Church of St Mary the Virgin
CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1033223
- Date first listed:
- 09-Dec-1955
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary the Virgin
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 1999-09-23
- Reference:
- IOE01/00625/03
- Rights:
- © Mr George C Scott. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1033223
- Date first listed:
- 09-Dec-1955
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Mary the Virgin
- Statutory Address 1:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- CHURCH OF ST MARY THE VIRGIN
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Suffolk
- District:
- Mid Suffolk (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Earl Stonham
- National Grid Reference:
- TM 10779 58839
Details
TM 15 NW
5/101
EARL STONHAM
FORWARD GREEN
Church of St. Mary the Virgin
9-12-55
GV
I
Parish church, medieval with major phases of mid C14 and early C16.
Restoration of 1874. Nave, chancel, north and south transepts, south porch
and west tower. Flint rubble, mainly plastered, with freestone dressings.
Nave roof slated, chancel roof concrete plaintiled, other roofs mainly leaded;
parapet gables throughout. Some C13 fabric in chancel including a lancet in
north wall. Double-bowl piscina is possibly C14 but reusing late C13 bowls; a
pair of sedilia have a crouching hound between them, and another chancel
window is also of c.1300. Major rebuilding of nave and addition of transepts
and porch in mid C14. The porch has an image niche, and moulded cornice and
bargeboards. A number of 2-light C14 windows, some with individual tracery; a
priest's doorway north and south nave doorways, and large east and west
windows. Fine tower of c.1500: flushwork tracery to the buttresses, plinth
and parapets; good west doorway with traceried doors; the C14 west window is
reused above it. In early C16 a clerestory was formed above the nave, with
more flushwork tracery between the windows and at the parapets. Very fine 10-
bay hammer-beam nave roof, richly carved and moulded throughout, alternate
trusses have true or false beams, the former carved as angels, the latter
having pendentive posts with carved bosses. Figures in canopied niches are at
each wallpost. Chancel roof plainer and much restored in C19. C15 octagonal
limestone font; alternate faces of bowl have figures and emblems. Octagonal
pulpit, temp. James II, with strapwork-enriched arcading. The C19 choirstalls
incorporate C15 tracery from rood-screen, as well as 4 fine bench ends with
carved figures. 6 poppyhead pews, also C15, are included in C19 nave seating.
A fine painted doom over the chancel arch; another painting in south transept
(damaged). Others found in north transept in C19 were destroyed during
rebuilding but recorded on paintings in the church. Some fragments of C14
glass. For details of nave roof and its imagery, The Fool in Medieval Church
and Plays: Suffolk Review, April 1985: Timothy Easton. Suffolk Churches: H.
Munroe Cautley, 1937.
Listing NGR: TM1077958839
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 279350
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Munro Cautley, H, Suffolk Churches and their Treasures, (1937)
Suffolk Review in April, (1985)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jun-2026 at 14:02:56.
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