Description

THORNHAM PARVA BULL ROAD (SOUTH SIDE)
TM 17 SW
3/97 Church of St. Mary
29.7.55
GV I

Parish church. C12, chancel rebuilt, nave raised and tower added in C14.
Restored 1883. Flint rubble with ashlar dressings and some brick repair.
Thatched roofs. A small church with continuous nave and chancel, west tower.
Short 2 stage unbuttressed square tower, offset plinth, quoining. To west a
2-light window in lower stage, cusped Y traceried segmental pointed arched
head, string course to upper stage with small C19 openings with ogee heads.
Pyramidal roof with finial, iron weathervane. To south lower stage has a
small stair projection and a 2 stage buttress. Nave of coursed rubble, to
south a C12 entrance towards west, round arch with outer shafted jambs,
scallopped capitals with moulded impost blocks, roll moulded archivolt. A C12
round headed slit window and a 2-light C14 window to centre with cusped ogee
headed lights, traceried square head with a hood mould, a C19 2-light window
towards east with a traceried pointed arch. 2 stage buttress to chancel which
has a 2-light C14 window as on nave and, towards east, a C19 Y traceried
pointed arched window, hoodmoulds. East end has a large 3-light C14 pointed
arched window, reticulated quatrefoil tracery, hoodmould, a trefoil above with
moulded kneelers to coped gable parapet with ridge cross, 2 stage diagonal
buttresses. Chancel to north has a C19 window as to south and a C19 pointed
arched entrance, 2 stage buttress to nave which has a C14 2-light window as to
south, king and queen mask stops to hoodmould, a simple C12 chamfered round
arched entrance towards west end. Nave to north meets tower with a low
buttress, quoined end reflecting height of original C12 nave. Interior:
blocked C14 tower arch, pointed with hollow chamfers stopped on mask corbels,
above this on nave west wall is a small round light with a deeply splayed
embrasure. C12 light in nave to south also has a deeply splayed embrasure in
a continuous roll mould broached at base, window to north has similarly roll
moulded jambs. Nave roof is ceiled with tall ashlar pieces exposed. Tie beam
ends to south at east end and rood loft and candle beam ends in north wall
above a slight recess for stairs. Chancel to south has a quatrefoil piscina
with a hollow moulded square head, opposite a slight recess for stairs.
Chancel to south has a quatrefoil piscina with a hollow moulded square head,
opposite a sedilia below window, ceiled roof with C19 cornices. Wall
paintings in nave on north, south and west walls: scenes from life of St.
Edmund, mid C13, vine scrolled borders, a cart with coffin and monks to north,
Christ Enthroned with Virgin to north. Nave west end has an early C19 bow
fronted gallery, 2 iron columnar supports, panelled frontal with heavy
cornice, dogleg stairs in tower with slat balusters, moulded ramped handrail,
newel post, panelled box pews, above gallery on west wall are panels of Lord's
Prayer and Credo. Early C14 octagonal font to west, large base, stem moulded
up to bowl which has traceried faces. Restored C15 screen to chancel, 2 bays
of 2-lights each to each side, cusped and crocketed ogee tracery, brattished
head. A C14 segmental headed iron bound chest in chancel, arched panels of a
C17 pulpit from Stradbroke re-erected as a reredos, tester remains in tower, a
C17 chair in chancel, arched panelled back. Above the reredos is the Thornham
Parva Retable of c.1300, probably painted for the Dominican monastery at
Thetford, a triptych with 3 scenes to each panel; central Crucifixion with
Virgin Mary and St. John the Evangelist flanked by SS Peter and Paul, to left
SS John the Baptist, Catherine and Dominic, to right SS Edmund, Margaret and
Peter Martyr, each in a cusped pointed arch, spandrels have carved roses and
leaf ornament, intricate gessowork backgrounds. In chancel in a case is a
printed bible of c.1640. Floor slab to P. Bokenham, d.1681, and family, with
arms above. Fragments of early glass in east window and in nave to south, C19
and C20 glass in nave. (Suffolk Archaeology, 1933, vol XXI, pp153-65).

Listing NGR: TM1090872644

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Mary's Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17526379

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

• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)