St Mary, Wiggenhall St Mary, Norfolk
Simon Jenkins has noticed that the church buildings of the Ouse delta variety probably the finest concentration of late-medieval craftsmanship in England. Naturally, any cathedral would give them a run for their funds, but you know what he signifies. Listed here, there are at the very least a dozen or else nameless and workaday villages with merely huge churches, quite a few of them replete with miracles in stone and wooden. There is remarkably tiny medieval glass, and rarely a wall-painting at all perhaps the organic puritanism of the Fen individuals dispatched these, but noticed a practical use to the benches and the fonts. The largest and grandest churches are at Walpole St Peter and Terrington St Clement, but neither are specifically comprehensive of treasures. St Peter is one of the most spectacular architectural paperwork of the late medieval time period, and St Clement is complete of light-weight and everyday living but right here at Wiggenhall St Mary is the ideal selection of 15th and 16th century benches in Norfolk, perhaps in England.
There are 4 Wiggenhalls: St Peter, St Germans, St Mary and St Mary Magdalene, now recognized simply as Magdalen. All of the villages are modest, Magdalen staying the biggest, and are generally approached up narrow straight roadways in the fens. All 4 church buildings sit near to the banking institutions of the Ouse – these banks have been elevated, for the reason that the drinking water level is now greater than the encompassing land, but the towers still kind startling landmarks for any boat heading upstream from Lynn. St Peter is a ruin, and St Mary is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Belief. It sits to the north of Magdalen with a couple of significant houses for company.
As with all CCT churches, St Mary is perfectly-retained. The rendering of the nave and chancel has just lately been renewed and painted. They conceal a solution of this church, the amount of brick applied in its construction. The only expanse of brick even now noticeable is the higher element 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 leading.
So, we may possibly suppose that the major third of the tower is present-day with the late medieval rebuilding – but the builders stored the Early English doorway on each sides of the church. The south porch is big, but useful there is almost nothing of the elaborate decoration you find at Walpole St Peter. Also useful is the comprehensive late Victorian restoration by George Road – all the roofs are his.
You move inside of to an inside that is at once significant but a very little claustrophobic. This is because of the sheer volume of woodwork – range right after assortment of good, lengthy, benches with higher bench ends. Street’s crown-posted roof looks to push down to meet up with them with no their pierced and traceried backs they would experience oppressive. The dust in the air and the murky light from the east window gives a sense, just for a moment, of becoming underwater. There is a stillness, as if we have disturbed a little something that had prolonged remained undisturbed, as if we ended up the 1st men and women to enter here for ages.
The nave was filled with benches in two phases for starters in the mid-15th century, and then once more in the early 16th century. The more recent benches are those in the aisles. Benches are a symptom of what I have arrive to consider of as a proto-Reformation most likely a century just before the authentic one particular, there is a big shift in the English Church from personal devotions to corporate functions of worship. This appears to have been partly a reaction to the Black Demise, and a concentration of the intellect on producing it by means of purgatory the breaking up of the outdated estates brought forth a new rich middle class, who were most involved that their souls need to be prayed for. Aspect of their project was a reinforcing of orthodox Catholic doctrine all through the 15th century, extensive perpendicular home windows changed the wall paintings, filling the churches with light, and the good roods ended up lifted up to aim people’s minds on the central doctrine of the Christian religion. Aspects of Catholic doctrine – the sacraments, the performs of mercy, the lethal sins – appeared in glass and stone. Benches crammed the rebuilt church buildings – no extended had been there shadowy corners wherever aged ladies could notify their beads, and the plowman his Paternoster, as Mass progressed. The 1st pulpits appeared, and with the coming of the pulpit the Priest still left his chancel and entered the domain of the men and women, using it above. All eyes have been mounted on him now.
The bench ends at Wiggenhall St Mary are advanced. Tiers come up each aspect flanking a significant area of interest, which includes a figure. The tiers every single rise to a next and third figure, which are in some cases related. Previously mentioned all rises the stable poppyhead. You can expend an fulfilling 50 % hour just pottering about making an attempt to establish them. Many are in Tudor gown, and are seated in everyday attitudes. Some have rosaries. Some are Saints, others depict animals, Labours of the Months, virtues or Christian symbols.
Relatively in contrast, there is an sophisticated Laudian font go over with slim pillars, and the date 1624. I puzzled if the pelican in her piety on major was a later addition. As at quite a few community church buildings, there is an early-16th century latten lectern, an eagle supported at the toes by a few small grinning lions. The Jacobean pulpit even now retains its hourglass stand. Smatterings of medieval glass are in the higher lights of the north aisle windows. The royal arms are dated 1791, and notify 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 side, palms in pious attitudes of prayer.He died in 1624 most relocating are the two minimal figures beneath them, one particular in swaddling dresses these are their kids who died ahead of them.
The east conclude of the nave was created for top, for the wonderful rood to attract everyone’s awareness. Probably to assistance accentuate this, the chancel arch is curiously slender, and there are just eight panels on the dado of the display, 4 figures on every 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 child, and St John the Baptist. The chancel is relatively very simple and empty, still left in its 19th century clothing. The grimy inexperienced glass of the east window is overpowering. For a minute, you may well be everywhere. And then you switch again and see these extensive ranges of medieval benches once more they actually are most remarkable.
A hallmark of Churches Conservation Believe in churches is that they are cleared of litter but that is impossible here, of study course, because the litter is the matter you occur to see. They are intriguing, intriguing but this church is curiously lacking in atmosphere, primarily if you have just appear from Wiggenhall St Germans or Walpole St Peter. It is lifeless you could be in no doubt that it is redundant, and now minor additional than a museum.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2016-09-15 19:00:50
Tagged: , Wiggenhall , St , Mary , Norfolk , East Anglia , church
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