St Mary, Wiggenhall St Mary, Norfolk
Simon Jenkins has noticed that the churches of the Ouse delta variety in all probability the best focus of late-medieval craftsmanship in England. Clearly, any cathedral would give them a operate for their money, but you know what he usually means. Below, there are at least a dozen normally anonymous and workaday villages with basically huge church buildings, several of them replete with wonders in stone and wooden. There is remarkably very little medieval glass, and rarely a wall-portray at all possibly the all-natural puritanism of the Fen persons dispatched these, but noticed a functional use to the benches and the fonts. The most important and grandest church buildings are at Walpole St Peter and Terrington St Clement, but neither are notably complete of treasures. St Peter is one of the most beautiful architectural files of the late medieval time period, and St Clement is whole of gentle and daily life but below at Wiggenhall St Mary is the most effective assortment of 15th and 16th century benches in Norfolk, perhaps in England.
There are 4 Wiggenhalls: St Peter, St Germans, St Mary and St Mary Magdalene, now identified merely as Magdalen. All of the villages are small, Magdalen remaining the greatest, and are generally approached up slender straight roadways in the fens. All four churches sit near to the financial institutions of the Ouse – these banks have been elevated, for the reason that the drinking water stage is now increased than the surrounding land, but the towers still sort startling landmarks for any boat heading upstream from Lynn. St Peter is a ruin, and St Mary is now in the treatment of the Churches Conservation Have faith in. It sits to the north of Magdalen with a few of substantial properties for enterprise.
As with all CCT church buildings, St Mary is effectively-held. The rendering of the nave and chancel has a short while ago been renewed and painted. They hide a top secret of this church, the quantity of brick employed in its building. The only expanse of brick nevertheless noticeable is the higher aspect of the tower. The squatness of the tower belies its height, and stair turrets lean deliciously into it in the north-west and south-west corners, coming out as castellated turrets at the top.
So, we may possibly believe that the major 3rd of the tower is present-day with the late medieval rebuilding – but the builders held the Early English doorway on the two sides of the church. The south porch is massive, but useful there is nothing at all of the elaborate decoration you come across at Walpole St Peter. Also useful is the extensive late Victorian restoration by George Street – all the roofs are his.
You phase inside to an inside that is at after large but a little claustrophobic. This is due to the fact of the sheer volume of woodwork – variety after variety of solid, long, benches with large bench finishes. Street’s crown-posted roof looks to push down to fulfill them with out their pierced and traceried backs they would sense oppressive. The dust in the air and the murky light-weight from the east window presents a perception, just for a moment, of becoming underwater. There is a stillness, as if we have disturbed some thing that experienced prolonged remained undisturbed, as if we had been the to start with people to enter in this article for ages.
The nave was crammed with benches in two phases first of all in the mid-15th century, and then again in the early 16th century. The newer benches are those in the aisles. Benches are a symptom of what I have arrive to consider of as a proto-Reformation probably a century ahead of the authentic a single, there is a key change in the English Church from personal devotions to corporate functions of worship. This looks to have been partly a reaction to the Black Death, and a concentration of the intellect on creating it by means of purgatory the breaking up of the previous estates introduced forth a new wealthy middle course, who were being most anxious that their souls ought to be prayed for. Component of their task was a reinforcing of orthodox Catholic doctrine for the duration of the 15th century, huge perpendicular windows replaced the wall paintings, filling the church buildings with gentle, and the wonderful roods had been elevated up to emphasis people’s minds on the central doctrine of the Christian faith. Aspects of Catholic doctrine – the sacraments, the will work of mercy, the deadly sins – appeared in glass and stone. Benches stuffed the rebuilt church buildings – no for a longer period ended up there shadowy corners exactly where previous women could tell their beads, and the plowman his Paternoster, as Mass progressed. The 1st pulpits appeared, and with the coming of the pulpit the Priest still left his chancel and entered the domain of the men and women, using it about. All eyes have been mounted on him now.
The bench finishes at Wiggenhall St Mary are complicated. Tiers come up each and every facet flanking a massive area of interest, which contains a figure. The tiers each increase to a second and 3rd figure, which are often relevant. Above all rises the reliable poppyhead. You can spend an pleasurable 50 percent hour just pottering about attempting to determine them. Several are in Tudor gown, and are seated in daily attitudes. Some have rosaries. Some are Saints, other people characterize animals, Labours of the Months, virtues or Christian symbols.
Relatively in contrast, there is an stylish Laudian font address with slender pillars, and the date 1624. I wondered if the pelican in her piety on top rated was a afterwards addition. As at many community churches, there is an early-16th century latten lectern, an eagle supported at the toes by a few small grinning lions. The Jacobean pulpit continue to retains its hourglass stand. Smatterings of medieval glass are in the higher lights of the north aisle home windows. The royal arms are dated 1791, and inform us that the churchwarden that yr was J SUTTRBY.
There is an stylish parclose monitor in the south aisle which now incorporates the elaborate memorial tomb of Sir Henry Kerville and his spouse. They lie aspect by facet, arms in pious attitudes of prayer.He died in 1624 most transferring are the two very little figures below them, one particular in swaddling clothing these are their young children who died prior to them.
The east conclude of the nave was made for height, for the excellent rood to attract everyone’s interest. Most likely to help intensify this, the chancel arch is curiously slender, and there are just 8 panels on the dado of the screen, 4 figures on every single side flanking the entrance. From the north they are: St Mary of Magdala, St Dorothy, St Margaret, St Scholastica (twin sister of St Benedict), St Catherine, St Barbara, the Blessed Virgin and kid, and St John the Baptist. The chancel is reasonably basic and empty, remaining in its 19th century clothes. The dirty environmentally friendly glass of the east window is overpowering. For a moment, you could be anyplace. And then you flip back and see all those vast ranges of medieval benches once again they actually are most remarkable.
A hallmark of Church buildings Conservation Have faith in church buildings is that they are cleared of clutter but that is unachievable here, of course, because the muddle is the issue you arrive to see. They are intriguing, interesting but this church is curiously missing in environment, particularly if you have just come from Wiggenhall St Germans or Walpole St Peter. It is lifeless you could be in no doubt that it is redundant, and now tiny much more than a museum.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2016-09-15 19:00:00
Tagged: , Wiggenhall , St , Mary , Norfolk , East Anglia , church
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