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The present CHANCEL is the most recent part to be built - or rather rebuilt. Isaac Johnson's sketch of the exterior, made about 1818, shows the nave and chancel of equal width and under the same continuous roof with no structural division. This is borne out by David Elisha Davy's notes from an 1817 visit. However, when he returned in 1827 he noted “the chancel has lately been rebuilt with brick”, so the present chancel was built between 1817 and 1827. The original windows were reused, including the beautiful east window with its reticulated (net-like) tracery from around 1330. The hood mould which traces the arch of this window rests upon original male and female corbel-heads. The north window has a 14th century stone frame but its tracery has been replaced by a single vertical division. Perhaps it had a simple “Y” tracery like its southern counterpart, which dates from the 1300s. The small priest's doorway on the south side is also 14th century, its hood mould (or dripstone - because it deflects rainwater from the arch) rests upon corbel heads. In the wall nearby is a stone memorial to John Garneys (the son of Charles Garneys of Kenton), who died in 1697.
The NAVE is 14th century and its flint-rubble walls (which have remains of rendering) were heightened during the late 15th or 16th centuries with Tudor brick. At the same time the elegant Tudor brick window was built in the north wall. It is interesting to compare the mellow, slender Tudor bricks with the stockier 19th century bricks in the chancel. There is a blocked 14th century north doorway. The south-east window has cusped “Y” tracery of around 1310, but the tracery of the south-west window shows that this window was added later in the 14th century. Its corbel heads are animals and one is sticking out his tongue at us.
Redlingfield's TOWER could not be more rustic or intriguing. Its base (about 10-feet high) is the base of a Tudor brick tower (Suffolk has several fine Tudor towers) of the late 15th or early 16th century, with western buttresses and a south-east staircase turret. In the brickwork we can see the diamond-shaped “diaper” pattern, using dark coloured bricks. The west window is simple, wood-framed and cottage-like. The upper parts of the tower are of lath and plaster, possibly 17th century. There is now one small rectangular window and the structure is capped by a gabled “saddleback” roof, the same height as the nave roof, but with a slightly steeper pitch. We do not know whether the Tudor tower collapsed or whether it was started but never completed.
The south PORCH, of flint is 14th century and has blocked “Y” traceried lateral windows of around 1300. In the stonework of the 14th century south doorway are faint traces of graffiti of considerable age.
The Statement of Significance about the church is available here.
This information was taken from a guide compiled by Roy Tricker, who thanked Rev David Streeter, James Risk, Cynthia Brown and George Pipe for information and advice, also the staff of Suffolk Record Office for the use of their facilities.