Church

St Margaret, Somerton

St Margaret, Somerton

St Margaret’s is a Grade I parish church at Upper Somerton, Suffolk, in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

Location
Somerton, Suffolk
Country
England
County
Suffolk
City / town
Somerton
Address
Somerton, Suffolk, IP29 4ND
Postcode
IP29 4ND
Built
C13 flint nave; blocked Norman north doorway; early C14 chancel and chapel
Denomination
Church of England
Dedication
Margaret
Diocese
St Edmundsbury and Ipswich
Parish
Somerton
Grade
I
Style
Norman and Decorated Gothic
Materials
Flint with stone dressings
Grid reference
TL 810 530
Opening hours
Open each Saturday and Sunday. Key access info is in the porch and Churchwardens live close by.
Access
Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas

Overview

Historic England lists a small thirteenth-century flint church with a blocked Norman north doorway of one order of shafts with scalloped capitals. The west tower has diagonal buttresses and a castellated parapet with flint and stone chequerwork. The chancel and chancel chapel are early fourteenth-century. The east window is Perpendicular, with early fourteenth-century shafting inside, and there is a shafted squint.

The interior has a fine octagonal Jacobean pulpit with ornamented panels, a Jacobean or early Stuart communion rail, and a fifteenth-century octagonal font carved with roses and shields. The church is not in the Domesday Survey of Somerton; a list of rectors begins in 1332. It overlooks Hawkedon and the surrounding countryside. Keys are noted in the porch, with churchwardens living nearby.

Further Information