St Mary's Church is a historic

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church in the village of

Akenham Akenham is a village and civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk in the East of England. Located on the north-western edge of Ipswich, in 2005 it had an estimated population of 60. At the 2011 Census the population remained less th ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England. It is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, and is under the care of The

Churches Conservation Trust The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...

. It stands in an isolated position in fields north of

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

History

The church dates from the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

period, the earliest fabric dating probably from the late 13th century. The tower was built during the next century, and more additions and alteration followed in the 15th century. The south chapel was added in the 16th century. The church was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004, by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard Aus ...

in the middle of the 19th century. During the second world war, in 1940, it was damaged by a mine dropped from a German bomber. It remained derelict until it was restored by local people assisted by the

Friends of Friendless Churches Friends of Friendless Churches (FoFC) is a registered charity formed in 1957, active in England and Wales, which campaigns for and rescues redundant historic places of worship threatened by demolition, decay, or inappropriate conversion. As ...

in the 1960s. The church was declared redundant in 1976, and

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property are acquired by some Legal person, person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vest ...

in the Redundant Churches Fund, the forerunner of the Churches Conservation Trust.

Architecture

St Mary's is constructed mainly in

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

with

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

dressings. The wall of the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

is rendered. The chapel is in brick. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

and chancel have tiled roofs, and the chapel is

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

d. The plan of the church consists of a nave, a chancel, a southwest tower incorporating a porch, and a south chapel. In the north wall of the nave is a slit window in Norman style. The south wall of the chancel contains two

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s and a pointed doorway, all in late 13th-century style, and in the north wall is a 14th-century square-headed window. The tower has a north doorway leading into the porch, and over this is a lancet window. The bell openings are louvred. The

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

battlement A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...

ed, and has lion-headed

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed Grotesque (architecture), grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from ...

s. The south window in the chapel has three lights. Inside the church is a 15th-century limestone

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

. It is octagonal and carved with

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. In the south chapel is a re-set medieval

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

External features

In the churchyard to the north of the church is the gravestone of Joseph Ramsey, who died in 1878 aged two years. He was the unbaptised child of a nonconformist family. His burial in a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

churchyard led to a legal trial, and as a result a change in funeral practices following the

Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 The Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 ( 43 & 44 Vict. c. 41) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is one of the Burial Acts 1852 to 1885. This Act is excluded bsection 4of the Welsh Church (Burial Grounds) Act 1945. For the con ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akenham, St Mary's Church Grade II* listed churches in Suffolk Church of England church buildings in Suffolk English churches with Norman architecture English Gothic architecture in Suffolk Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust Mid Suffolk District

History

Architecture

External features

See also

References