St Mary, Wiggenhall St Mary, Norfolk
Simon Jenkins has noticed that the churches of the Ouse delta type probably the best concentration of late-medieval craftsmanship in England. Certainly, any cathedral would give them a operate for their funds, but you know what he means. Right here, there are at least a dozen in any other case nameless and workaday villages with simply enormous churches, lots of of them replete with miracles in stone and wood. There is remarkably small medieval glass, and rarely a wall-painting at all maybe the pure puritanism of the Fen individuals dispatched these, but saw a realistic use to the benches and the fonts. The most important and grandest church buildings are at Walpole St Peter and Terrington St Clement, but neither are specifically total of treasures. St Peter is a person of the most stunning architectural paperwork of the late medieval time period, and St Clement is full of gentle and existence but listed 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 acknowledged basically as Magdalen. All of the villages are little, Magdalen staying the major, and are largely approached up slim straight streets in the fens. All 4 churches sit near to the banking institutions of the Ouse – these financial institutions have been lifted, simply because the h2o level is now higher than the surrounding land, but the towers continue to sort startling landmarks for any boat heading upstream from Lynn. St Peter is a ruin, and St Mary is now in the treatment of the Churches Conservation Believe in. It sits to the north of Magdalen with a couple of massive houses for company.
As with all CCT church buildings, St Mary is effectively-stored. The rendering of the nave and chancel has not too long ago been renewed and painted. They disguise a solution of this church, the volume of brick applied in its design. The only expanse of brick even now seen is the higher component of the tower. The squatness of the tower belies its height, and stair turrets lean deliciously into it in the north-west and south-west corners, coming out as castellated turrets at the prime.
So, we might presume that the top 3rd of the tower is modern with the late medieval rebuilding – but the builders retained the Early English doorway on each sides of the church. The south porch is big, but practical there is nothing of the elaborate decoration you discover at Walpole St Peter. Also purposeful is the substantial late Victorian restoration by George Avenue – all the roofs are his.
You step inside to an inside that is at the moment huge but a little claustrophobic. This is since of the sheer quantity of woodwork – selection after assortment of stable, very long, benches with high bench finishes. Street’s crown-posted roof would seem to press down to fulfill them without the need of their pierced and traceried backs they would feel oppressive. The dust in the air and the murky gentle from the east window provides a perception, just for a minute, of staying underwater. There is a stillness, as if we have disturbed a little something that experienced prolonged remained undisturbed, as if we ended up the initially people to enter listed here for ages.
The nave was stuffed with benches in two phases firstly in the mid-15th century, and then again in the early 16th century. The newer benches are these in the aisles. Benches are a symptom of what I have appear to believe of as a proto-Reformation maybe a century ahead of the real one particular, there is a major shift in the English Church from non-public devotions to company acts of worship. This would seem to have been partly a response to the Black Demise, and a focus of the thoughts on generating it by purgatory the breaking up of the previous estates brought forth a new wealthy center course, who were most anxious that their souls ought to be prayed for. Portion of their job was a reinforcing of orthodox Catholic doctrine in the course of the 15th century, extensive perpendicular home windows changed the wall paintings, filling the churches with light-weight, and the terrific roods were being elevated up to emphasis people’s minds on the central doctrine of the Christian religion. Elements of Catholic doctrine – the sacraments, the performs of mercy, the fatal sins – appeared in glass and stone. Benches loaded the rebuilt church buildings – no for a longer period have been there shadowy corners where outdated ladies could tell their beads, and the plowman his Paternoster, as Mass progressed. The initially pulpits appeared, and with the coming of the pulpit the Priest left his chancel and entered the domain of the folks, using it around. All eyes ended up fastened on him now.
The bench ends at Wiggenhall St Mary are complicated. Tiers arise each and every aspect flanking a substantial specialized niche, which includes a figure. The tiers every increase to a 2nd and 3rd determine, which are often related. Higher than all rises the sound poppyhead. You can expend an enjoyable half hour just pottering about trying to identify them. Numerous are in Tudor costume, and are seated in daily attitudes. Some carry rosaries. Some are Saints, many others symbolize animals, Labours of the Months, virtues or Christian symbols.
Considerably in contrast, there is an sophisticated Laudian font address with slender pillars, and the day 1624. I puzzled if the pelican in her piety on top rated was a later on addition. As at several regional churches, there is an early-16th century latten lectern, an eagle supported at the toes by a few minimal grinning lions. The Jacobean pulpit nonetheless retains its hourglass stand. Smatterings of medieval glass are in the upper lights of the north aisle windows. The royal arms are dated 1791, and convey to us that the churchwarden that yr was J SUTTRBY.
There is an exquisite parclose monitor in the south aisle which now consists of the elaborate memorial tomb of Sir Henry Kerville and his wife. They lie aspect by aspect, arms in pious attitudes of prayer.He died in 1624 most shifting are the two tiny figures under them, one in swaddling dresses these are their youngsters who died in advance of them.
The east end of the nave was made for peak, for the excellent rood to attract everyone’s consideration. Probably to aid intensify this, the chancel arch is curiously slender, and there are just eight panels on the dado of the screen, 4 figures on each side 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 baby, and St John the Baptist. The chancel is reasonably easy and empty, left in its 19th century clothes. The dirty green glass of the east window is overpowering. For a instant, you may well be any place. And then you switch back and see all those large ranges of medieval benches yet again they seriously are most outstanding.
A hallmark of Church buildings Conservation Believe in churches is that they are cleared of litter but that is unachievable listed here, of training course, simply because the litter is the detail you arrive to see. They are intriguing, interesting but this church is curiously missing in atmosphere, especially 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 little much more than a museum.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2016-09-15 19:00:44
Tagged: , Wiggenhall , St , Mary , Norfolk , East Anglia , church
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