A church frozen in time

St Mary's is one of Suffolk's most remarkable medieval churches - its setting and unmodernised interior give an atmosphere of great peace and stillness. To discover its charm, you must begin with a journey - a mile's walk or drive down a rutted track across Suffolk farmland, to a small valley of trees and birdsong. The flint-and-brick church has nothing for company but a sixteenth-century farmhouse and the wildlife of its pretty churchyard.

Passing through the sturdy medieval door with its iron grille, you step into a time capsule - a church scarcely changed for 300 years with plain walls and a brick floor set with memorials to the Poleys, once owners of the house nearby. The seventeenth/eighteenth-century arrangement of the pews, which incorporates Medieval benches, combined with fragments of a screen with seventeenth-century panelling, where the oak is silvery-grey with age, make an extraordinary ensemble. There are monuments and memorial slabs to the Poleys and others.

Please click here for a free audio tour

This church costs £2,233 a year to maintain. Please make a contribution towards it's upkeep at our donate page: http://bit.ly/31Vj601

A contribution can also be made by texting "BAD" to 70970 to donate £5 or 70191 to donate £10.  Thank you.

Badley Guide

• 

  Church of St Mary the Virgin, Stonham Parva, Suffolk

  4.19 miles

  A Medieval flintwork church

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  St Peter's Church, Claydon, Suffolk

  5.95 miles

  Saxon church with wonderful views over the Gipping Valley

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  St Mary's Church, Akenham, Suffolk

  6.82 miles

  A rural church on the edge of modern life