All Saints, Runhall, Norfolk
Peter Stephens, with whom I had earlier visited this church in 2006 and with whom I was in this article again right now, noticed that All Saints appears to be as if a huge had squashed it between his palms before it had established. It is of course the missing chancel which gives it this appearance, alongside with the huge perpendicular home windows at the east conclude of both equally the south and north walls.
Quite a few chancels fell into disuse right after the Reformation. There could nevertheless be a sacramental use for them in the sort of the quarterly communion company some chancels, Tilney All Saints for instance, have been fitted out in the 17th century for this pretty intent. But the communion rite could be as effortlessly carried out in the nave if there was a will or need to have to do so. If a chancel fell into disrepair it was often blocked off and permitted to damage, not minimum due to the fact the maintenance of the chancel was the responsibility of the rectory, not the parish the beneficiary of the rectory revenue would seem normally to have shrunk from this obligation.
At Runhall, the chancel suffered a hearth in the late 16th century, and was demolished, the arch loaded in. Two piers continue to challenge a little bit from the east end they are the western edges of the window tracery. What appears to be a crammed-in doorway is a 19th century memorial.
The placing is gorgeous. The churchyard is alongside a narrow lane in a maze of other slim lanes to the south of Mattishall, with only a few of homes for enterprise. When I’d past occur this way in 2006 I’d believed the church was locked, but on that situation I discovered that you have to convert the manage the other way, and it opens. I did this now and it continue to wouldn’t open – but by pushing really hard I acquired it to move – the bottom of the doorway has swollen up and is pressing into the stone beneath.
As you would assume, the church is instead square inside of. The former chancel arch is marked by a recess in the east wall, and a straightforward altar and curtained reredos is set in it. But the most noteworthy function of the interior is at the west conclude of the church, guiding the 14th century font with its quatrefoil patterns. This is the doorway into the foundation of the tower. The ironwork is from various periods, but some of it has been determined as 12th century. The woodwork of the door has been repaired, but it is probably modern day with the earliest ironwork, and supplied that the tower is Norman at the foundation, it is in all probability the unique door to the tower, an amazing considered.
A long eco-friendly curtain serves as a reredos in entrance of the blocked chancel arch, with an equally prolonged 19th Century enamelled indication above proclaiming that as usually as ye take in this bread and consume this cup ye do shew the Lord’s dying till he arrive.
Driving the pulpit in the east wall is an graphic niche that have to when have served a nave altar, a different ghost of the past. Its colouring seems to be initial, most likely 600 many years outdated. Now, the cheery kneelers and useful organ are marks of a normally cherished and applied English nation church. Even on a cold working day it feels a welcoming put.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2014-11-01 17:48:21
Tagged: , Runhall , Norfolk , church , church buildings , East Anglia
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