Author: H Munro Cautley

Date published: 1935

Status: out of print (but a Boydell reprint is rumoured)

What is it? A series of thematic chapters on features of medieval churches, followed by a gazeteer of where they can be found in Suffolk.

What's it like? This church has simple N and S porches and a typical 13th century font bowl. The double hammer beam roof to nave is late and poor and has been boarded with pitch pine. All the benches are of the same material. The whole church is a sad example of bad restoration. (Tattingstone)

What's good about it? The first exhaustive survey of Suffolk's churches and their contents. The thematic chapters are good and useful. Get the 1975 revision if you can, although all editions are readily available in Suffolk second hand bookshops, usually at about £30.

What's bad about it? The gazeteer is not great - Cautley was such an avowed medievalist, he completely ignored anything after 1550 or so. The 1975 edition adds most of these in. Cautley was Diocesan architect, but doesn't always interpret features or their ages very accurately. Generally venerated by Suffolk church explorers, but I am afraid that Mortlock makes this book entirely superfluous.

Overall rating: 3/5 (4/5 for the posthumous 1975 revision)

Buy this book: Amazon.co.uk (UK and Europe), Amazon.com (rest of the world)