St Andrew is an almost entirely Saxon church, and being so there are more Saxon survivals in this one building than in Suffolk's 500 or so medieval churches put together. Because of this, you enter a building that was a Catholic church for as long before the Reformation as it has been an Anglican one since - an extraordinary thought.
The church sits in a long, narrow graveyard, and from the main road looks entirely Saxon, apart from the later west window; in fact, the chancel and porch are 15th century, but the central tower and nave are all pre-Conquest, apart from repairs. The massive tower has steeply set arched windows and bell windows. The west end of the nave facing the road has an ancient triangular-headed doorway, looking like nothing so much as a sentry box as the entrance itself is now blocked, probably by the 15th century vandals who punched the huge windows into the nave.
You get a sense of two very different mindsets as you stand inside at the west end looking east. The space beneath the tower with its massive Saxon arches is primitive. Beyond, the delicate chancel seems centuries away, which of course it is. The nave is unnecessarily flooded with light from late medieval windows, but still we know we are centuries ago here.
The 19th century restoration was restrained and seemly, and the one concession to modernity is an excellent east window depicting the Risen Christ in Triumph, flanked by Abraham and Isaac on one side, St Andrew on the other.
Simon Knott - Churches of East Anglia.
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