Description

TL 86 NE GREAT BARTON CHURCH ROAD

1/5 Church of the Holy
- Innocents
14.7.55
- I

Parish church. C13 and later; restored in 1850's. Nave, chancel, north and
south aisles, south porch and west tower, in random flint with freestone
dressings: the aisles and clerestory are faced in a mixture of black knapped
flint and small freestone blocks, evenly set: stone facings to buttresses and
crenellated stone parapets to aisles and nave; slate roofs. C15 porch with
red brick and trefoil arcading to the base; crenellated gabled parapet;
diagonal buttresses; rendered and lined south face with a large sundial over
the entry; a gargoyle head on east and west, and 2-light windows. 8
perpendicular windows to clerestorey. The C14 south aisle has a 2-light east
window with flowing tracery, and Perpendicular windows on the south; C15 north
aisle with 4 gargoyle water-heads. C13 chancel: a simple priest's door on the
south side with pointed arch and nook-shafts, and beside it an arched tomb
recess with a heavy gable on corbels; north and south windows with plate
tracery and a lozenge, quatrefoiled far back, and a 3-light east window with
lancets and circles at head, also quatrefoiled far back; on the south-west a
blocked low-side window. At the east end, unusual polygonal buttresses with
stone pinnacles. Fine west tower in 4 stages divided by string-courses; a
chequerwork base of stone and black knapped flint; diagonal buttresses on
west. The walling has some small red bricks and stone blocks mixed with flint
rubble. Stair turret with a conical roof projecting on the south side. A
simple west doorway with continuous moulding; a 3-light window with panel
tracery to each face of the top stage. An impressive parapet with flushwork
decoration (cf. similarities with St. Mary's, Rougham): stepped and panelled
crenellation; quatrefoil frieze. The interior of the nave has a simple,
shallow-pitched single hammerbeam roof in 8 bays, corresponding to the bays of
the clerestorey: folded-leaf decoration along the purlins and ridge-piece; the
hammer posts supported by headless recumbent figures. Arcades in 4 bays:
early C14 on south, with one octagonal and 2 circular piers; perpendicular on
north. Fragments of medieval glass in the heads of all 3 windows in the north
aisle. Benches with traceried ends and poppyheads, some C15, but many
reproductions of 1856. Simple octagonal C13 font, supported on a central
column surrounded by 4 outer columns; a tall C19 carved and traceried wooden
cover in East Anglian style. Chancel with a simple plastered keel roof;
remains of pinnacled C13 piscina and sedilia. The other fittings are C19.
Various wall memorials to members of the Bunbury family.

Listing NGR: TL8899166042

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17526958

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

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  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
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  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide