St Mary the Virgin, Wortham

St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I Church of England parish church on Rectory Road, Wortham, Suffolk, in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Its ruined west tower is said to be the largest Norman round tower in England.

Overview

Historic England records a twelfth-century tower, possibly eleventh-century; a nave, aisles and chancel of the mid to late fourteenth century; an early fifteenth-century clerestory; and alteration around 1790 after partial collapse of the tower. Later works include restorations of 1856 and 1891–93, a chancel reroof of 1904 and a south porch rebuild of 1908. The fabric is flint rubble, with herringbone coursing in the tower and knapped flint and flushwork elsewhere, ashlar and red brick dressings, cement-rendered aisles and glazed pantile roofs.

The three-stage west tower is about 29 feet in diameter and 62 feet high. Since 1789 it has stood open and ruinous. A late eighteenth-century weatherboarded bell-cote with Y-traceried openings and a leaded ogee cap sits at the junction of tower and nave roof. The clerestory has six two-light Perpendicular windows on each side above flushwork panels with crowned initials and geometric designs. Inside are three-bay nave arcades of double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers, a six-bay nave roof of alternating arched braces and single hammerbeams, a fourteenth-century octagonal font with gabled faces, Royal Arms of Charles I in the south aisle, and fragments of fifteenth-century glass in the east window.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1032741
• British Listed Buildings: Church of St Mary the Virgin, Wortham
• Wortham Church Appeal