Church Micro 7043...Flixton - St Mary Traditional Cache

When the Norman nave and chancel were added, a priory for eighteen nuns of the Augustinian order was founded by Margaret de Creke in 1258. The Prioress then appointed the vicars of Flixton. The Black Death of 1349 impoverished the priory whose income derived from land in Norfolk. As a result the chancel of the church, for which it was responsible, fell into ruins. In 1528 Flixton priory, along with all monastic foundations in England, was disendowed by Henry VIII's chancellor; Cardinal Wolsey and leased for £38 a year. The bitter religious spirit of the times was displayed at Flixton when a vicar, John Daynes, was deprived of his living for refusing to use the sign of the cross in baptism, refusing to wear a surplice and calling his congregation "caterpillars, and worse".

In 1855, with the chancel still in ruins, the old Saxon tower finally collapsed. In 1861 the whole church was virtually rebuilt by Sir Robert Shafto Adair. The North arcade is the only part of the original building visible, and there remains a debate as to whether the tower is a copy of what was there before, or an entirely new creation. If the former, it would be an extremely important addition to the story of Saxon church-building, the only surviving example being that of the parish church of Sompting in West Sussex. If the latter, then it is still, as Arthur Mee says in his King's England volume on Suffolk, 'a rare copy of Saxon craftsmanship."