Building record BED 004 - Church of St Nicholas, Bedfield (12th-15th C)

Grade I listed building: Parish church. Medieval; chancel restored 1870. Nave, chancel, west tower, south porch. Flint rubble with stone dressings; nave has remains of render. Nave roof is leaded, the chancel plaintiled. C15 tower: square, with 4 stages and crenellated parapet. Diagonal buttresses to west and lateral buttresses to east, projecting to north and south. Flushwork decoration to plinth, buttresses and parapet. Moulded west doorway with fleuron-enriched arch. Above is a 3-light window, to each side and above which are 3 canopied statue niches. Stonework to doorway, window and niches largely renewed C19. 2nd stage has small trefoil-headed windows to north and south. 2-light belfry openings, that to the south blocked. Nave has C12 core: original north doorway with one order of colonnettes and a chevron arch. Early C14 south doorway with medieval door. Various late C14 and C15 windows, 2 to south with mask stops to the hoodmoulds. C15 porch: wide hoodmoulded entrance with cinquefoil-headed niche above; blocked cinquefoil-headed single-light side windows. Original crown-post roof. C12 chancel, extended to east in C14. To the south, 2 2-light Perpendicular windows with square heads, one substantially original. Altered Priest's doorway. To the north is a single lancet window. 3-light east window with Geometrical tracery, inserted 1872. Interior. C14 or early C15 coupled-rafter nave roof with scissor-braced collars and a moulded cornice enriched with fleurons; original boarding between the ashlar pieces; narrow boarded section at east end is probably for a canopy of honour. Arch-braced chancel roof of 1870. Rood stair in south east nave, with an arch in the east splay of a window. Empty niches to each side of the chancel arch. Chancel has a C14 piscina with 2-centred arch; adjacent window has low sill for sedilia. Early C15 octagonal font, the 8 bowl panels carved with 5 different traceried designs and 3 shields. Fine early C17 font cover: panelled base with detached columns at the angles; openwork above, with carved brackets converging on a central column which terminates in a spike finial. At west end of nave are 8 benches with ends terminating in scrolls, perhaps C16. Remainder of seating is of c.1870. Early C17 pulpit with bookboard on carved brackets. C15 dado of rood screen with traceried panels painted with Old Testament prophets. Reredos of 1870 incorporates Lord's Prayer, Commandments and Creed (S1)

2008 analysis: A two-cell Norman church of standard type c.1125-75. Porch added c.1325. The tower directly abuts the earlier nave of the church. Believed to replace previous tower built c. 1280. It is stylistically typical of Suffolk, with flint flushwork and the vertical stripes in the stone of the buttresses. The restricted use of brick is also a regional feature. The tower mostly dates from the 1400s, but was completed about 70 years later. The presence of an engrailed cross in the S face of the tower with the arms of the De Uffords, which also appear on the font. (William De Ufford and his wife 1339-82). This has been taken to indicate that the tower is from the late 14th C, at least at its commencement. There is no evidence to suggest anything other than a single building campaign and subsequent alterations are mostly restricted to the bell chamber. The interior of the 'silence chamber' remains wholly the same and the only change on development seems to be the abandonment of internal stone dressings. A slight improvement in the coursing and regularity of construction was also noticeable within the second floor bell chamber compared to the rough finish of the silence chamber, which may only reflect a change in personnel. Putlog holes lined with red brick are uniformly spaced up the sides of the tower. They were plugged after construction with yellow-cream limestone. The tower is distinguished by its long thin buttresses. The roof of the tower is modern but the parapet seems original (S2).

(See also S3 and S4)