St Peter's Church, Bruisyard

My first Suffolk round tower and another church where setting and “personality” leave a better impression than the few lines in Pevsner suggest... Perhaps Arthur Mee helped with this entry. I passed through one ford, I wouldn't recognise angelica in the hedgerows (I thought that was stuff you put on cakes to decorate them), if the blackbird sang I missed it (maybe after 1000 years his family has died out) and the sweet wind off the vineyard was not blowing on this Saturday morning. The pictures matched though! Also I wouldn't say Bruisyard was one of the most beautiful in the county either. However it has character and seems to have had a reasonably sensitive restorer rather than a complete Victorian makeover.

The tower is Norman, the rest of indeterminite age but certainly medieval. Bigger tracery-less windows have been made in the walls - in the 17th, 18th or even early 19th century - and maybe there was a west gallery at some time. Normally these windows receive Victorian tracery in the “restoration”.

(Commentary provided by Phil Draper)