St Mary At The Elms

Late C15 or early C16 N aisle.

W tower C16.

EXTERIOR The brick W tower is C16, and has polygonal buttresses, a stepped, embattled parapet, and a polygonal NE stair turret.

The three-light W window has vertical tracery, and the nave and chancel windows are largely C19 and Perpendicular in style, those in the medieval fabric replacing probably C16 windows with depressed heads and Y-tracery.

The western two bays, of brick, are late C15 or early C16

The former chancel, now the E end of the nave, has C19 Perpendicular-style windows of different sizes, apparently replacing two small Tudor windows.

The S doorway is early C12, and has two orders, the inner with a roll moulding, the outer with chevron on nook shafts with cushion capitals.

The S door has elaborate scrolled ironwork that is probably also early C12.

Very tall, C16 tower arch, rising the whole height of the nave, with a depressed head and multiple mouldings dying into the sides.

The western two are late C15 or early C16 and have a continuous outer order and an inner order on polygonal shafts with moulded capitals and high bases.

In the former chancel S wall (now the nave S wall), a niche formed from the former priest's door holds a copy of a late medieval English devotional image arranged as a shrine.

Low-pitched, late C15 or early C16 roofs to the N aisle and transept, with moulded wall plates and beams.

The nave (including the former chancel) has a C18 plaster ceiling, probably concealing a late medieval roof.

The C19 chancel roof stands on carved corbels.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES S door and its ironwork are late C11 or early C12.

Medieval stoup by the S door.

Good Victorian gothic font, 1870s, by Mr Ireland of Princes Street, carved with scenes of the gospel and figures of the evangelists on the stem.

Royal Arms of Charles II.

Some good C19 and C20 glass, including a N aisle window of 1907 by Ninian Comper, and nave windows of 1879-80 signed Taylor late O'Connor.

Wall monuments of the C17-C19, including William Acton, d. 1616 a hanging monument with kneeling figures, over which looms a dart-wielding skelton.

One hatchment.

There was a church dedicated to St Saviour near this site in the C11.

St Mary at the Elms (to distinguish it from the other St Marys in the town) was first mentioned in 1204, when both it and St Saviour's were listed among the possessions of the Augustinian priory of Holy Trinity, Ipswich.

However, St Saviour's disappeared some time thereafter, probably before the end of the C13.

The present church building was probably in existence by the early C12, the date of the S door,

was definitely known as St Mary at the Elms by the C14.

The S porch was probably added in the C14, and the transepts may have been C14 or earlier.

A brick N aisle was added in the late C15 or early C16, and the present W tower was built in the early C16.

The S transept was demolished at an unknown, probably post medieval, date.

2nd ed. VCH Suffolk II , 103-5 (Priory of Holy Trinity) Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture of Great Britain and Ireland (www.crsbi.ac.uk) qv St Mary Elms, Ipswich REASONS FOR DESIGNATION The church of St Mary at the Elms, Ipswich, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * For its early fabric, in particular the Norman S doorway. * For its later medieval fabric, including the C16 tower. * For the interest of its fixtures, such as the Acton monument.