The atmospheric ruins known as the Minster are set in an earthwork or enclosure. Local finds in the fields had suggested that it was possibly a Roman camp or farmstead.
An extensive report of excavations carried out in 1963 can be found in
The proceedings of the SUFFOLK INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY For 1970 VOLUME XXXII, PART I (published 1971) (
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"the remains of a site known as South Elmham Minster. The remains date from Roman times, before the Norman conquest of Britain and the building is believed to have been the private chapel of the Bishop of Norwich during his residence at South Elmham Hall. The chapel was built on the remains of a Roman temple that had previously been located there. The exact reasons behind the chapel's disuse and abandonment are unknown, as it fell out of use in the sometime in the 13th century."
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"South Elmham Minster is an early medieval chapel of a form which at this date is very rare in England; the distinctive feature of a massive western tower with an external stair turret is thought to be one of only three examples in the country, one of the other two being at North Elmham in Norfolk, and all three are associated with episcopal manors. The ruined building is thus of particular interest, and the monument as a whole will retain archaeological information concerning its construction and use, in addition to that obtained from the limited excavations carried out on the site. It will also contain valuable information relating to the construction and function of the surrounding enclosure. The recorded evidence for both pagan and Christian Saxon cemeteries on or adjacent to the site gives it further interest.
The monument, which is situated 2.6km south east of the River Waveney, on the north east facing slope of a small valley, includes a rectangular earthwork enclosure containing the standing and buried remains of a church known since at least the 14th century as the Minster. The moated site of a medieval bishop's palace lies 450m to the north and is the subject of a separate scheduling. The site of Greshaw Green, enclosed in 1853, but a focus of settlement between the 13th and 16th centuries, is 250m to the west.
The ruined church, which is Listed Grade II and is dated to the 11th century, is aligned north east-south west and stands slightly south west of the centre of the surrounding enclosure. Limited excavations around the walls, carried out in 1964 and 1965 by staff of Ipswich Museum, revealed various details of the structure and its buried foundations. The building above ground has overall dimensions of approximately 30.7m by 10.8m and includes a nave 11.6m in length internally, with a slightly narrower apsidal chancel to the east and, at the western end, a rectangular vestibule (narthex) which originally formed the base of a tower. A semi circular foundation abutting the external face of the south wall of the tower and thought to be the base of a stair turret was recorded during excavation, but is not visible above ground. The walls stand in places to a height of more than 4m, although at the eastern end only the footings survive. Those of the nave are about 1m in thickness, offset above foundations up to 1m wider; that of the eastern apse is slightly thinner, and those of the western compartment are about 1.4m thick to support the weight of the tower above. They are constructed of mortared flint rubble, coursed on the outer face where this survives, and display evidence of various architectural features, including internally splayed window openings in the north and south walls, the sill of a doorway in the north wall towards the western end of the nave, and remains of a round headed arched doorway in the west wall at the base of the tower. The angles of the walls were originally dressed with stone quoins which remain in place below the ground surface but not above, although the regular scars where the stone has been removed from the rubble matrix are visible in places. Between the nave and the eastern apse is a masonry sill which probably supported a triple arcade, and a part of the respond of the arch on the south side still projects from the internal face of the south wall. The wall between the nave and the western compartment is pierced by two openings. Putlog holes (sockets to support the horizontal members of scaffolding) of unusual, triangular form, are also visible in the walls.
The earthwork enclosure may pre-date the church within it. It has maximum overall dimensions of about 130m square and the alignment of the axes is similar but not identical to that of the church. It is defined by a ditch up to 10m wide and with a visible depth of up to 2m, with an internal bank constructed of earth quarried from the ditch. At the south western end of the enclosure, where the ground level of the interior is similar to or slightly lower than that outside the ditch, the bank stands to a height of about 1.5m. On the opposite side, the level of the interior is about 1m above the external ground level immediately beyond the adjoining ditch, probably as a result of soil movement down slope caused by natural erosion or by cultivation within the enclosure, and here the visible height of the bank is about 1m or less. Causeways across the ditch and bank on the north west, north east and south east sides provide access to the interior, although it is possible that none of them is an original feature.
There is documented evidence for late Roman and Saxon occupation on or near the site. Several sherds of Roman pottery were found in 1964-65 in trenches dug across the enclosure ditch, on the surface of the adjacent field to the south, and in small-scale excavations conducted in 1984 to the south of the church. There are also early 19th century records of urns filled with burnt bone and ash, probably from a pagan Saxon cemetery, being turned up when the enclosure was ploughed, and when the buried footings of the south east corner of the nave were exposed during the excavations of 1964-65, a weathered fragment of late Saxon grave slab was found built into the wall, perhaps obtained from a Christian cemetery nearby. At the date of the Domesday survey in 1096, the manor of South Elmham was held by the bishop of Thetford, it was purchased shortly afterwards by Herbert de Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich. It is likely that the Minster was built by de Losinga, who is thought to have been responsible also for the construction of a similar church at his manor of North Elmham, and that it served as an episcopal chapel, although there is also documentary evidence that the site of the bishop's palace nearby may, for a time, have been occupied by a small monastic foundation."
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