St Mary, Pakenham
St Mary, Pakenham
St Mary’s on Church Hill, Pakenham, Suffolk, is a Grade I Church of England parish church in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, unusual in the county for its cruciform plan and low central tower.
- Location
- Pakenham, Suffolk
- Country
- England
- County
- Suffolk
- City / town
- Pakenham
- Address
- Church Hill, Pakenham, Suffolk, IP31 2LN
- Postcode
- IP31 2LN
- Built
- C12 and later; cruciform plan with central tower; extended and extensively restored 1849
- Architect
- S. S. Teulon (1849 restoration and transepts)
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary
- Diocese
- St Edmundsbury and Ipswich
- Parish
- Pakenham
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Romanesque and later medieval, with Victorian restoration
- Materials
- Rubble flint with freestone dressings; kidney flints to Teulon work; gault brick to the rebuilt tower parapet
- Grid reference
- TL 929 670
- Opening hours
- Daily 10am to 5pm.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
Overview
Historic England lists the Church of St Mary (NHLE 1181353, listed 14 July 1955). The list records a parish church of the twelfth century and later, extended and extensively restored in 1849 by S. S. Teulon. The tower has coursed rubble flint to the lower stage and an octagonal fourteenth-century upper part with cusped two-light windows; the crenellated parapet was rebuilt in gault brick. Nave and chancel are rubble flint with freestone dressings. Identical Romanesque doorways survive in the west and south walls. Teulon added north and south transepts and a porch, faced with kidney flints. Interior fittings include an ornate fifteenth-century font, a twelfth-century chancel arch, and Victorian roofs, pulpit and poppy-head benches. The parish has no separate official website beyond diocesan listings.