St Mary

Driving through Brome towards Oakley, St Mary’s church sits, rather insignificantly, on the right. Do stop and pay a visit, it is a veritable museum.

The finest artistic works in the church are the sculptures and carvings of James Williams, a 19th c Suffolk sculptor, in particular the reredos and altar rail. They are exquisite. The church is worth visiting to see them alone, but there is much more to enjoy.

Look at the remnants of a Saxon flint round tower, one of the 33 in Suffolk. Encased with stone and brickwork in 1875, it is evidence that people have worshipped, wedded and been laid to rest on this site for 1300 odd years.

The most notable of the many monuments are the two chest tombs in the Cornwallis chapel. There the couples lie ‘side by side’, surrounded by their shields: Sir John Cornwallis and his wife Mary, and his son Sir Thomas and his wife Anne. Sir Thomas took part in supressing Kett’s rebellion in 1549 and, a staunch Catholic, became treasurer to Queen Mary. In this role he surrendered Calais to the French in 1558. It was said that he received payment for doing so. The family have played a significant part in English history. The most notable members are Charles (1st Marquis), a general in the American War of Independence, who surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown; his supply line had been cut off. He later became Governor-General of India where he died in 1805. William, brother of the 1st Marquis (a Rear-Admiral), instigated the blockade of Brest in the Napoleonic Wars and, further back, a Cornwallis has been Archbishop of Canterbury, and another Governor of Nova Scotia. The male line died out in 1823. The Oakley and Brome estates were then sold to Matthias Kerrison whose son, General Sir Edward Kerrison, was wounded at Waterloo. He and his wife, Lady Caroline, remodelled the church in company with the rector, the RevD Mapletoft Paterson. The striking stained glass was largely painted by Lady Caroline.