St Cross South Elmham

The parish contains South Elmham Hall, surrounded by a four-acre moat and which was formerly the country residence of the Bishop of Norwich.[5] The hall is currently known as Bateman's Barn and offers guided historic tours of the house and its grounds during the summer months.[12] South Elmham Hall has been listed as a grade one building.[13] The building contains primarily 16th century architecture, alongside 15th century arches constructed during the Bishops ownership of South Elmham Hall.[7] The primary attraction of the South Elmham area to the Bishops was the hunting opportunities provided by a deer park established in the local area.[9] This was not without problems with reports of the deer being poached by the residents of St Cross in 1315. The Hall also hosted royal family members on several occasions, most notably in 1326 when Edward II stayed for ten days on his way to Norwich, carrying out government business during his stay there.[9] The remains of previous buildings and settlements nearby to the hall have long since decayed, although around 45 detailed surviving records in the Suffolk Record Office indicate the area used to contain stables, mews and gatehouses.[9] The ruins of one of the gatehouses survives and can be still be seen today. South Elmham Hall also has the earliest domestic wall paintings in Suffolk, dating from 1270.[9]

The village contains the church of St George first constructed around a century before the Norman conquest of Britain, though many modifications and added developments were made in the centuries afterwards, such as the addition of the square bell tower in the 14th century.[5] The church is the largest of the churches in the Saints area and has been through several renewals over its history, to restore and renovate areas including the floor, which was replaced with Victorian styled tiles in the 19th century and the benches, which were replaced when the previous ones started to decay. St George's is now open to the public on a daily basis after previously being kept locked for a number of years.[5]

The minster ruins

Nearby to South Elmham Hall lies the remains of a site known as South Elmham Minster. The remains date from Roman times, before the Norman conquest of Britain and the building is believed to have been the private chapel of the Bishop of Norwich during his residence at South Elmham Hall.[14] The chapel was built on the remains of a Roman temple that had previously been located there.[14] The exact reasons behind the chapel's disuse and abandonment are unknown, as it fell out of use in the sometime in the 13th century.