Kedington
St Peter & St Paul


The church stands on a ridge overlooking the Stour valley in Mill Road. For the connoisseur this church is well-worth a visit, since it is comparatively unspoiled by modem changes.

From the outside the church appears large; it is nearly 150 feet long, and although the tower is not very tall, it does appear taller because of the low nave roof. There are traces of an earlier steeper pitched roof on the east side of the tower.

Points to see when visiting:

  • the nave roof, since there is an almost flat apex above the collar beams.

  • a variety of benches in the nave, together with childrens' seats and box pews of various shapes and sizes.

  • the medieval parclose screen with some fine carving,

  • the Jacobean three-decker pulpit.

  • hat pegs by the clerk's desk,

  • a wig-pole by the front nave pew.

  • many monuments, chiefly of the Barnardiston family

  • the musicians gallery at the west end,

  • the Anglo Saxon cross on the window sill above the altar.

Though a mediaeval fabric with a simple 16th C. hammer-beam roof, the atmosphere of this church is of the 17th and 18th centuries. Much of the beautiful woodwork of that period remains and at that time also parts of a 15th C. screen were worked up into a magnificent canopied pew in the easternmost bay of the north arcade next to the beautiful Jacobean chancel screen.

Most beautiful three-sided Communion rails surrounding a sanctuary paved with black-and-white marble in which stands a magnificent altar table, early 17th C. or possibly Elizabethan. A handsome three-decker pulpit and tester with an hour-glass in a stand at the top stage and a wig block at the next, the reading desk, stage.

There is a west gallery, ca. 1750, and 18th C. box-pews in the aisles, and the further remains of the furnishing of that period is the fluted design and marbling on the shafts of the piers of both arcades. . . . (CEPC)
 

18th C. bow-fronted gallery (or circa 1750; Betjeman) early 19th C. projecting in a semicircle. (Pevsner)

(No ref. in Cautley.)

http://www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/kedington.htm
 

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Edwin and Sheila Macadam,
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