St Mary's Church, Mildenhall

St Mary’s Church stands in the Suffolk town of Mildenhall, a Grade I listed building mostly built in the 14th century. It is recognised in Simon Jenkins’s guide ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches’ with four stars. The church belongs to the Church of England and serves as the parish church for Mildenhall. Inside, the nave and aisles contain memorials to local figures from the 15th to 18th centuries. The tower houses a ring of ten bells, eight cast by Whitechapel foundry between 1887 and 1913. The church is worth visiting for its historic memorials and fine bells. Sir Henry Barton, twice Lord Mayor of London, has a cenotaph in the south aisle. The North family are commemorated by an alabaster tomb chest with family effigies and several wall tablets. The diarist William Coe lies beneath a floor slab in the vestry. The ring of ten bells includes two trebles added in 1946 to mark the end of the Second World War. A visitor finds a spacious medieval interior with a two-manual pipe organ by Father Henry Willis from 1865. The south aisle contains the Barton and North memorials, while the chancel holds tablets to the Warner and Hunt families. The tower’s bells hang in a steel and cast-iron frame installed in 1914. Outside, the churchyard borders quiet streets in the centre of Mildenhall.