The chancel of our lovely church here  contains a wonderful carved waggon roof, dating from the early 1500’s. This ceiling bears over 120 carved bosses, depicting people, religious icons, monsters, animals, both wild and domestic and plants. The collection has been described by leading academics as ‘unique and of national importance’.

More details of the carvings can be found here.

The outer roof covering these carvings is now leaking. The old hand-made terracotta tiles need to be replaced, and this work will cost upwards of £100,000.

Some of this money will come from charitable trusts, but they will usually only offer half of the repair bill. For this reason, we need to raise £70,000 locally in order to apply for grant aid.

The Roof Appeal was launched by an event in the church on the evening of 19 October. Simon Knott, who runs the popular website suffolkchurches.co.uk recorded a message of support for the appeal. See his message below.

Clive Paine, vice-president of the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust, Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History and Suffolk Records Society sent us the following message of support.

Please, please, if you can, consider making  a donation to support this vital work , so that repairs can commence as soon as possible, and these unique, priceless carvings can be protected for future generations.

You can donate by bank transfer to Gazeley PCC Roof Appeal, Account number: 34850568, Sort Code: 30-95-96, or via the button below.