Crowfield – All Saints Church

Richard and I couldn’t visit the interior of this church as a Christening was taking place, but it’s a quite stunning building and the churchyard also contains the grave of Roy Hudd.

The church is located in the village of Crowfield which developed in proximity to Stone Street, an ancient Roman road that connected Coddenham to Peasenhall. The church was central to the original heart of the village, but later development along Stone Street has left the church as a little isolated. The church here was redeveloped to become a chapel of ease in the fourteenth century, acting as a subsidiary church under the jurisdiction of the nearby St. Mary’s Church in Coddenham.

It’s the chancel today that is perhaps the most noteworthy, dating back to the early fifteenth century and it’s the only wooden timber framed church in Suffolk. There was a major remodelling of the church in 1862 and the nave was substantially altered, with the chancel being reworked and partly reconstructed. This Victorian rebuilding, which has arguably partly ruined the church but also likely saved it, was funded by Lady Middleton as a memorial to her late husband, Sir William Fowle Middleton.

The church has never had a tower, but it does have a rather beautiful bell turret and this was added as part of the 1860s reconstruction of the church. Richard and I are hoping to return to the church to see the architectural treasures that might be located within and to have a closer look at the exterior of the building.