St Mary's, Helmingham .

 This church is all about the Tollemache family who have owned the huge Helmingham estate for several hundred years and many generations.

This church was built specifically for the family and their tenants in late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Highly carved font

In almost every available space on the walls are painted  bible texts. The work of the vicar here during the mid 1800's - John Ryle who later went on to be the first Bishop of Liverpool

And then everywhere you look, there are the many, many memorials to members of the Tollemache family - recent and from long ago

The largest memorial is this one below, and the dormer window was added into the roof to make room for it. Erected in 1615 it remembers 4 generations.

This is the  dormer window, from outside and you can see the top of the massive memorial inside

Many more Tollemaches and their tenants are remembered on the 1914-1918 war memorial

Zooming in across the parkland to the House. Still lived in by the Tollemache family, although it isn't open to the public but the gardens and parkland are and they have various events through the year.

 The links at the start of this post give more information and this is the link to Simon Knott's Suffolk churches website for more about the church.

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