Externally, St Andrew is pretty much all of a medieval piece, and a dedicatory inscription to the donor, Richard Coppynge, can be found at the base of the tower. Apart from the Victorian top, the tower is late 15th century, a little newer than the timber-framed porch. Through this, you step into a church which has been fairly rigorously Victorianised, but is still full of rustic charm and interest.
A number of features survive from earlier incarnations. Most notable, perhaps, are the piscina drains set in window sills. These don't seem very exciting in cold print, but they are quite unusual, and they mark the places where altars were set during the church's Catholic days. They conjure up a vision of the former liturgical life of this building. You can imagine the chantry altars set within the nave, and priests concelebrating Mass at separate altars. All finished with now, of course.
The lumpy colonaded font is older than just about any part of the churchbut not as old as the ironwork on the south door , which must be some of the oldest in East Anglia. The font sits proudly on its collanade beneath the tower arch, presumably moved there by the Victorians. The fine east window is also a Victorian reconstruction, but looks rather well, I think. It complements the early 20th century evangelists on the reredos below it. Beneath the tower is a lovely souvenir of the medieval bell clappers; they were replaced in 1992, and now sit proudly on a wooden memorial, the words our duty done in belfry high now voiceless tongues at rest we lie above them.
A superb ogee-arched tomb recess sits in the south wall, and a most curious sight can be seen projecting westwards from high up on the east nave wall, each side of the chancel arch. They are corbels, and must have supported the rood beam, giving an indication of how high it was. A Victorian roodscreen was removed in 1986, and its wooden cross now hangs behind the pulpit.
This is a lovely church, which few people will have heard of, and even fewer visited. Suffolk has loads of churches like that, and every one of them is worth the time and energy
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