St Nicholas, Little Saxham
St Nicholas, Little Saxham
St Nicholas is a Grade I Church of England parish church at Little Saxham, Suffolk, in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich: a medieval church whose eleventh- or twelfth-century round tower is among the finest in Suffolk.
- Location
- Little Saxham, Suffolk
- Country
- England
- County
- Suffolk
- City / town
- Little Saxham
- Address
- Little Saxham, Suffolk, IP29 5LD
- Postcode
- IP29 5LD
- Built
- C11–C12 round tower and nave; C14 north aisle and porch; later medieval alterations
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Nicholas
- Diocese
- St Edmundsbury and Ipswich
- Parish
- Little Saxham
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Norman round tower; Decorated aisle
- Materials
- Flint rubble with limestone dressings; low-pitched leaded roofs, plaintiled porch
- Grid reference
- TL 799 637
- Opening hours
- Main church open within daylight hours. Details of key holder to enable access to monuments is available at the church. There is a bus stop outside the church on the 312 bus route between Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket. There is limited parking on a grass verge outside the churchyard. We are on the National Cycle Route 51, on the stretch between Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge. Make a day out of your visit by sightseeing in Historic Bury St Edmunds, or a trip to Ickworth House (National Trust, appr
- Access
- Ramp or level access available on request
Overview
Historic England lists a medieval church of nave, chancel, south porch, north aisle, north chapel and west tower, in flint rubble with limestone dressings and low-pitched leaded roofs. The round tower of the eleventh or twelfth century has shafted belfry openings on four sides with two blank arches between each opening forming a continuous arcade, a billet-moulded cornice, and a fourteenth-century crenellated parapet with gargoyles. Contemporary work includes a south doorway with shafts and volute capitals, a tall narrow tower arch, and a lower west window with chevron ornament. The north aisle is mid-fourteenth-century, with a chamfered arcade and a low-pitched tie-beam roof. A north chapel of the early sixteenth century was built as a chantry for Sir Thomas Lucas (d.1531) and later became the Crofts memorial chapel. The listing and Suffolk Heritage Explorer record a baroque monument to William, 1st Baron Crofts (d.1677) and his wife, with recumbent figures, and other Crofts memorials of 1642, 1694 and 1727.
The church is open in daylight hours; a key holder can give access to the monuments.