Here we are on the edge of Dedham Vale, one of Suffolk's most famous tourist areas; but Great Wenham shares with nearby East Bergholt a sense that it is a proper working village. Part of this comes from the proximity to the church of council houses, homes to the descendants of the countryside's ploughmen, blacksmiths and farriers. That they probably all work in shops and offices in Colchester or Ipswich these days doesn't matter - this isn't a retirement village, and village life thrives because of this. Unfortunately, this vibrancy is rarely reflected in the size of parish church congregations, but at least the communities are still with us.

This church isn't far from its sister at Little Wenham, and externally has some similarities; but inside, the contrast couldn't be greater. There, an extraordinary medieval survival sits among fields. Here, the Victorians went to work, and made a good job of it, mostly. There is none of the high-pitched melodrama that has dated so badly at neighbouring Higham; this was a low-church parish, and the white walls, clear glass and evangelical inscriptions are the sort of thing that many people like nowadays. The interior here could be described as tastefully discreet.

Most successful, for me, is the superb west end. The organ fits snugly into the tower archway, and wooden panelling below it finishes it off neatly, as if it was a rural version of a great 19th century concert hall. You can easily imagine an oratorio performed here. Small-scale secular grandeur at its best: Praise God in his Sanctuary it says above, and most Victorians would have put this quotation from the 150th psalm at the other end of the church, of course.

At the east end, above the rational light of the chancel window, we read Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty. Victorian woodwork abounds; and the font was also replaced, in common with those in several other churches around here. The Victorians enthusiastically rolled up the sleeve on the muscular arm of their Christianity here, and it's all good stuff; but you have to step outside to remind yourself that you are actually inside a medieval building, and not some mid-19th century chapel. There's nothing surviving from Catholic England to be seen inside.

Or, almost nothing. For up in the sanctuary are some medieval tiles, rare enough in Suffolk, and almost certainly reset here from elsewhere. But then, the parishioners here have a long history of protestant simplicity; when William Dowsing came this way on the morning of February 3rd, 1644, he found nothing to offend his puritan sensibility. Probably, the parish was under the influence of the Vicar of East Bergholt, who was so famously an enthusiastic cleanser of idolatrous imagery from his own church that, despite living only a couple of miles away, Dowsing saw no reason to visit it.

A 17th century curiosity is set high up in the north wall. A modern wooden plaque bears a helmet, crest and sword. Probably, the helmet once hung above a memorial. Mortlock thought that they belonged to the East family, who were local puritan land-owners at the time.

The people of this parish are certainly not puritans now. When I visited, on the day of the 2002 Suffolk Historic Churches Bike Ride, I found a vast array of specially baked cakes set out to welcome visitors - indeed, this was one of the most hospitable churches of the fifty or so I visited that day.

St John, Great Wenham, is just to the west of the A12, to the south of Ipswich. The village is signposted from the main road, and the church easily found, although I understand that it is kept locked without a keyholder.

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