did not particularly inspire me. Luckily, however, I saw a likely window in the south aisle and changed my mind and so did not miss one of the best interiors in Suffolk to date [unsurprisingly Simon Jenkins doesn't mention it, perhaps he didn't seek out the key - 1000 best churches my arse]. Here is an outstanding collection of bench ends, poppyheads, choir stalls, misericords, early C16th Flemish reliefs, a faded St Christopher and the best Hugh Easton window I've seen to date. Sadly the church is, to all intents and purposes, redundant - in that it is rarely used apart from high days and holidays - but I can't imagine the CCT will not step in at some point.

ST GEORGE. A fine Perp building, tall and aisleless, and vigorous in the simplicity of its decorative enrichments. Said to have been built by Robert Davey, who died in 1401. Flushwork chequerboarding on buttresses and parapets. Flushwork panelling on the S porch. E window of five lights with much panel tracery, nave and chancel with very tall two-light windows, also with panel tracery. The S porch has an entrance still entirely C14 in its responds and arch. One niche above the entrance. Cambered roof with tie-beams in the church. (Ceilure above the rood screen.) - FONT. Octagonal, early C14. Bowl with eight figures under crocketed gables. - SCREEN. Only the dado. Tall and traceried. The panels painted red and green. - BENCHES. Fine set with traceried ends, poppy-heads, and animals on the arms, also seated and kneeling figures. - STALLS. With close tracery on the ends and instead of poppy-heads small standing figures: a preacher in the pulpit, a deacon, a man holding a candlestick, men holding shields, etc. Traceried fronts. Also some MISERICORDS (bird, demi-figure of angel, cockatrice, etc.). - (DOOR. To the upper stages of the tower. Iron-bound in a wickerwork pattern. G. McHardy) - SCULPTURE. l. and r. of the reredos nine Flemish early C16 reliefs. - WALL PAINTING. Huge St Christopher on the N wall. The heron, the lobster, and the fishing hermit ought to be noted. - PLATE. Cup 1562; Salver 1740. - MONUMBNTS. Paul d’Ewes. By John Johnson, the contract of 1624 preserved (for £16 10s.). Stone, painted. Two kneeling wives facing one another. Between them, kneeling frontally, the husband. Children in the ‘predella’. Flat architecture ending in a flat open segmental pediment. - Sir Willoughby d’Ewes d. 1685. Handsome, with scrolly Corinthian pillars and an open pediment.

STOWLANGTOFT. It has a few moated farms (a rare distinction for any village), and a church of the 14th century rich with treasure, standing on a spot where Romans camped, and Normans built. It has its original font and part of the old screen, and wall-paintings in which we can still make out St Christopher striding through the water with lobsters and other dwellers of the deep about his feet. In one corner of the picture is a plump little cherub playing with two rabbits.

But we come to this church for its rare carvings in wood. The six misereres on the choir-stalls rank among the finest in any parish church, having intricate and delicate carvings of angels, eagles, dragons, and other birds and beasts. The crowning glory of all this work, 600 years old, is the collection of poppyheads and carved bench-ends, which are among the finest in the land. Their richness and variety can only be fully appreciated when they are seen. There are more than 60 carved figures and animals, dogs, eagles, hedgehogs, birds with human heads, a grinning cat with its tongue out, a pouter pigeon, a kilted Scot, a chemist with his pestle and mortar, a mermaid admiring her tail, a pig playing a harp, a squirrel biting a nut, and a little child kneeling at a prayer desk. These are a few of the delightfully fantastic designs in this unique gallery of medieval art.

Yet this is not all. The church has been still further enriched by a wonderful series of carvings, nine groups of 15th century Flemish work representing scenes from the Last Days in Jerusalem, set on oak pedestals at the sides of the reredos. In high relief they are carved from solid oak about five inches thick. There are many figures in each group and the clear-cut finish of detail is astonishing. One rare scene is of Christ preaching to the Spirits in prison; in another the mouth of Hell is represented by the open jaws of a monster in the act of swallowing four unhappy victims. Other groups are the Agony of Gethsemane, the Road to Calvary, the Scourging, the Descent from the Cross, the Entombment, the Resurrection, and the Ascension.

Some of the windows were painted last century by a daughter of the rector; in them are small medallions of the Beatitudes and other Bible scenes. Even the lead work of these windows was made at the rectory, where Cardinal Newman would come visiting and would probably see these windows being made. Two modern windows of the chancel have figures of Loyalty, Love, Courage, and Humility, and the alabaster reredos represents the Lord’s Supper.

A 16th century portrait brass has a knight in armour, his wife beside him with her head on a cushion. On a fine canopied wall monument is a figure of Paul d’Ewes, holding a book and kneeling with his two wives and their eight children. One of the children in the group is Sir Symonds d’Ewes, who was born at Coxden in Dorset in 1602 and spent his life in research, studying old documents and manuscripts. He began with the records of the Tower of London and his enthusiasm never wavered. It was his ambition, “if God permit, and that I be not swallowed up of evil times, to restore to Great Britain its true history, the exactest that ever was yet penned of any nation in the Christian world”; but he was inclined to over estimate his capacities, and he is chiefly remembered as a diligent copyist. A strict Puritan and a man of sterling character, he served in the Long Parliament, but was never quite happy in the stormy politics of those times, and when he was expelled by Colonel Pride, with 40 other men, he said Goodbye to Westminster for ever.

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Langham, Suffolk

I haven't a clue about St Mary the Virgin's accessibility as I could find no way to get closer than the nearest road, hence the long distance shot of the exterior. This is, of course, one of [the many] problems of relying on a Sat Nav - if I'd had an OS map I could have found the correct footpath [the fact that I don't own an OS map for the area is neither here nor there]. Anyway it doesn't look very interesting.

ST MARY. Nave and chancel and Victorian bellcote. Nave re-built in 1887. Chancel with four tall windows. The E window is of 1877 but may well represent what was there before: three lights and a large circle enclosing four un-encircled quatrefoils. Niches l. and r. of the window inside. The side windows have the familiar four-petalled flower in the tracery heads. - FONT. Dec, octagonal, with shields and lions’ heads under ogee arches. - SCREEN. Very good, with tracery on the dado, one-light divisions, ogee arches, much close panel tracery above them, and the complete loft parapet towards the W. - PLATE. Flagon 1712.

LANGHAM. A drive through the park brings us past the great house to the little 14th century church, remote and isolated, nestling in a hollow and protected by a ring of noble chestnuts and beeches. It is all very far from the noise and bustle of the world, and still keeps the old mass dial which has been on the sunny wall from the days before clocks. It is all in perfect order, like a garden. A bell-turret takes the place of the tower. The canopied piscina of the 14th century has a stone shelf, and there is a graceful canopied niche on each side of the altar. The panels of the 15th century screen are rich with carving and the 15th century font has panels with shields. From two modern windows a gentle Madonna in a jewelled robe looks down in pitying compassion, and a valiant St George is in memory of the seven men who gave their lives for us.

Badwell Ash, Suffolk

St Mary, open, is a delight - a proper Hobbiton building - and inside it gets better with a hammerbeam roof complete with angels, a fine font and good glass. All in all a building to relish.

ST MARY. The PISCINA in the S aisle is of c. 1300, i.e. has no ogee forms yet. The arcade between nave and aisles with tallish octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. The chancel is Dec too. The tracery in the two-light windows has the motif of the four-petalled flower. The N nave windows are Perp, tall, of two lights. On the S side at that time the clerestory was built or rebuilt with seven windows as against the four bays below. Roof with alternating hammerbeams and tie-beams on short arched braces. Both rest on wall-posts with small  figures. Against the hammerbeams bigger figures. The W tower is Perp too. Flushwork emblems on the base, flushwork panelling on the battlements, and an inscription asking for prayers for John Fincham and his wife. Perp finally the S porch. This has a facade with flushwork panelling all over. In the spandrels of the entrance arch St George and the Dragon. Flushwork emblems on the buttresses; for instance a plough and the blacksmith’s tools. One niche above the entrance. - FONT. Octagonal, Dec. Shields on the stem. On the bowl ogee arches carried by heads. Embattled top. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup and Paten.

BADWELL ASH. As we come along the village street toward the neat little 13th century church we see against the sky, round the top of the fine flint panelled tower, an unusual frieze of lettering of which we can make out only an occasional word or character, so whimsical is the ancient spelling and so curious their order, sometimes even upside down. The vicar kindly supplied a translation from the parish records, and then, piecing out word by word the pious exhortation of the 14th century benefactors, we send a friendly thought back through the centuries as we read:

Pray for the good estate of John Fincham and Marget hys wyf.

Eight lifesize angels hold up the high-pitched roof of oak, and on the corbels below them are 16 figures of saints. Trefoiled windows add to the beauty of the clerestory. The rood stairway remains in many churches of the neighbourhood, but not often do we see, as here, a small carved door opening to the foot of the stair; it is only 16 inches wide. A little saint’s head in old yellowish glass is left of the early painted windows; and most effective are the figures of Christ, the Madonna, and St Peter on the clear glass background of the modern east window. St George and St Michael look down from a window to the Fallen.

The picturesque moat at Badwell Green is still filled with water.

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Walsham le Willows, Suffolk

St Mary the Virgin, open, had converted itself into a piece of installation art to commemorate the 1918-2018 anniversary of the WWI armistice - it was truly splendid. It's a big, blousy building with a very good St Dorothy window by Rosemary Rutherford, an excellent Nave hammerbeam roof, a very good north aisle roof, a stunning north porch and other bits and pieces of interest [somehow I missed the virgin's crant] but, if I'm honest, I think if I had visited at any other time I think I'd probably describe it as anodyne. Those poppies were something else!

ST MARY. Perp throughout. W tower with flushwork panelling on the battlements. N porch with a flushwork lozenge pattern all over. Wood panelling inside the porch gives the date 1541 and has Roman lettering. The N aisle has a base of the same flushwork lozenge pattern. The clerestory has doubled windows and flushwork emblems between them. The S aisle is more modest and has no porch. Seven-bay arcades. Concave-sided octagonal piers, double-hollow-chamfered arches. The piers have on each side at the top a small cusped blank ogee arch. Beautiful roof of low pitch with alternating tie-beams and short hammerbeams, both very delicately ornamented. The shafts for the hammerbeams and braces go down between the clerestory windows. - SCREEN. Dated 1441.* Tall one-light divisions with ogee arches. Original coving and cresting. The dado is painted red and dark green with flowers on. - BENCH ENDS. A few. - REREDOS. Last Supper, by G. Tinworth, in terracotta. Dated 1883. - DOOR. The inner door to the vestry is leather-covered. - PANELLING. In the aisles. One panel is dated 1620. - STAINED GLASS. Bits in the E window. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup.

* A will of 1448 leaves 6s. 8d. to the fabric of the new rood beam and one of 1459 11 marks to the new stonework (ARA).

WALSHAM-LE-WILLOWS. The picturesque timbered houses of this delightful place stand back from the road in their pleasant gardens, which we found lovely with spring flowers. Full of dignity is the embattled and pinnacled tower of the spacious church, a fine example of 15th century work, and exceptional in the fact that all its chief architecture is of the same period-arcades, roof, clerestory, font, piscina, chest, screen, and painted glass.

A little of the early colour on the fine hammerbeam roof still shows here and there. The bosses are eight-rayed stars, but the angels once supporting it have disappeared. Not a trace of its angelic glory is left; even the angel’s wing which lingered at the rectory has vanished. Charming is the fan-vaulting and cornice of the wide screen. Here, as in the roof, the rich colour has faded, but enough is left to tell us of its primitive beauty. The old glass in the east window is one of the lucky discoveries of the village; it was found in 1805 wrapped in paper in an old box. Its glowing colours are seen to great advantage charmingly mounted on tinted glass, the arms of England and France among the fragments. An ancient ironbound chest with a domed top and one or two panelled benches and poppyheads are left of the original woodwork, and smiling stone cherubs and angel faces look down from the spandrels of the chancel arch.

The most curious thing we found here was a pendant memorial in the nave, a white stone oval about nine inches long. It hangs by a wire from a short rod projecting from the nave wall below the clerestory. On one side an arrow points to a heart and a death’s head, the name Mary Boyce being cut in rude lettering; on the other side is the date of her death in 1685: she is said to have died of a broken heart at 20. There would be hung on this stone, in keeping with the medieval custom here, one of those bridal garlands which were hung by the young girls of the village in remembrance of friends who died too young to marry. We have found such garlands hanging in several churches still, and up to a century ago five garlands were hanging on this stone. The thought of them brings us into Shakespeare, for these garlands were the “virgin crants” allowed at Ophelia’s funeral; and it was the fact that she was permitted these things which angered the priest so that Ophelia’s brother burst out to him with righteous passion:

I tell thee, churlish priest,
A ministering angel shall my sister be
When thou liest howling.

A fascinating bit of ancient carving is hidden under the book-rest of one of the choir-stalls, a tiny panel hardly seen in the shadow, with fine details only visible by the help of a light. They show the head and body of a man thrust forward and held down under the teeth of a portcullis, and we can well imagine with what glee the old craftsman would work at this droll bit of imagery, and the delight it must have given to generations of choristers weary of long sermons.

At the foot of a pillar in one of the aisles is a group of old tiles, highly glazed with strange designs of heads and animals. The rectory was once the prior’s lodge of a religious house, and has a huge fireplace and thick walls, with a 16th century shield carved on an ancient beam.

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Stanton, Suffolk - All Saints

I was so certain that All Saints, open, would be LNK that I almost didn't try the door but I did and entered a light and airy interior. If I'm honest this is another highly scrubbed interior but obviously it's a well loved building and the congregation plainly wants to make visitors welcome and for that alone I think it's lovely.

ALL SAINTS. Fine spacious Dec chancel (spoiled by the organ!) with reticulated E window, ogee-headed PISCINA, and SEDILIA, three seats plainly separated by stone arms. Ornate Dec S aisle with segment-headed three-light E window, also with reticulated tracery. S windows straight-headed. Ballflower frieze all along the outside. Four-bay arcade, not high, with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. Low clerestory with quatrefoil windows. In the aisle tall damaged tomb recess, cusped and subcusped and crowned by a big crocketed ogee gable. Pretty PISCINA in the window corner, also Dec. The nave is Dec, see the N windows. The S porch tower could, if anything, be a little earlier. Double-chamfered entrance with continuous moulding. Inside originally two-bay blank arcading. The tower top fell in 1906.

STANTON. We come to it by a charming timbered house with overhanging Tudor gables above its tiny windows. A shallow stream runs down one side of the street and each thatched cottage in its garden has a bridge. Of the two churches here one is used and one is all forlorn, though not forgot. All Saints has been here 600 years, and it is still used; but in 1906, to the distress of the village, its fine old tower fell down in the night. The plans for its rebuilding were held up when we called, though the old bell was ringing for service from the fork of a huge elm tree.

The graceful 14th century ballflower ornament enriches the old parapet, and above the outer wall of the vestry are the remains of a gabled chimney. The interior is simple and dignified, lit by low clerestory windows. An exquisite arch, probably built for the founder’s tomb, rises nearly to the roof; there are clusters of oak leaves in the wide spandrels with a little face peeping from each cluster. A fine bit of stonework is a cinquefoiled piscina with a canopy and a detached pillar.

The lost church of St John’s is on a hilltop above the village, with a windmill for its neighbour. The two churches were under one rector from the 14th century till 1876, when the last service was held in St John’s. It is now a lovely and deserted ruin with its tower set high on two open arches. We found the ivy climbing up the buttresses and through the broken windows, flinging its festoons across the battlemented roof. The lovingly tended graves that lie about it are neatly kept and bright with flowers.

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Wattisfield, Suffolk

St Margaret, open, is, if truth be told, a rather barren interior having been scrubbed to within an inch of tis life by, I assume, a Victorian restoration. Brownie points earned for being open though.

ST MARGARET. Unbuttressed W tower, the tower arch of c. 1300 or earlier. Base outside with flushwork panelling. The bell-openings are Perp, of two lights with tracery. Nave and chancel Perp with two-light and three-light windows. The S porch must once have been quite an ambitious piece with flushwork decoration, but it fell on evil days and was repaired extensively in brick. Good C14 timber N porch. - FONT. Octagonal, Perp, with panelled stem and shields on the bowl. - (SCREEN. Parts in the prayer-desk and lectern. LG) - STAINED GLASS. E window typical of c. 1850. - PLATE. Two Elizabethan Cups.

WATTISFIELD. Across the fields its musical chimes ring out from the tower of the simple 15th century church, in which one of the bells has rung the people to worship since the 16th century. There are two porches, one of flint and a long timbered one with railed sides. One of its daintiest possessions is a 14th century gem of a piscina with a cusped and feathered canopy, beautiful with ball-flower and trefoils. An arch springs from each side of its detached pillar, and some artist of an original turn of mind has carved a man's head at the end of one arch. The 15th century font has shields and niches. An arch of a gilded and painted screen which was once a glory of the church has been found hidden away in the rectory. An ancient and very high chest is carved with the heads and claws of griffins. A monument to the Bokestans has two alabaster busts; the husband’s hand is resting on his wife’s, and hers is on a skull. Below are smaller busts framed in wreaths, and the perfect beauty of the features and hands is remarkable. *

* I saw no sign of this and, obviously, Pevsner makes no reference to it.

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Hepworth, Suffolk

St Peter, locked, no keyholder, is a Victorian rebuild - it burnt down in 1898 - and I found it unusually good of its kind. I don't think I missed much inside except the font cover which sounds fascinating.

ST PETER. Burnt down in 1898 and rebuilt by J. S. Corder of Ipswich. The tower arch is completely unmoulded and may well indicate that the lower parts of the tower were early C13. Higher up small Dec windows of quatrefoils in circles. Chancel Dec; nave with tall two-light Perp windows. In the porch fragments of the Norman church preceding that which is represented by the present building. - FONT COVER. An admirable piece and apparently unrestored, i.e. with no missing parts replaced. Tall, of pinnacle shape. On the lowest floor panelling projecting in five little lobes like the oriel window of the Hengrave gatehouse or the windows of Henry VII’s Chapel. They are meant to represent whole structures; for tiny men come out of tiny doors as in the familiar German weather-boxes. - BENCH ENDS. Some; with poppy-heads. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup; Paten 1817.

HEPWORTH. Little more than a generation ago its 13th century church was one of the churches with a thatched roof, but the thatch vanished in a fire caused by a smouldering beam. In all other respects the church has reproduced the style of the earlier building, and the treasures saved from the fire are housed in a harmonious setting. All is in beautiful order. Everything that can be cleaned we found bright and gleaming, with soft blue curtains hanging by the long, deep windows. The hammerbeam roof of English oak can well compare with some of the fine old roofs for which the county is famous. The chancel is paved in polished blocks of black and white marble.

A few of the old seats and choir-stalls are here, and the special treasure is the 14th century font with its astonishingly fine cover. This is in carved oak black with age and covered with intricate designs. In each panel is a niche containing a battlemented castle, and fascinating little wooden figures of men and children in medieval dress are going in, coming out, or peeping from the castle door. The women and the angel at the Tomb are in a lovely modern window; and the brass memorial to the Fallen, given by the women of Hepworth, has the words: “They were a wall unto us both by night and day.” Over the door is a shining set of ten old handbells, and we read with delight in the little tower the sage advice to ringers:

Do not ring and run away,
Leaving other folk to pray.

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Coney Weston, Suffolk

I visited St Mary shortly after winter opening times were announced - they're Sats & Suns and over the Christmas holidays for those interested - and the notice said it will re-open on Ash Wednesday, followed by a stentorian announcement that all visitors should sign the visitors book. Luckily the notice went on to note that the key is available during the week from the churchwardens...unfortunately I could find no reference to the said churchwardens contact details.

Having said that this is a marked improvement for a church that seems to have always been historically LNK.

ST MARY. Outside the village. Nave and chancel, both Dec, the nave thatched. The W tower fell a long time ago. A two-bay N chancel chapel has been pulled down. The nave S wall and the S porch have knapped flint walls. In the outside chancel S wall a low tomb recess. Inside there are two cusped niches to the l. of the chancel arch, and two not quite so tall ones to its r. Angle PISCINA in the chancel with angle shaft and a gable starting with vertical pieces. To its l. remains of a remarkably large niche which must have been placed in the angle between E window and piscina. - FONT. Octagonal, Dec. With a number of tracery motifs of the date and also a panel with twelve roses and two with big square leaves. - TILES. Some in the NW corner. - PLATE. Elizabethan Cup; Paten 1678.

CONEY WESTON. It has one of the thatched roof churches of the 14th century. It has lost its tower, which fell in and was never set up again; we asked an old man how it happened and it seems he had always believed that the Romans and the Saxons knocked it down! The  oldest thing we found here was a mass dial from the days before clocks, the loveliest thing we found was a graceful corner piscina with a detached pillar and a fine canopy. There are also canopied stone seats for the priests, and niches on each side of the altar with traces of early colourings lingering in them.

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