Church of St Stephen, Higham

Summary

A rural parish church dating to 1858-1861 with a highly distinctive round west tower, designed by George Gilbert Scott in a mid-thirteenth century English Gothic style.

Reasons for Designation

St Stephen’s Church, a rural parish church built between 1858 and 1861 to the designs of George Gilbert Scott and surviving largely unaltered, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a complete example of a church built in a single phase to the designs of the nationally significant architect George Gilbert Scott;

* for its distinctive round west tower, a regional feature mainly found in Suffolk and Norfolk, reinterpreted in High Victorian Gothic style and thought to be the only round tower built by Scott;

* for the quality of its craftsmanship, which is very high for a small rural church.

Historic interest:

* as an example of a Victorian rural parish church in Suffolk where the presence of such buildings is uncommon due the density of extant medieval church buildings.

Group value:

* for its historic functional relationship with the Grade II listed vicarage to the south of St Stephen’s Church.

History

Higham was originally an outlying hamlet in the large parish of Gazeley. Significant changes occurred in the C19 when the Barclay family acquired the Higham Estate. Many residents worked for the estate, which initiated a programme of welfare and social improvements, including the construction of cottages and schools. In 1856, Higham residents petitioned for their own church, a proposal strongly supported by the new vicar, Rev. William Cooke, who noted that the parish had lacked a resident vicar for 100 years.

In the mid-C19, Joseph Gurney Barclay (1816–1898), senior partner in Barclays Bank and owner of the Higham Estate, donated land for a new church and vicarage. He was a renowned Quaker but still clearly of the view that he had obligations as a landlord to improve the provision of churches. The design was commissioned from the renowned architect George Gilbert Scott (1811–1878), known for his prolific work on ecclesiastical and public buildings and were costed at £3,005.

Funding came from various sources: two private donations of £500 each, £325 from the patrons, and £185 from the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS). Over half the amount was raised locally, with Rev. William Cooke noting that “the farmers have contributed most handsomely.”

Construction began in 1858 and the church was consecrated on 27 June 1861, although only two stages of the tower were then complete. The general contractor was Messrs Holland of Gazeley, with carving by Rattee and Kett, a respected Cambridge firm known for ecclesiastical work. The baptistery and upper tower stages were finished in 1870 under John Drayton Wyatt (1820–1891), a former pupil of Scott who followed his original design. The final cost reached £3,600.

A report in the Bury and Norwich Post (2 July 1861) noted that Scott took an unusually personal interest in the project, aiming to make the church “a gem among the many which have made his name famous.”

Since completion, St Stephen’s has undergone no major alterations, aside from the post-war removal of lucarnes from the spire and the loss of its original banded tiling during reroofing. The interior remains completely intact, with stained glass added to the east window, the south windows of the chancel, and the west window in the baptistery. These stained-glass installations were created in 1873 by Clayton and Bell, a prolific and nationally significant studio that collaborated with many leading architects of the C19 and early-C20.

Details

A parish church dating to 1858-1861, designed by George Gilbert Scott in a mid-C13 English Gothic style.

Materials: flint rubble with bands and dressings of limestone with plain tiled roofs. The spire is shingled.

Plan: the church is traditionally orientated east to west with a chancel, nave, north aisle, north organ chamber, north vestry, and south porch and a round west tower with a baptistery in the base.

EXTERIOR
The church architecture follows the Geometrical Decorated style, rooted in mid-C13 English Gothic, regarded by Scott and many of his contemporaries as the stylistic high point of Gothic design.

The building is constructed of flint rubble, encircled by two continuous limestone bands, except at the vestry, which features only one. All windows are set beneath arches formed by alternating voussoirs of knapped flint and dressed limestone.

The south elevation comprises a four-bay nave with a porch and a two-bay chancel. It features five windows, each with a sexfoil oculus above two cusped lancet lights, enclosed within a pointed arch surmounted by a hood mould with carved head stops. The gabled south porch projects from the nave, with a plain tile roof and decorative flushwork. Its entrance is a large pointed-archway, flanked by columns with bell-moulded capitals. Inside, a continuous stone bench runs along both walls, above which are deeply recessed windows with chamfered surrounds, divided by a carved limestone column.

The round west tower rises in three stages. It is topped with a shingled spire above a corbelled parapet. There is an engaged stair turret to the south. The bell chamber features a blind arcade with some louvered openings. The second stage has a single narrow lancet, and the lower stage has three cusped lancets, each with a trefoil head.

The north elevation includes the north aisle and vestry, both under single-slope plain tile roofs. The aisle has three paired-lancet windows with cusped heads and a wooden door set within a pointed arch with a moulded hood and carved head stops. The vestry has one pair of square-headed windows, a wooden door set within stone cusped surround, and an engaged flint and limestone chimney stack. The east vestry wall features paired cusped lancets with a carved stone oculus above, echoing the adjacent East Window.

The East Window, the principal feature of the eastern elevation, emulates C13 plate tracery. It comprises a cinquefoil oculus above two sexfoil oculi, which surmount three cusped lancets. These are framed by columns with bell capitals, supporting a pointed arch with a carved hood mould and head stops.

INTERIOR

The high quality of materials and considered architectural design continue throughout the interior of the church.

Beginning at the west end, the baptistery is elaborate in design and features a ribbed vaulted ceiling supported by wall shafts with richly carved corbels, capitals, and bosses. The font is a circular stone tub with a rope-patterned rim, set on marble columns. Its cover has a wrought iron rim and a decorative boss. The baptistery window depicts the Good Shepherd and illustrates the phrase “Suffer the little children”.

The nave comprises four bays with a north aisle beyond an arcade of octagonal columns and pointed arches. The church has open timber roofs, with the nave featuring a crown post roof. At the east end of the nave stands a stone pulpit with rich foliate carving, marble shafts, and carved busts of St Peter and St Paul. The pulpit and font were the work of William Farmer (1825–1879), a notable carver who in the 1860s went into partnership with his employee, William Brindley (1832-1919), forming one of the best-known firms of architectural sculptors of the period. The church retains its original open benches, fully intact, and at the west end of the north aisle are children’s pews. The main south, north, and vestry doors all feature high-quality wrought iron strap hinges and decorative bosses. Throughout the baptistery, aisles, porch, and chancel are red and black quarry tiles bordered by decorated encaustic tiles.

In contrast to the rest of the church, the north vestry is a plain and modest room with a wooden floor and a simple stone fire surround. The organ chamber still houses an organ built by Prosser, which originally stood in St Mary’s, Denham.

A great chancel arch with moulded column capitals frames the chancel, where the architectural quality and detail are elevated. The sanctuary is raised by three steps and features tessellated and encaustic tiles by Minton. These extend up the east wall to sill level in tiled bands. The reredos is alabaster inlaid with non-figurative decorative work in green Galway marble and is by William Field of Parliament Street in London. To the south wall is the sedilia which has been set into the rebate and sill of a stained-glass window. To the north wall is a cusped piscina. The communion rail is supported by wrought iron stanchions. Four brass candelabra survive in the choir. The choir stalls have ornamented bench ends and desks. The east window depicts the Crucifixion in the main lights, with canopy work, and in the foiled openings above, angels and the Mystic Lamb. Between them are ringed shafts of Purbeck marble with stiff-leaf limestone capitals. The south windows depict the Annunciation and the Martyrdom of St Stephen.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

275779

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Bettley, J, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk: West, (2015), 310-311
New Church, Higham, Suffolk in Civil Engineer and Architects Journal, Vol. 24, (1861), 232

Websites
Gilbert Scott.Org: The Scott Dynasty, accessed 28 October 2025 from https://gilbertscott.org/buildings/st-stephen-the-protomartyr-higham

Other
Higham Conservation Area Appraisal, January 2009
Newspaper Article: Bury and Norwich Post, Tuesday 02 July 1861
Incorporated Church Building Society Application for Aid Form 1858
Newspaper Article: Bury and Norwich Post, July 1870

End of official list entry

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