We invite you to visit our wonderful church via this website. Here are just some of the key areas of interest. We do hope that you will enjoy your virtual tour.

 As you enter St Mary’s through the wonderful South Porch which was added in the late C15 you will notice the tall flushwork panels as well as the triple canopied niches over the entrance. The base course displays the crowned chalice and wafer symbol of the Mass. The porch has a good roof, decorated with bosses, and in the C19, stone diaper work was added round the plain inner doorway. In the porch you will see the restored Holy Water stoup, still very much in use.

 In the nave - which still has fragments of Norman walling along with a re-used Norman doorway in the chancel - the visual impact is powerful to say the least. The arcade consists of two parts. The two east bays are of circa 1200, with massive round pier and responds; the four centred arches are Perpendicular. The west bays are later; octagonal pier and two-centred arches. You will notice that all the arches are double-chamfered. The nave is filled with light from the eight clerestory windows against the four bays below.

As you look up, you will see the fine painted roof with alternating hammer beams and tie-beams supporting moulded principals which rise to the ridge-piece without any collar beam. The roof of both nave and chancel display a good deal of the original colour left on the principal timbers, including the sacred monograms of IHS and MR - the first being the letters in English for Jesus Hominum Salvator - Jesus, Saviour of Mankind. The MR referring to Maria Regina - Mary Queen .

 Perhaps it is the Font cover in Ufford Church that is the most sought after attraction for the pilgrim and visitor alike. Pevsner spoke of this font cover as “A prodigious and delightful piece reaching right up to the roof”. Munro Cautley calls it “the most beautiful in the world”. This fine font cover, circa 1450, with its richly crocketed carving and tiered finials is surmounted by a Pelican in her piety - an ancient symbol of the Christian Eucharist. As Christ feeds his faithful with his own body and blood, so the Pelican plucks its own breast to feed its young. How appropriate that the Sacrament of Baptism is the gateway to all other Christian sacraments, not least the Holy Communion.

 The base of the Rood Screen and the empty beam above is all that now survives of the ancient Rood (The Crucified Lord with St John and Our Lady on either side) The empty and massive beam remains with its moulding and carving. The base shows in primitive style St Agnes, St Cecilia, St Agatha, St Faith, St Bridget of Kildare and St Florence. Date 1440-60.

The South aisle Chapel is dedicated to St Leonard. Sir Ninian Comper designed the new stone altar and fittings as a memorial to the men of the parish who died in the First World War.

Note to the right an Early English angle piscine with dropped sill sedilia for the clergy to sit during Mass. Notice also in this chapel the fragment of medieval decoration on the wall above. Imagine what this church looked like when all was adorned in this manner- the roof , the walls, the font cover, all in polychromatic splendour.

  As you enter the Chancel you will notice that the Sanctuary area is not that of a simple Suffolk village church. The High Altar Candlesticks and Crucifix are dated 1707 and are of Italian origin. The Stations of the Cross, Statues of the Saints all remind us of the need for visual aids in our earthly worship.

Just as you enter the Chancel, immediately behind the base of the rood screen you will see the misericords with the Willoughby shield on the north side, and two cheerful masks on the south. The purpose of these being to assist the priest when the psalms were being said or sung. Today the building you see is not just a museum, but a living, praying parish church.

 A great many of our visitors are intrigued by the C15 benches that occupy our nave. They stand on castellated sills, and their low backs are charmingly gnarled, with leaf trail carved on the majority of them.

  THE UFFORD BENCHES

The ends of the benches are buttressed on both sides of a tracery panel which is then divided in some cases into two or three sections. Their poppy heads are extraordinarily varied - some with human head finials, some with heraldic emblems, and some with fruit. The second poppy head from the back is particularly notable, for its lobes are carved with pairs of creatures which have long sinous necks, and hooded human faces at their rear ends. There is a fine stag on the elbow below them, its neck in a chained crown, and a lady wearing a butterfly headdress is carved on one of the elbows on the aisle side - which dates the benches roughly between 1450 and 1485.

Just in front of the font is the most famous of all the benches - namely the bench known as the “Margaret and Catherine”. This carving illustrates the C15 hair styles and chair styles. Also one can see a number of animal grotesques, and perhaps the one on the front bench in the nave is a medieval carvers idea of a camel, the beast that symbolised Jesus Christ, stooping to assume the burden of the world’s sin.

A bronze statue of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was installed in a niche on the west face of the tower in 2007. It was funded by donations.

It is believed that the niche once contained a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary which could have been destroyed by zealots under the Cromwell regime or, of course, the statue could have just weathered away. The suggestion to fill the vacant niche in the west face of the tower was first given serious thought in 2005.

The sculptor of the statue is John Doubleday, of  Great Totham in Essex. His public works include Dr Michael Ramsey at Lambeth Palace, HM King Olav of Norway in the Royal Palace at Oslo, HRH Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh in the Royal Marines Museum, Charlie Chaplin at Montreux, and  Nelson Mandel. John Doubleday described his thoughts as the design was conceived:

“The emptiness of the niche illustrates an aspect of church history. To fill it in the 21st century with an image of the Assumption of Mary acknowledges the past and recognises the rich iconography of the Middle Ages. It would also act as an indication of the magnificent furnishing of the church interior.  Mary was, and still is, a channel for intercession, her open arms providing protection for figures gathered under her outstretched arms. Mary is also a symbol of trust and constancy who knew the path of grief and her communion with the Divine rendered the barrier of death irrelevant. The statue in its place, facing down the lane as the church is approached, alerts people to perhaps the unusual experience of entering a church for the first time and thus making it easier to connect with the lively imagination of those who built the medieval church and made its artefacts.”

The statue, positioned 11 metres up the  tower, is a metre high and half a metre wide. It is cast in bronze. The body and robe are covered with matt gold leaf, with bright gilding for the crown. After gilding the enfolding robe has been lacquered in blue. It is thought that the statue will not require any attention for maintenance for the next 200 years.

We hope that you have enjoyed this virtual tour of our much loved place of worship and we hope that you will come and visit the church to see for yourself.  It is open daily usually from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm.