St Mary, Redenhall, Norfolk
I had not been back again to Redenhall for ten yrs, but its wonderful tower is unforgettable, rearing out of the rolling hills to the north of the Waveney. As you get nearer, you see that spreading over and above the church is what need to be a person of the largest churchyards in Norfolk, and there is a purpose for this. Though Redenhall is a small village, the parish features the quite marketplace town of Harleston, from which it is separated by the awful Diss to Yarmouth street. Harleston has a 19th century chapel of relieve in its centre, but when you see St Mary even from a distance you know that this is the a person that indicates small business.
Reminiscent of the towers at Eye and Laxfield above the Suffolk border, the tower was pretty much surely the operate of the similar masons. It was bankrolled by the De la Poles, one particular of the richest people in East Anglia in the 15th century, and the point that the elaborate flushwork is only in 3 sides of the tower, but not on the south aspect which are not able to be viewed from the road, demonstrates that they had been a fairly wily bunch when it arrived to splashing the dollars. They had been beneficiaries of the pestilences of the previous century, when the deaths of about half the people of Norfolk and Suffolk resulted in the break-up of the outdated estates and the climbing of wages and charges, enabling those with funds to invest in land cheaply. The emergence of a residence-proudly owning independent center class devoid of historic ties and loyalties to their parishes and men and women would inevitably lead to the two terrific ideologies of the 2nd fifty percent of the millennium, Protestantism and Capitalism.
But that was in the foreseeable future when the De la Poles and fellow proto-capitalists the Brothertons have been earning bequests to rebuild St Mary. Up went the tower and the clerestory, and the aisle windows ended up all replaced in the manner of the day. Only the chancel was still left looking alternatively indicate and slight. Potentially they would have obtained to that far too had priorities not transformed. About the base of the tower you can see their leopard and wild man symbols. You may also spot tortoises, for this was the image of the Gawdy family members. A single curious depth is the carving of farriers’ implements on the west door. These have been taken to signify that the door was compensated for by the area farriers’ guild, but I see no motive to suppose that the carving is contemporary, and I assume it is as most likely to be the get the job done of an idle 18th century hand.
Inevitably, the inside of the church was not likely to live up to the exterior. I experienced arrive listed here from the two church buildings of the Pulhams, both big barns of churches, and this one particular is a bit of a barn also, large and echoey, but perhaps a classier barn than the two I experienced formerly frequented. It is real that the within of St Mary has been comprehensively Victorianised, and it is actually hard to summon up any perception of its medieval existence. The major dim woodwork of the scenario of the Holdich organ in the west gallery would have frowned on the acres of coloured glass in the naves at the Pulhams, but right here there is somewhat very clear light-weight with only a couple of Ward & Nixon home windows that can effortlessly be tuned out.
But there are intriguing corners which give the church really significantly a character of its have, for instance the Gawdy chapel at the east finish of the north aisle which consists of a spirited classical altar tomb of the late 18th century, a hint of Strawberry Hill Gothick about it, rather abnormal but very nicely finished. The window of heraldic glass is by Samuel Yarrington, and is reported to have arrive from Gawdy Corridor in the north of the parish, demolished in the early a long time of WWII. An intriguing depth in the chapel is a 16th Century Venetian linen upper body which is also reported to appear from Gawdy Hall. It stands open, and you can see a depiction of the Annunciation with sailing ships above on the inside of the lid, which is really curious and alternatively lovely.
Redenhall church is famed for one particular distinct medieval survival. This is the impressive double-headed eagle lectern, the wonderful product or service of a 15th century East Anglian workshop. There is a different in one of the Kings Lynn churches, and the 1 at St Mark’s in Venice is claimed to be from the exact workshop. I like the small lions on the pedestals most effective of all. Remarkably, the church has a 2nd medieval lectern, a picket a person, and each are solidly chained down to stop theft.
You can walk below the wonderful organ to beneath the tower, an spectacular house as significant as some churches. Though no for a longer time applied, you get an impression of the excellent processional entrance this should once have been, and perhaps an inkling of what St Mary was like in its late medieval heyday, a place at very last to reflect on the glory that the moment was in this article. As if to remind us of the passing of such points, a surviving painted plaque, most likely from a lost 17th Century memorial, hangs beside the tower arch. Loss of life, it reads, behold thy selfe to me, this kind of 1 was I as thou, and thou in time shall be even dust as I am now…
Posted by Simon Knott on 2018-08-06 19:32:20
Tagged: , Redenhall , Norfolk , East Anglia , church , churches
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