Capel St Mary, Suffok

St Mary, open, is a striking building sitting highish above the main village street, judging the book by its cover I like it a lot. The interior is very high church, almost Roman Catholic, with a rood, an excellent high church reredos and stations of the cross [most sadly hidden behind flower arrangements on the windowsills rendering them impossible to photograph], there's also some good glass by FC Eden and Maille. You could almost see the non existent "smells and bells". As much as I liked it, I did find it rather spartan and would have hoped to find, in a church of this scale, more of interest inside.

ST MARY. Dec chancel, the windows on the S side with spurs between the foils or cusps of the tracery. Pretty Dec chancel doorway with foliage decoration. Perp E window. Perp also the S aisle and S porch (outer doorway with fleuron decoration). Sturdy W tower formerly with a spire. Plain arcade with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. Hammerbeam roof, without hammer-posts. The arched braces rest directly on the hammerbeams. There are no collars either. - PULPIT. C18, with tester. Painted in imitation of inlay.*

* No longer extant.

CAPEL ST MARY. The Madonna greets us from her niche over the doorway of the fine 15th century porch, which has an embattled wood cornice and shelters an old studded door. Outside are queer little grotesques, one with a bunch of hops in its mouth; inside is splendid carving and glass. The east window is one of the delights of the village, showing in charming colours the four archangels: Michael with his spear in the dragon's mouth, Raphael leading a little boy, Oriel with a book, and Gabriel taking the good news to the Madonna. There is fine carving in the magnificent hammerbeam roofs, which add a touch of splendour to this little place, the nave roof having an exquisite choir of angels, some with harps and flutes and some with trumpets.

Flickr.