We know, however, that in the year 1207 Gerard of
Wachesham (the present Wattisham, near Bildeston) gave
the benefice to the Augustinian Priory of Black Canons
of St. Peter's, Ipswich, and that it was held by them till
the year 1527, when they were suppressed in order that
what they drew from the benefice, together with the rest
of their income, might be appropriated to the support of
Wolsey's College at Ipswich. Whatever alterations, there-
fore, in the structure were made in the intervening 320
years must have been made by the prior and canons of
St. Peter's, Ipswich. The conversion, then, of the church
from a Norman to a Gothic edifice must have been their
work ; and so we are indebted to them for all our windows,
for the tower, and probably for the oak roof of the chancel.
By them also our tenor bell was placed in our belfry. It
was of their thought, and at their cost, that it has been made
to offer continuously as for themselves so for us, and for so
many intervening generations of worshippers, the prayer
* that we may attain through the merits of Thomas (i
Beckett) to the blissful realms of light * — Nos Thome meritis
mereamur gaudia lucis. The same hexameter occurs on a
bell in the tower of the church of South Elmham St. Cross,
in this county, and elsewhere, and indicates the work of a
Norwich foundry of the isth century. We may imagine,
then, that this bell was placed in our church tower at the
date of its construction. This we have just supposed,
judging from the tracery of the west window, may have
been about the year 1400.
