Monument record IKN 007 - Church of St Botolph (Med)

St Botolph's church is within the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, the archdeaconry of Ipswich, and the deanery of Woodbridge. Status : rectory. Structure : chancel, nave, S porch, embattled W tower. The date is principally Perpendicular but the chancel was built in 1862. It is positioned on the N edge of the parish (S1).
Davy noted in 1810 and again in 1831 that the chancel had been originally much longer (about twice as long). In mid C19 the chancel was restored to its original length and faced in Kentish ragstone. The nave is 47 feet 9 inches long (14.55m) by 19 feet 1 inch wide (5.81m) and is constructed largely of septaria and plastered over internally and externally. There is a single-lancet Early English window E of the S porch; and a two-light window with 'Y' tracery to the E, probably a replacement of an earlier window. Both N and S doorways have two-centred outer arches, flatter rear arches and plain chamfers. The large S porch has blocked two-light windows in N and S walls. The chancel arch has attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases and a simple, outer moulding reaching to ground level. The rectangular flint tower has been inserted into the W end of the nave by removing the original W wall, the easterly buttresses meeting the older nave walls at an angle. It was in the lower part of the E wall and NE buttress of the tower that the fragment of a Sax cross shaft was found (see CRN 01709). There is a W door with a two-centred arch and hood-mould above which there is a Perpendicular three-light window with transomes. In 1968 the thatched roof of the nave was destroyed by fire (precis) (S2).

1977 excavation carried out under the floor of nave after the finding of the Sax cross shaft in order to establish Sax site, possibly of St Botolph's monastery - see CRN 01729.
Scarfe records this as a Domesday Minster (S4). There are no recorded Domesday churches for the parish of Iken, but it is thought to be documented as one of the two churches for the parish of Sudbourne.
Burials found to N of present churchyard wall (ie, outside present churchyard) to N of church - details in file. Possible Middle Saxon (or unconsecreted?) but history of churchyard boundaries not known.

2010: Building recording, the overall impression gained by analysis is that the nave walls are substantially as constructed with the usual enlargements for more fashionable windows and repairs occurring over time. A firm date is more difficult to ascribe, however, though the evidence broadly supports the 12th century. Other features are noteworthy and of interest, including the possible location of putlog holes, some discrete repair and probable partial reconstruction at the west end, associated with the raising of the tower in the 15th or early 16th century. Much of the render now surviving is probably of 18th or 19th century date, but it overlies areas of repair or possible sections of medieval pointing and render. Some is associated with the introduction of new windows and doors (Phase 2) in small, discrete patches, while Phase 3 could represent remnants of surviving medieval render, but equally could be later repair. Insufficient areas are exposed to be certain. (S5). Included in the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History annual round up of individual finds and discoveries for 2010 (S6).