St Mary\'s Church in Playford, Suffolk, has a carving of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus over its front entrance once again - 460 years after the original was removed during the dissolution of the monasteries

The new Portland limestone statue, standing just over 70cm high, was carved by Charlie Hull of Higham, near Bury St Edmunds. She has been self-employed for more than 20 years, undertaking a variety of commissions for stonemasonry, lettering and carving.

The original Mary seems to have had a relatively short tenancy in the niche above the main door on the church tower, because although the church was given to the Benedictine Priory of Eye and dates back to about 1100, the tower was not built until 1410 (by Sir George Felbrigge) and the order was suppressed on 12 February 1537, when the icon would have been destroyed.

The canopied niche remained intact, its carved ceiling a piece of stone vaulting in miniature forming the letter \'M\' for Mary.

The Parochial Church Council of Playford were particularly keen that the new work should reflect carvings of the Renaissance, when the sacred relationship between the mother and child was portrayed by giving them eye contact. In later carvings either Mary or Jesus looked out to the viewer to engage them in the relationship.