All Saints, Runhall, Norfolk
Peter Stephens, with whom I experienced beforehand visited this church in 2006 and with whom I was in this article once again nowadays, observed that All Saints seems to be as if a giant experienced squashed it between his palms just before it experienced established. It is of system the lacking chancel which gives it this visual appeal, together with the enormous perpendicular home windows at the east finish of each the south and north walls.
Numerous chancels fell into disuse immediately after the Reformation. There could still be a sacramental use for them in the type of the quarterly communion provider some chancels, Tilney All Saints for instance, were fitted out in the 17th century for this extremely function. But the communion rite could be as simply performed in the nave if there was a will or need to do so. If a chancel fell into disrepair it was often blocked off and allowed to destroy, not least since the maintenance of the chancel was the accountability of the rectory, not the parish the beneficiary of the rectory cash flow appears frequently to have shrunk from this responsibility.
At Runhall, the chancel endured a fireplace in the late 16th century, and was demolished, the arch filled in. Two piers continue to venture a little from the east close they are the western edges of the window tracery. What appears to be a loaded-in doorway is a 19th century memorial.
The location is beautiful. The churchyard is together a slender lane in a maze of other narrow lanes to the south of Mattishall, with only a pair of residences for corporation. When I might final come this way in 2006 I might thought the church was locked, but on that situation I learned that you have to change the handle the other way, and it opens. I did this now and it however wouldn’t open up – but by pushing hard I bought it to move – the base of the doorway has swollen up and is pressing into the stone beneath.
As you would hope, the church is instead square inside of. The previous chancel arch is marked by a recess in the east wall, and a basic altar and curtained reredos is set in it. But the most noteworthy feature of the interior is at the west conclusion of the church, driving the 14th century font with its quatrefoil styles. This is the doorway into the base of the tower. The ironwork is from several intervals, but some of it has been discovered as 12th century. The woodwork of the doorway has been repaired, but it is likely modern with the earliest ironwork, and provided that the tower is Norman at the foundation, it is most likely the initial door to the tower, an extraordinary assumed.
A extended environmentally friendly curtain serves as a reredos in entrance of the blocked chancel arch, with an equally very long 19th Century enamelled sign earlier mentioned proclaiming that as typically as ye take in this bread and consume this cup ye do shew the Lord’s dying till he appear.
Driving the pulpit in the east wall is an image niche that will have to the moment have served a nave altar, yet another ghost of the previous. Its colouring appears to be like primary, in all probability 600 many years old. These days, the cheery kneelers and functional organ are marks of a typically beloved and applied English nation church. Even on a chilly day it feels a friendly put.
Posted by Simon Knott on 2014-11-01 17:46:34
Tagged: , Runhall , Norfolk , church , church buildings , East Anglia
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