20th century east end; but the rest is all original, unusually enough in Suffolk.

This is not to say that the village is not a busy place too, of course, for it is home to the world famous Snape Maltings, once the dockside and railhead of the Garrett industrial empire, and now home to the Aldeburgh Festival. Ironically, the tourists that flock the craft shops, galleries and cafes of the Arts Centre, and go for walks along the reed-banked creeks and across the marshes, probably don't make it up to the busy top road and the church, which is a pity.

The building today looks pretty much like the 1820 drawing of the church reprinted on the cover of the guidebook. The Victorians didn't do much restructuring here; there was no building of aisles, transepts or trimmings. The only real change is the eastern wall, rebuilt in 1920 to replace the heavily buttressed, yet collapsing, original. This is a simple, aisleless church, with no clerestory. The roofline on the tower shows that it was once thatched. It is a typical country church.

The tower was built as the result of a bequest in the middle years of the 15th century, and the battlements added later, in the style of the 1520s. The porch is contemporary with the tower. The nave and chancel are earlier, probably 13th century, and although they have been patched up over the years, there has been no wholesale rebuilding.

Inside, however, the modern age has been busy. But we made a sympathetic job of it, and the church contains a great treasure, one of the most beautiful fonts in the county.

The encircling banner on the Snape font.

It bears a dedicatory inscription to the Mey family, and dates from the late 15th century. Strange animals lurk around the foot of it; the stem bears the Evangelists with their symbols, interspersed with kings. But the most animated figures are those on the bowl. Seven of them hold a long scroll that goes right around the bowl. The eighth panel is a rare representation of the Holy Trinity, which was particularly circumscribed by iconoclasts in the 16th and 17th centuries, and even meets with disapproval in some quarters today. It shows God the Father seated on his throne, with the crucified Son held in front of him. The Spirit descends in the form of a dove. On either side kneel the donors of the font.

Otherwise, this is a pleasant enough interior, without being overly exciting. There is a good early 19th century gallery, a consecration cross, a rood loft stairway.

There is a tomb recess in the north chancel wall which may have been an Easter sepulchre. I like the modern altar frontal very much - it elaborates on a line from Eliot's Four Quartets.

The church used to have a beautiful 15th century brass of five little girls. Davy made a rubbing of it, which is in the British Museum; but the brass has been stolen since, probably in the 1920 wholesale refurbishment of the chancel.

Original window and roodstair in the north wall.

Looking east. The beautiful altar frontal is by Belinda Scarlett.

St John the Baptist, Snape, is located on the A1094 road from the A12 to Aldeburgh. I found it open.