St Mary, Wiggenhall St Mary, Norfolk
Simon Jenkins has noticed that the churches of the Ouse delta type almost certainly the finest focus of late-medieval craftsmanship in England. Clearly, any cathedral would give them a operate for their revenue, but you know what he indicates. Below, there are at minimum a dozen or else anonymous and workaday villages with simply just massive church buildings, many of them replete with wonders in stone and wooden. There is remarkably small medieval glass, and hardly a wall-portray at all perhaps the natural puritanism of the Fen people today dispatched these, but saw a functional use to the benches and the fonts. The largest and grandest church buildings are at Walpole St Peter and Terrington St Clement, but neither are notably complete of treasures. St Peter is just one of the most amazing architectural documents of the late medieval interval, and St Clement is entire of light-weight and everyday living but below at Wiggenhall St Mary is the very 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 recognised just as Magdalen. All of the villages are tiny, Magdalen getting the major, and are primarily approached up narrow straight streets in the fens. All four church buildings sit close to the banks of the Ouse – these banks have been raised, because the water level is now bigger than the encompassing land, but the towers however form startling landmarks for any boat heading upstream from Lynn. St Peter is a destroy, and St Mary is now in the treatment of the Churches Conservation Believe in. It sits to the north of Magdalen with a pair of large houses for enterprise.
As with all CCT church buildings, St Mary is well-kept. The rendering of the nave and chancel has not too long ago been renewed and painted. They hide a mystery of this church, the volume of brick applied in its development. The only expanse of brick however noticeable is the upper portion of the tower. The squatness of the tower belies its top, and stair turrets lean deliciously into it in the north-west and south-west corners, coming out as castellated turrets at the best.
So, we may possibly think that the top 3rd of the tower is contemporary with the late medieval rebuilding – but the builders held the Early English doorway on each sides of the church. The south porch is large, but practical there is very little of the elaborate decoration you discover at Walpole St Peter. Also useful is the substantial late Victorian restoration by George Avenue – all the roofs are his.
You step within to an interior that is at after significant but a little claustrophobic. This is simply because of the sheer quantity of woodwork – vary right after vary of solid, lengthy, benches with large bench finishes. Street’s crown-posted roof looks to press down to meet up with them with no their pierced and traceried backs they would truly feel oppressive. The dust in the air and the murky light from the east window gives a sense, just for a minute, of becoming underwater. There is a stillness, as if we have disturbed some thing that had lengthy remained undisturbed, as if we were the initially men and women to enter listed here for ages.
The nave was crammed with benches in two phases to begin with in the mid-15th century, and then once more in the early 16th century. The more recent benches are all those in the aisles. Benches are a symptom of what I have occur to consider of as a proto-Reformation maybe a century before the true just one, there is a important change in the English Church from non-public devotions to corporate functions of worship. This appears to have been partly a response to the Black Demise, and a concentration of the mind on earning it as a result of purgatory the breaking up of the old estates introduced forth a new wealthy center class, who were most concerned that their souls should really be prayed for. Aspect of their job was a reinforcing of orthodox Catholic doctrine throughout the 15th century, huge perpendicular windows changed the wall paintings, filling the churches with gentle, and the terrific roods have been elevated up to focus people’s minds on the central doctrine of the Christian religion. Factors of Catholic doctrine – the sacraments, the operates of mercy, the deadly sins – appeared in glass and stone. Benches loaded the rebuilt churches – no for a longer period ended up there shadowy corners the place previous females could inform their beads, and the plowman his Paternoster, as Mass progressed. The first pulpits appeared, and with the coming of the pulpit the Priest remaining his chancel and entered the domain of the individuals, using it more than. All eyes have been fastened on him now.
The bench finishes at Wiggenhall St Mary are sophisticated. Tiers crop up each aspect flanking a huge niche, which contains a determine. The tiers each individual rise to a 2nd and 3rd figure, which are at times similar. Above all rises the strong poppyhead. You can spend an pleasing 50 % hour just pottering about seeking to identify them. Many are in Tudor gown, and are seated in day-to-day attitudes. Some have rosaries. Some are Saints, some others represent animals, Labours of the Months, virtues or Christian symbols.
Fairly in contrast, there is an classy Laudian font include with trim pillars, and the date 1624. I wondered if the pelican in her piety on prime was a later on addition. As at a number of community church buildings, there is an early-16th century latten lectern, an eagle supported at the toes by a few little grinning lions. The Jacobean pulpit nevertheless retains its hourglass stand. Smatterings of medieval glass are in the higher lights of the north aisle home windows. The royal arms are dated 1791, and tell us that the churchwarden that year was J SUTTRBY.
There is an exquisite parclose screen in the south aisle which now has the elaborate memorial tomb of Sir Henry Kerville and his wife. They lie aspect by aspect, palms in pious attitudes of prayer.He died in 1624 most moving are the two minor figures under them, 1 in swaddling dresses these are their young children who died just before them.
The east close of the nave was created for top, for the terrific rood to attract everyone’s interest. Maybe to enable accentuate this, the chancel arch is curiously narrow, and there are just eight panels on the dado of the monitor, 4 figures on each individual facet 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 little one, and St John the Baptist. The chancel is fairly uncomplicated and vacant, left in its 19th century apparel. The dirty eco-friendly glass of the east window is overpowering. For a moment, you could be any where. And then you flip again and see those vast ranges of medieval benches all over again they really are most remarkable.
A hallmark of Churches Conservation Belief church buildings is that they are cleared of litter but that is extremely hard here, of class, since the muddle is the matter you come to see. They are intriguing, intriguing but this church is curiously missing in ambiance, in particular 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 tiny more than a museum.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2016-09-15 18:59:21
Tagged: , Wiggenhall , St , Mary , Norfolk , East Anglia , church
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