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Church of St Mary, Woolpit

Woolpit, GB

Church of St Mary, Woolpit

Saint Mary's Church is the parish church of Woolpit, Suffolk, England. Much of the church was built in the fifteenth century but its most salient feature, the spire, was rebuilt in 1870, thanks to the architect Richard Phipson. The church is a Grade I listed building. It has "Suffolk's most perfectl

y restored angel hammerbeam roof", a profusion of medieval carved pew-ends (mixed with good 19th-century recreations), and a large and very fine porch of 1430–55. The roof is actually a double hammerbeam example, with the upper beam being false. The tower and spire are by Richard Phipson in the 1850s, replacing the originals lost to lightning in 1852 or 1853. Most of the rest of the church is Perpendicular Gothic, except for the 14th-century south aisle and chancel. There is fine flushwork decoration on the exterior of the clerestory. The medieval shrine was at the east end of the south aisle. The "quite perfect" eagle lectern is a rare early-Tudor original from before the English Reformation.

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