Benchmark - St Mary - Nettlestead, Suffolk - U.K. and Ireland Trigpoints on Waymarking.com

Cut benchmark on the west corner of St Mary's church tower, Nettlestead

"St Mary’s has a tall W tower and a single nave and chancel with no chancel arch, although the chancel roof is slightly lower. The nave has a 12thc. N window; the remaining windows being 15thc. insertions restored in 1898. The blocked N doorway is 14thc. and the S doorway 15thc. under a brick porch displaying the arms of Thomas Wingfield (d.1632) and his wife Alice Poley (d.1628). The chancel windows are all 15thc. except for the E window ofc.1850. The piscina is 15thc. too. The 15thc. W tower has a Perpendicular W window and bell-openings, a polygonal S stair and a battlemented parapet. It is constructed of a mixture of flint, pebbles, bricks, septaria and reused dressed stone fragments, and among the last are three pieces of 12thc. carved window heads, similar in design to the surviving N nave window. The remainder of the church, except the porch, is rendered with cream-coloured mortar. The church was restored, re-floored and re-seated by Herbert J. Green of Norwich in 1898. He took down part of the N wall of the nave, inserting a new window. The tower, roof and other parts of the church were damaged in 1940 when a German bomb exploded in the road outside, and it remained derelict until 1950, when it was reopened after a restoration by Ernest Barnes of Ipswich to H. Munro Cautley’s designs. The tower and porch were restored by A. F. Knights of Debenham in 1986-87."

SOURCE - (Visit Link)