St Nicholas
St Nicholas Tower and porch
St Michael fights the dragon
Hoodmould stop a female face
Boar typanum from All Saint’s Church
St Nicholas has returned to the Church of England. Inside there are many features of interest and a display of documents and illustrations provided by Suffolk Archives.
This was the church where the Wolsey family worshipped during the cardinal’s boyhood. It was built almost entirely in the 16th century, but there was an earlier church on the site, probably with a different dedication. Two dormer windows lit the rood group at the chancel arch until the Reformation. The Lombardic letter monogram WS marks a chapel at the east end of the south aisle (now defined by a north wall), where William and Isabella Style and their son William were buried, whose brasses (and some for a Blois couple) are mounted on boards on the low windowsills.
The medieval font came by exchange from St Lawrence’s in the 1860s, and the Romanesque sculptures – a boar tympanum, St Michael fighting the dragon, and figures of apostles – came from the Chapel of Our Lady of Grace in Lady Lane when it was dismantled in 1538. The first two were mounted outside high up on the west wall of the south aisle. Look for the mural memorial to William Beeston Coyte, whose Ipswich Botanic Garden was begun by his great uncle William Beeston in 1717.
During 2025 and 2026 extensive works were carried out to the structure of the tower including a new roof and new stonework to the pinnacles.
This was the church where the Wolsey family worshipped during the cardinal’s boyhood. It was built almost entirely in the 16th century, but there was an earlier church on the site, probably with a different dedication. Two dormer windows lit the rood group at the chancel arch until the Reformation. The Lombardic letter monogram WS marks a chapel at the east end of the south aisle (now defined by a north wall), where William and Isabella Style and their son William were buried, whose brasses (and some for a Blois couple) are mounted on boards on the low windowsills.
The medieval font came by exchange from St Lawrence’s in the 1860s, and the Romanesque sculptures – a boar tympanum, St Michael fighting the dragon, and figures of apostles – came from the Chapel of Our Lady of Grace in Lady Lane when it was dismantled in 1538. The first two were mounted outside high up on the west wall of the south aisle. Look for the mural memorial to William Beeston Coyte, whose Ipswich Botanic Garden was begun by his great uncle William Beeston in 1717.
During 2025 and 2026 extensive works were carried out to the structure of the tower including a new roof and new stonework to the pinnacles.
Medieval inscription outside north wall
Brick 17th century porch
Dormer window to light the rood
Sanctuary café – warm and welcoming
George Frost drawing of 1800