Description

FRAMSDEN THE STREET
TM 25 NW
5/61
Church of St Mary
9.12.55

- I

Parish church, medieval. Nave, chancel, west tower, south aisle and south
porch. Flint rubble with freestone dressings, mainly plastered. Nave roof
slated, chancel roof plaintiled, aisle roof felted. Flat parapetted roofs to
porch and tower. Much early/mid C14 work: net traceried windows with 3 good
grotesque corbels and matching south doorway in chancel. C14 north and south
doorways in nave, the former with disused medieval plank door. The aisle has
mid C14 Y-traceried windows and a piscina with shafts and drop-tracery. 5-bay
arcade; 4 large grotesque corbels survive from the original aisle roof; the
present roof is inscribed with benefactors and dates 1620 and 1676: queen
posts and ridge pendants. The chancel has a good early C14 piscina with drop-
tracery and an angle-shaft linking with the window cill sedilia. Late C15
tower and porch both with good details: the west doorway has a label
incorporating 5 shields with achievements (one missing) and a pair of image
niches. Flushwork panels to buttresses, plinth and parapets. A contract with
Thomas Aldrich, mason, of South Lopham, dated 1487/8 for the construction of
the tower at Helmingham church, refers to the tower at Framsden, implying that
Aldrich had recently built it. The outer porch wall is covered in traceried
flushwork panels and there are 3 pinnacled image niches over the enriched
doorway. The nave was raised in early or mid C16 in red brick with good
hoodmoulded clerestory windows; 6-bay double hammerbeam roof with much
enrichment. Arch-braced collar beam roof in chancel of C19. Good C15
limestone font, octagonal, with each panel of the bowl bearing lions and
angels; further lions support the stem. A fine range of C15 choirstalls: 6
seats in 2 linked sections, 5 with richly-carved misericords; poppyhead ends
are marked out for tracery which was never carved. 4 traceried benchends used
with C19 benches have tracery of C15 or possibly late C14. A marble wall
monument in the aisle to William Stebbing, gent, his wife and son Henry
(d.1718). 4 early floor slabs in the chancel, one with C16 type brass
indents. Marble floor slabs in the nave; 1678, 1733, 1706, 1737.

Listing NGR: TM2007759734

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17526103

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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