St Nicholas

This is a church you cannot miss. The 60ft square tower is built on a ridge, visible for many miles, looking out over the neighbouring farmland. If you climb to the top (not recommended) it is said that you can see 18 churches in the surrounding fields of Suffolk and South Norfolk. The tower was built by Robert Bucton, Lord of the Manor, around 1380. His daughter Philippa married John Cornwallis in 1400 and for the next 423 years Cornwallises remained in Brome and Oakley.

The church itself was barely touched by any Victorian renovation and is largely Perpendicular in style. The only peculiarity is an extremely steep and narrow staircase in the north wall that would have led to a rood screen with two altars. The piscina at the south altar remains. Note the ancient font on the north wall, opposite the entrance. Unlike the carved font at Brome it looks as if an ancient block of stone had been roughly shaped and then placed on top of an older font.

The most notable artefact in the church is the reredos of The Last Supper after Raphael, a glass mosaic given by the widow of Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker of Oakley House. On each side are panels of Melchizedek and the Pascal Lamb that were added later. And on the south side there is a marble alabaster tomb of Sir William Cornwallis. His son Frederick inherited his father’s and stepfather’s estates when he was one year old.

On your way out, or on your way in, it is interesting to study the porch which originally would have had two floors. Outside, on the right of the doorway you can still make out the Cornwallis crest with the three faded choughs. The matching left hand shield would probably have shown the arms of Robert Bucton, worn away by the centuries. A grinning imp can just be made out carved just left of centre at the top of the arch.

There is some very old glass, probably 14th or 15th century in the windows of the porch.