Nominal: 698 Hz Weight: 1758 lbs Diameter: 45.63" Bell 1 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 1188 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Bungay: St Mary
Diocese of St.Edmundsbury & Ipswich
CCT Church
http://www.visitchurches.org.ukOverview
Grid reference: TM 336 897
The church was originally the parochial nave of the Benedictine nunnery church founded by Gundreda, wife of Roger de Glanville, in about 1160; in the present building are elements of the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, and the tower was begun c.1470: it was much rebuilt in 1702 after a serious fire had swept through the town in 1688; the nave arcades are early fourteenth-century. The church was restored in 1879.
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
The aisled neve has arcades of five bays; the tower stands within the south-west bay of the south aisle; there is no structural chancel; north-west porch and south-east vestry.
Description of Archaeology and History
The church was originally the parochial nave of the Benedictine nunnery church founded by Gundreda, wife of Roger de Glanville, in about 1160; in the present building are elements of the Decorated and Perpendicular styles, and the tower was begun c.1470: it was much rebuilt in 1702 after a serious fire had swept through the town in 1688; the nave arcades are early fourteenth-century. The church was restored in 1879.
Exterior Description
The tower rises through three storeys to an embattled parapet. At each corner is a buttress in the form of an octagonal turret eventually rising above the parapet as a stocky pinnacle. The ground stage has a plinth decorated in the lowest part with a band of flushwork trefoil-headed arches and then a carved band like cresting incorporating shields of arms and quatrefoils. The surface of the south wall, although not pierced by a window, is relieved by patterning of flint and stone in small chequers, and this appears above the west window also. The faces of the octagonal buttresses towards the west are decorated with refined panelling in flushwork. The middle stage is the least lofty of the three, and also the least decorative. The belfry stage is very tall, with attenuated three-light openings in each wall, all with transoms and identical tracery composed of mouchettes. The parapet round the top of the tower is carved with panels of arcading incorporating lozenges with shields, crowned with Ms and other devices. The octagonal buttresses rise above this to terminate in a ring of little battlements enclosing large crocketted pinnacles.
West from the tower runs the south aisle , which is pierced by three large windows of Perpendicular design with transoms and simple panel tracery. The cloisters of the nunnery would formerly have abutted against the church on this side, and the present south wall seems to date in great part from 1850, when the wall was rebuilt and faced with flint instead of plaster. The present east wall of the church was built after the Dissolution of the nunnery, and the large window set high in the wall with four transomed lights and panel tracery is taken to be an interesting example of seventeenth-century Gothic Survival. Eastwards from this wall runs a single wall, thought to have been either a part of the original choir of the the nunnery church or of the chapel of St. Mary which is mentioned, as being part of the buildings on this site in 1370.
The north aisle was built in the fifteenth-century and is a fine example of the period. It is of six bays, of which the westernmost has the further addition of a porch. The other five bays are uniform in design with Perpendicular two-centred windows with panel tracery and mouchettes. Between these are buttresses with sloping gabletted offsets below niches for statues (now empty). The east and west buttresses stand at angles to the corners but are otherwise of the same pattern.
The north porch is the principal entrance to the church and is of the same date as the aisle to which it is attached. The north corners are supported by diagonal buttresses.
Building Fabric and Features
Stained Glass
The east window has four Scenes from the Life of Christ in vesicas, with four musician angels above.
Stained Glass
Two clerestory lights on the south side have bright grisaille.
Stained Glass
1852
The east window of the north aisle shows Four Acts of Mercy, The deaths commemorateddate from 1826 to 1852.
Stained Glass
Tracery lights of five north windows of the north aisle have various floral and monogrammatic symbols done in 1867 by John Winter , a Bungay artist who died in that year ; the main lights were removed after war damage , and replaced by plain glass in 1948.
Interior
Interior Description
The arcades, with filletted quatrefoil. piers and moulded arches appear to have been entirely recut in the nineteenth century. All the roofs and floors also are nineteenth-century incorporating some earlier woodwork. The aisle roofs are low-pitched, with the usual moulded beams and purlins, the intersections decorated with bosses some of which may be mediaeval. The nave roof, which is of uniform design except for a very slight claboration of the three eastern bays above the altar, seems to follow. the mediaeval pattern with curved braces to the principal rafters. The south aisle roof has a beam dated 1699. The south-west bay of the aisle, above which the tower stands, was walled off to form a vestry in the 1879 restoration, these walls being relieved by pairs of big lancets and roundels with tracery above.
Fixtures and fittings
Font (object)
The font is octagonal, upon a fluted octagonal stem and moulded octagonal base and step; the underside of the bowl is decorated with simple gadrooning and the faces of the bowl with alternating cherubs' heads and florets standing proud of a deep concave moulding. The cherubs have feather ruffs rather than wings.
Font (component)
1925
The font cover is of 1925, in memory of three members of the Adams family whose terms as parish clerk covered 103 years in succession. It is of oak. suitably Jacobean in style with eight panels surmounted by a panelled spirelet.
Altar
Communion table in north aisle, in seventeenth-century style but surely the baluster legs are new. The toprail is gadrooned.
Altar
c.1910
Oak
Rail
c.1910
Oak.
Organ (object)
The organ has two manuals and was rebuilt by walkers in 1961.
Lectern
The lectern is of brass with a spiral turned central column surrounded by three smaller but similar columns.
Bells
Nominal: 1396 Hz Weight: 587 lbs Diameter: 28.63" Bell 2 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 13854 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 1318 Hz Weight: 607 lbs Diameter: 29.5" Bell 3 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 13855 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 1173 Hz Weight: 703 lbs Diameter: 31.5" Bell 4 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 13856 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 1046 Hz Weight: 733 lbs Diameter: 33.13" Bell 5 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 13857 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 931 Hz Weight: 906 lbs Diameter: 36" Bell 6 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 13858 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 879 Hz Weight: 1086 lbs Diameter: 38.38" Bell 7 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 13859 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Nominal: 783 Hz Weight: 1155 lbs Diameter: 40.25" Bell 8 of 8
Founded by Thomas II Mears 1820
Dove Bell ID: 13860 Tower ID: 11977 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Turnings: quarter Cracked: No
Churchyard
Grid reference: TM 336 897
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
The churchyard is closed for burial by order in council.
The date of the burial closure order is 03/05/1888
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | N/A |
| Solar Thermal Panels | N/A |
| Biomass | N/A |
| Wind Turbine | N/A |
| Air Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | N/A |
| Ev Charging | N/A |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
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