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.

Flickr.