At the heart of the village is the medieval St John the Baptist Church, thought to date back to the 12th century. At one time the church was run by the Cluniac monks from nearby Mendham Priory, whose chaplain served the parish until 1521. Although the church was not mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1086), Metfield may have come under the heading of the mother church, Mendham Priory.

Bequests from the Jermy families enabled the church tower to be completed, as well as the installation of a font bearing the family coat of arms and the perpendicular style windows. Among the many treasures to be found in St John the Baptist Church are the rare 17th-century turret clock (1629), surviving panels of the rood screen and the 15th-century font, which bears the Jermy coat of arms.

The 15th-century ‘Canopy of Honour’ in the nave was, fortunately, overlooked during the Reformation, when Laxfield-born Puritan iconoclast William Dowsing visited Metfield church on 30 August 1644, destroying and defacing religious emblems.

The names of village men who were killed in the First and Second World Wars are inscribed on two marble memorials in the nave. A commemorative plaque, also in the nave, honours the USAAF airmen who were killed when they were stationed at Metfield Aerodrome.

St John the Baptist Church underwent extensive restoration and renovation work which was completed in 2016. See a short film made by Jonathan Brinton about the project.

A bit of history
Lord of the Manor
Employment
USAAF ‘invasion’
Post-war Metfield
2000 and beyond
Village shop
Publication of METFIELD Tales From a Suffolk Village 1928–2017