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 16th-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 17th/18th century arrangement of the pews, which incorporates Medieval benches, combined with fragments of a screen with 17th-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.