St Mary Magdalen, Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen, Norfolk
You cross the large, lazy Good Ouse, and at when Norfolk modifications. The rippling countryside flattens out, the horizon straightens. Norfolk’s trees disappear, aside from the odd a single or two that flame like beacons below the perpendicular sky. There usually are not actually fields anymore, just broad prairies, and the villages are perfunctory. This is the Marshland.
Pevsner mentions incredibly couple of structures west of the Ouse – apart from the great church buildings, some of which are between England’s greatest. In his guide England’s Thousand Very best Church buildings, Simon Jenkins consists of no much less than ten of the Norfolk marshland churches. There are only nine for the whole of Northumberland.
Magdalen is, most likely, near more than enough to the rest of Norfolk to still be a suitable East Anglian village, and a pretty 1 at that. 1 to savour if you are heading west and about to idea off the edge of the actual county into that unusual, sinking landscape further than inexorably, h2o spilt below would roll into Lincolnshire. But the church is a marshland church, huge daring and beautiful with that air of chiarascuro acquainted from its neighbours, a marginally decayed beauty with the odor of previous wood and moist in the air.
The village usually takes its name from St Mary of Magdala, of training course, mainly because it is seriously 1 of the Wiggenhalls. About the years, Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalene has become a little bit of a mouthful, especially specified the presence of the close by parish of Wiggenhall St Mary, where there is no genuine village. So, Magdalen it has grow to be, by the way supplying its identify to a railway station on the Cambridge to Kings Lynn line. St Mary of Magdala is one of my favourite Saints, and so it was a pleasure to take a look at a total village named right after her. The church is a stunning assemblage of crimson brick, flint and stone, wholly organic as it rises venerably in the slim graveyard. It is all pretty considerably 15th century, crafted on wool dollars, though as is frequent in East Anglia the terrific tower is earlier, on the eve of the Black Demise. If it experienced ever been rebuilt, this would have been 1 of the most spectacular church buildings in England.
You move into a enormous building, total of gentle, a dusty air falling slowly and gradually. At the west finish, there is a peculiar minor doorway into the base of the tower – I surprise if the rebuilding of the nave raised the stage of the flooring – and on both facet of it the continues to be of the rood display are propped up, just four panels depicting the evangelistic symbols. Now, this is extremely curious – the symbols do not generally show up on roodscreens. My intuition was that they could be later, but the perform absolutely seems to be medieval, and the deal with of Matthew’s winged person has been scratched out.
Significantly of the character of the nave comes from the woodwork, a pleasing mixture of simple medieval benches and 19th century box pews beneath the first 15th century roof, which is somewhat rustic in character with alternating hammerbeams and queen posts.
Just as neighbouring Wiggenhall St Mary has the biggest selection of medieval bench ends in Norfolk, St Mary Magdalen has the largest collection of 15th century stained glass figures. There are about forty of them, scattered in the higher lights of the north aisle. Nonetheless, they are fairly expert collection, and not very easily identifiable to the untutored eye, due to the fact alternatively than familiar Apostles and Saints they primarily depict Bishops, Archbishops and Popes.
Simon Cotton, in the church manual, offers an excellent vital to them. Ann Eljenholm Nichols’ e-book Early Artwork of Norfolk, possibly the greatest e-book at any time penned about the medieval church buildings of Norfolk, displays that far more than a couple of of them are one of a kind representations in the county, and possibly in the Kingdom. Most of them have scrolls, and with binoculars you can decipher some of the inscriptions, but couple have their familiar symbols with them.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2016-09-10 09:26:09
Tagged: , Wiggenhall , Mary , Magdalene , magdalen , Norfolk , East Anglia
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