St Peter, Little Ellingham

Towers on the south side of the nave that form a porch into the church are an East Anglian peculiarity, though even so there are not many of them. Suffolk has twenty three, Norfolk just nine, but there are only three others in the whole of England. Howard Stephens argued convincingly in a recent issue of the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust newsletter that they are on churches which could be reached up river from Norwich and Ipswich (and two from the Great Ouse), and that they were likely the work of the same early 13th Century Ipswich-based master mason. Little Ellingham has one, and if you think about it the south side of the nave is a sensible place to put a tower. It doesn't block light coming through a west window, and places the tower and the porch together. Both had secular uses, and this arrangement doesn't interfere with the business of the church. Perhaps it should be a surprise that we don't find them more often.

Little Ellingham's nave and chancel have been rebuilt since, and there is a crispness to them that tells you that a major 19th Century restoration also happened here. There was a good reason for it, because St Peter was gutted by fire in 1867, leaving only a shell beside the tower. Everything you see here now is either restored or new. A plaque above the entrance records the reopening, and also tells you that all the sittings are free, presumably a condition of some of the funding.

Knowing this before you enter you might still be startled by Little Ellingham's font. It is made of Poryphyry marble, a striking glossy brown octagonal thing on pillars, which perhaps isn't totally in keeping with the otherwise fairly rustic surroundings. The shiny tiles around it help to smooth its path, but you can't help wondering if somebody bought it off the shelf from the catalogue of some London or Birmingham workshop without really thinking about how it would fit in.

Frederick Preedy's glass in the east window replaced that damaged in the fire. It depicts scenes in the life of Christ in the style of the glass you find in French cathedrals, and is very pleasing on this scale, easily putting in the shade the run-of-the-mill Annunciation window by the Kempe workshop at the other end of the church.

Simon Knott, November 2020

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