St Mary Magdalen, Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalen, Norfolk
You cross the vast, lazy Great Ouse, and at the moment Norfolk changes. The rippling countryside flattens out, the horizon straightens. Norfolk’s trees disappear, aside from the odd one particular or two that flame like beacons down below the perpendicular sky. There usually are not really fields any longer, just large prairies, and the villages are perfunctory. This is the Marshland.
Pevsner mentions extremely few structures west of the Ouse – except the terrific church buildings, some of which are among England’s very best. In his book England’s Thousand Most effective Church buildings, Simon Jenkins incorporates no considerably less than 10 of the Norfolk marshland church buildings. There are only 9 for the complete of Northumberland.
Magdalen is, potentially, shut ample to the rest of Norfolk to continue to be a appropriate East Anglian village, and a very a person at that. One particular to savour if you are heading west and about to suggestion off the edge of the authentic county into that odd, sinking landscape past inexorably, h2o spilt here would roll into Lincolnshire. But the church is a marshland church, massive daring and gorgeous with that air of chiarascuro acquainted from its neighbours, a slightly decayed elegance with the scent of previous wood and moist in the air.
The village can take its identify from St Mary of Magdala, of course, due to the fact it is actually one of the Wiggenhalls. Above the several years, Wiggenhall St Mary Magdalene has become a bit of a mouthful, especially given the presence of the close by parish of Wiggenhall St Mary, where by there is no actual village. So, Magdalen it has develop into, by the way providing its name to a railway station on the Cambridge to Kings Lynn line. St Mary of Magdala is a single of my favorite Saints, and so it was a pleasure to check out a complete village named immediately after her. The church is a lovely assemblage of red brick, flint and stone, wholly organic as it rises venerably in the narrow graveyard. It is all really much 15th century, developed on wool cash, while as is widespread in East Anglia the good tower is earlier, on the eve of the Black Dying. If it had at any time been rebuilt, this would have been one particular of the most spectacular church buildings in England.
You action into a huge building, whole of gentle, a dusty air slipping slowly. At the west close, there is a odd minimal doorway into the base of the tower – I surprise if the rebuilding of the nave elevated the amount of the flooring – and on either side of it the remains of the rood screen are propped up, just 4 panels depicting the evangelistic symbols. Now, this is really curious – the symbols do not typically show up on roodscreens. My intuition was that they might be later on, but the work absolutely looks medieval, and the facial area of Matthew’s winged male has been scratched out.
Significantly of the character of the nave comes from the woodwork, a satisfying mixture of simple medieval benches and 19th century box pews beneath the primary 15th century roof, which is alternatively rustic in character with alternating hammerbeams and queen posts.
Just as neighbouring Wiggenhall St Mary has the premier collection of medieval bench ends in Norfolk, St Mary Magdalen has the greatest selection of 15th century stained glass figures. There are about forty of them, scattered in the upper lights of the north aisle. On the other hand, they are somewhat expert collection, and not easily identifiable to the untutored eye, since instead than familiar Apostles and Saints they largely symbolize Bishops, Archbishops and Popes.
Simon Cotton, in the church tutorial, provides an fantastic important to them. Ann Eljenholm Nichols’ reserve Early Art of Norfolk, in all probability the very best ebook at any time prepared about the medieval church buildings of Norfolk, demonstrates that much more than a few of them are exclusive 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 handful of have their common symbols with them.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2016-09-10 09:25:16
Tagged: , Wiggenhall , Mary , Magdalene , magdalen , Norfolk , East Anglia
#household furniture #Do it yourself #woodwork #woodworking #freedownload#woodworkingprojects #woodsmith ,wood craft, wood planer, fantastic woodworking, picket chairs, wood functioning applications, well known woodworking, woodworking publications, woodworking workbench plans