Church Heritage Record 633045

Nave, W tower, S porch, chancel, vestry N of chancel with boiler-house beneath.

Nave: 51’6’’ x 21’2’’; Chancel: 31’ x 17’2’’; Tower: 9’2’’ N-S, 45’ high; Porch: 9’8’’ N-S x 8’ E-W

Prehistoric, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and medieval finds have been reported in the local area. As the site of a church since the thirteenth century the archaeological potential of the building and its site is likely to be high. The churchyard is heavily buried, with many monuments. There are no known ecological designations, but there are mature trees in the churchyard.

Both churches are mentioned in the Domesday book. No definitive reason has been given for the building of two church in such close proximity; it may simply be that the plot formed the best building ground of two adjacent manors.

The west tower is of deteriorating grey render over red brick. It is squat in appearance, without a spire, and with mismatched clasping buttresses to N and S, the latter plain brick, the former with ashlar details infilled with brick. The west doorway to the tower is of great interest. The door itself is wooden, two-leaf, and pierced with holes said to have been made by the bullets of Parliamentarian soldiers. It is set in a stone surround, very slightly pointed, decorated with one order of fleurons; then a hoodmould with worn headstops and a dripstone with a demi-angel above. In the spandrels of the arch are weathered shields with the arms of Roger Garnon on the L and, quartered with those of his wife, on the R. Above this is a row of shields which can by their heraldry be dated to the late C13 – reincorporated from an earlier tower, as money was left for building the present tower between 1452 and 1465. In the centre are the arms of Thomas de Brotherton, Earl of Suffolk, and Norfolk and son of Edward I. Trimley was one of his many manors and he may well have built St Mary’s. The rampant lion on the L probably stands for Sir John Mowbray, Brotherton’s son-in-law, and the third shield bears the arms of Sir Walter Manny. Smaller, flanking shields display the Blessed Virgin’s monogram and lily pot emblem. The top of the tower was rebuilt in 1960 after many years as a ruin. A plinth runs around the base of the tower; on the N side it is decorated with cusped lancets in ashlar.

There is a splayed junction between the tower and the N aisle. Moving east along the N façade, there is a square-topped two-light window with cusped tracery, and a hoodmould with headstops, C19; then the north doorway, C14, which has an ogee’d stone surround with a hoodmould with worn headstops and a head at the top. The north door itself is C19, single-leaf, with an attractive and unusual two-light opening, fitted with wrought iron grilles. East of the north door is a rendered buttress, then a three-light pointed window with a hoodmoould with label-stops, then a two-light square-topped window with a hoodmould with worn headstops. The division between the nave and the chancel on the N side is defined by another weathered buttress. The chancel has a square window, without tracery.

Projecting from the chancel on the N side is the vestry, of 1901. It has buttress to E and W. On its W side the vestry has two square-topped windows, single-light, each with a cusped lancet and trefoils in the spandrels, and hoodmoulds with label-stops. In between, a chimney-stack. On the N side, a square-topped window, four-light, similarly of cusped lancets and trefoils in the spandrels, with a hoodmould with label-stops. On the E side, a doorway with three steps, a single-leaf wooden door in a pointed surround, and a hoodmould with headstops. Beside this doorway is a deep arched recess, covered with an iron gate. Within this recess are two cusped lancet windows in stone surrounds.

The E wall features a three-light window with geometric tracery, three lancets with roundels containing trefoils above; the window has a hoodmould with headstops. In the apex of the E gable is a trefoil. The E end of the church does not have buttresses, nor are the gables coped.

The S wall of the chancel has, from E to W, a two-light window, pointed, cusped lancets with a quatrefoil above, with a hood-mould with label stops; then, a two-light window with unusual tracery, round-topped lancets with a leaf-like form above, and a hood-mould with headstops; then a small square-topped window, a single cusped lancet with trefoils.

Between the chancel and the nave is a brick and stone buttress. The S wall of the nave, E to W, has a two-light window, pointed, with cusped lancets with a quatrefoil above, with a hood-mould with worn head stops. Then a two-light window with perpendicular tracery, with a hoodmould with label-stops. Beyond the S porch on the S side, a two-light window with perpendicular tracery and a hoodmould with label stops

The gabled S porch has, to E and W, a two-light window with perpendicular tracery and a hoodmould with label stops; clasping buttresses; and a S doorway with fleurons in the moulding, shields in the spandrels, and the remains of a demi-angel at the top. There is a drip-moulding above at a lower pitch, perhaps reflecting the line of an earlier roof.

The S porch has a flat ceiling and a tiled floor and benches to E and W. The outer S doorway has fleurons to the moulding. The inner S doorway has a gentle ogee, and a hoodmould with headstops, and contains a two-leaf studded wooden door; there is a restored stoup alongside.

There is a step down into the nave, on to a ledger slab. The nave, with its boarded wagon roof has been cleared of benches. The C13 chancel arch has responds with broad mouldings that lap round on each side. There is no trace of the original rood screen except the blocked doorway of the access stairs on the S side; opposite, to the N, a blocked window. There is a piscina of about 1400 in the N wall, showing that there was a nave altar nearby before the Reformation. The windows have deep arched surrounds.

The 1850s roof of the chancel has painted ribs, and there is a two-bay celure enriched with bosses and sacred monograms. The panelled walls of the sanctuary below are painted with stencilled patterns. There is a plain piscina in the chancel dating from about 1300, with a contemporary aumbry in the N wall provided with elaborate doors made by local craftsmen, a Mr Howard and a Mr Finch. In a deep arched surround, to the N, the door to the vestry, which contains the organ blower and still has its inbuilt cupboards.

At the W end of the nave, the tower arch has corbels carved with angels. The base of the tower now contains lavatories and a kitchen; and stairs up to the bell-chamber.