St Mary's Church, Rickinghall Superior
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St Mary's Church is a redundant
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
church in the
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of
Rickinghall Superior Rickinghall Superior is a civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. It covers the eastern part of the village of Rickinghall, and also the hamlets of Candle Street and Allwood Green. The estimated population of this civil p ...
, in the village of
Rickinghall Rickinghall is a village in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. The village is split between two parishes, Rickinghall Inferior and Rickinghall Superior, which join with Botesdale to make a single built-up area. There used to be many ...
,
Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
, 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, an ...
as a designated Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
, 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 ...
. There are two churches serving the village of Rickinghall, both dedicated to St Mary, the other being an active
parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
in the centre of the village in the parish of
Rickinghall Inferior Rickinghall Inferior is a civil parish in the Mid Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. According to the 2011 census there were 233 males and 216 females in this civil parish, for a total population of 449. It includes the western part of the vill ...
. St Mary's Church, Rickinghall Superior, stands to the south of the village, on the other side of the A143 road.


History

The church dates from the 14th century. In the middle of the following century 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 ...
was rebuilt, and the south porch was altered. The church was "thoroughly restored" in 1868 by William Milner Fawcett.


Architecture


Exterior

St Mary's is constructed 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. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...
rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...
with
ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
and brick dressings. The nave has a
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 rock. ...
roof, and the roof of the
chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...
is tiled. Its plan consists of a wide four- bay nave without
aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...
s, a narrower, lower and shorter chancel, a south porch and a west tower. The tower is in four stages with diagonal
buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...
es. On the west side, extending into both of the lower two stages, is a two-light arched window. In the third stage are
quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...
openings on three of the sides. The top stage has two-light louvred bell openings on all sides. The
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the 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/breast'). Whe ...
is
embattled A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...
, with
flushwork In architecture, flushwork is decorative masonry work which combines on the same flat plane flint and ashlar stone. If the stone projects from a flat flint wall then the term is proudwork, as the stone stands "proud" rather than being "flush" w ...
panels containing
monogram A monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbols or logos. A series o ...
s and a variety of patterns. On the north and south sides are
gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...
s. The nave stands on a decorated
plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In c ...
, and contains four large three-light
Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...
windows. The south porch is in two storeys. It has diagonal buttresses decorated with monograms. Above the entrance arch is a two-light window. In the east wall of the chancel is a three-light window dating from the 14th century; the north and south walls each contain two two-light 15th-century windows. Also on the south side is a low door.


Interior

In the chancel is a 15th-century
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. Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a piscina. For Roman ...
and a
sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, usually made of stone, found on the liturgical south side of an altar, often in the chancel, for use during Mass for the officiating priest and his assistants, the ...
. There is another piscina in the southeast of the nave. The
font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...
is octagonal and dates from the 14th century. There is a timber
bier A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, ...
dated 1763 in the nave. On the tower wall are a benefactions board and two
peal In campanology (bell ringing), a peal is the special name given to a specific type of performance of change ringing which meets certain exacting conditions for duration, complexity and quality. The definition of a peal has changed considerably ...
boards. There are fragments of 15th-century stained glass in one of the nave windows, and in one of the chancel windows. The stained glass in the east window dated 1868 is by O'Connor, and that in one of the chancel windows and in the tower west window is by
Heaton, Butler and Bayne Heaton, Butler and Bayne were an English firm who produced stained-glass windows from 1862 to 1953. History Clement Heaton (1824–82) Fleming, John & Hugh Honour. (1977) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts. '' London: Allen Lane, p. 371. ...
, dating from about 1875. There is a
ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...
of six bells. Three of these were cast in 1712 by John Goldsmith, one by Thomas Newman in 1741, one by John Taylor and Company in 1850, and the last by Alfred Bowell in 1911.


External features

In the churchyard are five structures to the north of the church that have been designated as Grade II listed buildings. They are the chest tomb of H. Elmy who died in 1738, a pair of headstones, also to members of the Elmy family, who died in 1743 and 1748, the chest tomb of J. Parson who died in 1811, a group of nine headstones to members of the Mills family with dates in the late 17th and 18th centuries, and a memorial to J. Smith and his wife Susanna who died in 1810 and 1838 respectively.


See also

*
List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in the East of England The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was establish ...


References


External links


Suffolk Churches: with photographs of the exterior and interior: Recent parish registers are held at Rickinghall Inferior
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rickinghall Superior, St Mary's Church Grade I listed churches in Suffolk Church of England church buildings in Suffolk English Gothic architecture in Suffolk Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust