Church of St Mary the Virgin

Details

BRAMFORD CHURCH GREEN TM 1246 9/70 Church of St. Mary the Virgin 9.12.55 - I Parish church, mediaeval. Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, north and south porches and west tower. Vestry added 1896. Flint rubble walling with freestone dressings. Leaded roofs; most have freestone parapets and parapet gables. Some C13 features in south chancel wall: a plain priest's doorway, and a 2-light window; beneath it a simple arched piscina and triple sedilia with individual arched heads on slender octagonal columns. The present plan form of the church was established by mid C14. Tower added c.1370 and much remodelling in late C15. Mid C14 nave arcades with 4 bays of octagonal piers with moulded capitals. There remains a little C14 work in both aisles and porches: moulded south doorway, plain restored south porch with chamfered doorway and windows and a window in north aisle with intersecting tracery. Even a north porch window has C14 tracery. Late C14 inner north doorway with original or early door. The early C14 chancel screen of limestone is exceptional in Suffolk; it has 3 arches, each with attached shafts (the cornice and quatrefoils are C19). The large western cower has angle buttresses, the unusual angel grotesques at the offsets being now badly weathered. Flushwork panels at the base. Belfry windows and large west window have curvilinear tracery. Tall tower-arch. 3 finely-carved corbels at the corners within the cower are intended to support a vault; perhaps it was never built. The lead-clad spire was rebuilt from the original base framing in C18. The north porch and aisle are of fine late C15 workmanship, this being the main approach from the village; good details include traceried flushwork and image niches in the buttresses, and a blank panelled frieze along the parapets. The north doorway has a square label on lion corbels and above it is a niche for the Virgin and Child. Standing on the parapets are a number of sculptured grotesque figures, including a chained monkey. The south aisle is similar in date and form, but lacks parapets and all embellishment. At this time the nave walls were raised for the clerestory, and a fine hammerbeam roof built; 7 bays of trusses, each with a defaced angel hammer- beam, arch-braced high collars and kingposts. Between each is a mouldea cornice. The similar chancel roof is in 4 bays. The aisle roofs have richly carved bosses, and defaced standing figures support the arch-braced principals in the south aisle. Restored C16 linenfold panelled pulpit. C15 limestone font in tower, octagonal, with emblems of evangelists on bowl and traceried stem; the early C16 oak cover is large and opulent, with a canopied image stool on each face, carved corner butresses and a crocketed dome with spike finial. Awall tablet to Elizabeth Dade (d.1648) in south aisle has gilded enrichment; another early C18 tablet in north aisle. In the nave are 4 C17 marble ledger slabs and one of 1719. In the cower is another, C17. A poor box on the south arcade is probably a C19 copy of the original; above it is a fine original inscription:- "Remember ye pore the Scripture doth record what to them is geven is lent unto the Lord 1591"

Listing NGR: TM1273146306

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

279248

Legacy System:

LBS

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