St Mary, Wiggenhall St Mary, Norfolk
Simon Jenkins has noticed that the church buildings of the Ouse delta kind in all probability the very best focus of late-medieval craftsmanship in England. Clearly, any cathedral would give them a operate for their revenue, but you know what he suggests. In this article, there are at least a dozen otherwise anonymous and workaday villages with only great church buildings, quite a few of them replete with wonders in stone and wooden. There is remarkably tiny medieval glass, and hardly a wall-portray at all perhaps the pure puritanism of the Fen folks dispatched these, but saw a practical use to the benches and the fonts. The largest and grandest churches are at Walpole St Peter and Terrington St Clement, but neither are particularly full of treasures. St Peter is 1 of the most stunning architectural documents of the late medieval period, and St Clement is full of light-weight and existence but here at Wiggenhall St Mary is the best collection of 15th and 16th century benches in Norfolk, possibly in England.
There are four Wiggenhalls: St Peter, St Germans, St Mary and St Mary Magdalene, now recognized basically as Magdalen. All of the villages are little, Magdalen getting the largest, and are largely approached up slender straight roadways in the fens. All four churches sit near to the financial institutions of the Ouse – these banks have been lifted, simply because the drinking water amount is now better than the surrounding land, but the towers nevertheless kind startling landmarks for any boat heading upstream from Lynn. St Peter is a wreck, and St Mary is now in the treatment of the Churches Conservation Believe in. It sits to the north of Magdalen with a few of big properties for enterprise.
As with all CCT church buildings, St Mary is perfectly-held. The rendering of the nave and chancel has a short while ago been renewed and painted. They hide a magic formula of this church, the sum of brick made use of in its construction. The only expanse of brick continue to seen is the upper portion of the tower. The squatness of the tower belies its peak, and stair turrets lean deliciously into it in the north-west and south-west corners, coming out as castellated turrets at the major.
So, we may think that the best third of the tower is modern day with the late medieval rebuilding – but the builders kept the Early English doorway on equally sides of the church. The south porch is huge, but functional there is very little of the elaborate decoration you locate at Walpole St Peter. Also practical is the considerable late Victorian restoration by George Road – all the roofs are his.
You action inside to an inside that is at when massive but a tiny claustrophobic. This is simply because of the sheer quantity of woodwork – selection just after selection of solid, long, benches with high bench ends. Street’s crown-posted roof seems to push down to meet them without their pierced and traceried backs they would truly feel oppressive. The dust in the air and the murky light from the east window offers a perception, just for a minute, of getting underwater. There is a stillness, as if we have disturbed some thing that had long remained undisturbed, as if we ended up the first men and women to enter below for ages.
The nave was filled with benches in two phases first of all in the mid-15th century, and then again in the early 16th century. The more recent benches are people in the aisles. Benches are a symptom of what I have occur to believe of as a proto-Reformation maybe a century ahead of the actual one particular, there is a important shift in the English Church from private devotions to company acts of worship. This appears to be to have been partly a response to the Black Demise, and a concentration of the thoughts on building it by purgatory the breaking up of the outdated estates brought forth a new rich middle class, who had been most involved that their souls really should be prayed for. Element of their job was a reinforcing of orthodox Catholic doctrine in the course of the 15th century, vast perpendicular windows replaced the wall paintings, filling the church buildings with mild, and the excellent roods were elevated up to concentration people’s minds on the central doctrine of the Christian faith. Components of Catholic doctrine – the sacraments, the performs of mercy, the lethal sins – appeared in glass and stone. Benches loaded the rebuilt churches – no more time ended up there shadowy corners where by old ladies could convey to their beads, and the plowman his Paternoster, as Mass progressed. The initial pulpits appeared, and with the coming of the pulpit the Priest left his chancel and entered the domain of the individuals, taking it about. All eyes have been fastened on him now.
The bench finishes at Wiggenhall St Mary are intricate. Tiers come up each side flanking a substantial niche, which has a figure. The tiers every increase to a 2nd and third determine, which are often relevant. Above all rises the solid poppyhead. You can invest an pleasurable 50 percent hour just pottering about making an attempt to recognize them. Quite a few are in Tudor costume, and are seated in day to day attitudes. Some carry rosaries. Some are Saints, others symbolize animals, Labours of the Months, virtues or Christian symbols.
To some degree in distinction, there is an sophisticated Laudian font protect with trim pillars, and the date 1624. I questioned if the pelican in her piety on best was a later on addition. As at a number of nearby churches, there is an early-16th century latten lectern, an eagle supported at the toes by 3 little grinning lions. The Jacobean pulpit however retains its hourglass stand. Smatterings of medieval glass are in the upper lights of the north aisle home windows. The royal arms are dated 1791, and inform us that the churchwarden that 12 months was J SUTTRBY.
There is an sophisticated parclose display screen in the south aisle which now consists of the elaborate memorial tomb of Sir Henry Kerville and his wife. They lie side by facet, hands in pious attitudes of prayer.He died in 1624 most transferring are the two tiny figures down below them, just one in swaddling garments these are their kids who died before them.
The east end of the nave was intended for peak, for the fantastic rood to draw everyone’s interest. Potentially to assist intensify this, the chancel arch is curiously slim, and there are just eight panels on the dado of the monitor, four figures on each and every aspect 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 boy or girl, and St John the Baptist. The chancel is somewhat basic and empty, still left in its 19th century outfits. The dirty inexperienced glass of the east window is overpowering. For a minute, you could be any where. And then you switch again and see individuals extensive ranges of medieval benches all over again they definitely are most outstanding.
A hallmark of Churches Conservation Belief church buildings is that they are cleared of clutter but that is unattainable here, of course, since the litter is the thing you arrive to see. They are intriguing, intriguing but this church is curiously missing in atmosphere, primarily if you have just arrive from Wiggenhall St Germans or Walpole St Peter. It is lifeless you could be in no doubt that it is redundant, and now small extra than a museum.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2016-09-15 18:59:06
Tagged: , Wiggenhall , St , Mary , Norfolk , East Anglia , church
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