St. Mary’s Church

The centre of the village is dominated by the great square tower of St. Mary's Church. Built in the 15th century, it is a beautifully proportioned structure, with diagonal buttresses tapering up in four stages to the battlements and corner pinnacles at the top. It houses four bells, three of which were re-cast in 1903.

 

The outstanding architectural feature of the church is its magnificent 13th century porch. The high entrance arch is supported by a pair of polygonal buttresses. The visitor then walks between six pairs of fine lancet windows, before entering the church through a doorway of the same period as the porch.

 

The church interior has several notable features. The most striking is probably the exceptionally tall arch under the tower at the west end of the nave. The apex of this arch is more or less at half the height of the tower itself. Other features of note include the 14th century font, the very old coats of arms painted high on the clerestory walls, the unused door to the rood loft high up in the north wall of the chancel, and the 15th century painted glass in the south windows of the chancel. The figures were 'decapitated' by the Puritans in the 16th century purge of images, but the symbols carried by the figures indicate that they are eight of the Apostles

 

· Peter (keys)

· Matthew (a money bag)

· James the Less (a fuller's bat)

· Bartholomew (a knife)

· Matthias (a battle axe)

· Simon (a fish and a book)

· Jude (a boat)

· Thomas ( a builder's measure)

The pattern of barley ears painted underneath the figures was the trademark of the medieval glass painters based in Norwich.

 

There are stories about a tunnel that linked the church to the medieval priory that once stood on the other side of the village green. There is no sign of the tunnel today, and no one can say why it would have been built.

 

The current Rector is The Rev. Marie Thorne

He can be contacted at 01485 520211