St Andrew's Church, Frenze

St Andrew’s Church stands in a quiet field near Frenze Hall, east of Diss in Norfolk. It is built of stone and has no chancel, only a nave. The church was begun in the early 1300s and the brick porch was added in the early 1500s. A small bellcote crowns the west end of the roof. The church is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust and still hosts occasional services. It sits beside Boudica’s Way, a long-distance footpath. The interior holds a carved Jacobean pulpit with its tester and a manorial box pew, both from the early 1600s. Some oak benches date from the 1400s, one showing tracery and poppyheads. The 1300s octagonal font remains in place, and a Royal coat of arms hangs above the south door. Seven brasses remember members of the Blennerhassett family, the oldest from 1475. A single bell cast in 1707 by Joseph Goldsmith hangs in the bellcote. Visitors walk through the gabled Tudor porch into the plain nave. Light falls through two-light windows in the north, south and west walls. Two piscinae are set into the masonry on either side of the church. The isolated setting, with fields stretching away, makes the visit peaceful.