Description

TM 15 NE
5/200

STONHAM ASPAL
The Street (south)
Church of The Blessed Virgin Mary

9-12-55
GV
I
Parish church, medieval. Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, south-west
tower/porch, north porch. The north organ chamber and vestry were added
c.1871. Mainly flint rubble with dressings of limestone. The slated nave roof
has fine C15 parapets with freestone tracery; the clerestory windows have
inner shafts and some original glass. There is much early and mid C14 work.
The C14 tower has a hood-moulded doorway with grotesque corbels; a
reconstructed timber-framed and weather-boarded belfry stage of 1742; boarded
pinnacles and two square louvred openings on each face; restored 1986.
Chancel is almost entirely of mid C14: east window with net tracery, and
flanking external image niches. Side windows also with good individual
tracery. Original scissor-braced coupled-rafter roof, plaintiled, with
parapet gable. Lead-roofed south aisle also with C14 windows. North and
south doorways have good C14 multiple mouldings. The north door is possibly
original, and with a wicket door. The west window has intersecting tracery
and adjacent buttressing, one with an image niche. Nave arcaded in 4 bays,
with C14 moulded pier capitals. The north aisle was remodelled in C15; the
fine traceried windows match those in the clerestory. The C15 north porch has
a shafted outer doorway. A C14 piscina in the south aisle; another in the
chancel is restored, and associated with triple stepped sedilia. In north
chancel wall is a recessed tomb of c.1330 with the recumbent limestone figure
of a knight; his armour has the Arms of Aspal. Octagonal font of c.1300;
shallow cusped arcading on bowl and stem, and moulded plinth. Much good C14
and C15 window glass. The early C17 pulpit is octagonal, with arcaded faces;
the sounding board is reused in a table and bears the date 1616. Two C16 tomb
slabs in the sanctuary have sinkings for brasses; two further C18 marble
slabs. A set of C16 nave pews are C19 work, but most have C16 poppyhead ends,
with good animal figures on the buttresses. 10 pews in the aisles, also of
C19, have C17 carved ends. Painted Arms of George III.

Listing NGR: TM1334159524

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17526149

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2