North Norfolk Coast - Some more scenes, plus some local churches
First on this post, a few images of the church in the village of Thornham where we were based. Thornham Church All Saints was started in Norman times, but building came to an abrupt stop in 1348 with the scourge of the Black Death. (It is thought that the spinney named Plug Pits in Granary Road, Thornham is the former burial ground called Plague Pits.)
The Church, like so many, was added to through the centuries and much restoration took place. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the church had become extremely dilapidated. Major works of restoration continued for 50 years in that century. The bell was re-hung in the tower, the chancel was completely rebuilt and the roof of the nave was restored.
Before entering the church I was distracted by the village sign over the road. I like village signs.
Thornham village sign (east side)
Thornham village sign (west side)
As can seen from images above, the sign is double sided and each is different. It is surmounted by the church of All Saints which is directly across the road.
The west side depicts local maritime and historical landmarks, including the Mill, the listed Coal Barn, the Granary, and the Jessie Mary (the last working boat to use the harbour).
The east side is concerned with the iron-works which began in the early 1780s and were very active during the Arts & Crafts movement of the early 1900s. In the spandrels below the name is a pot and a bishop’s mitre. The pot is a reference to the Roman period and the mitre refers to the diocese and bishop of Norwich The bell on the flag of England was from the minesweeper H.M.S. Thornham and is rung at 11 am on the 11th November each year to mark the start of the two minutes silence. The theme is nautical and the windmill was at one time down on the salt marshes. The boathouse on the tidal inlet down Staithe Lane. A small ketch lies up in the creek.
Then back to the church.
The entrance to the church is through the 13th century doorway which has a fine 15th century perpendicular door with a wicket door for general use.
The church has a fine Lych Gate, as shown in the top image. Inside the Lych Gate are two plaques as shown above. One of them mentioning the donor of the Lych gate.
The baptismal font built during the 15th century.
The sanctuary showing the medieval rood screen is a rare survival featuring painted figures of twelve Old Testament prophets instead of the usual Apostles. The screen suffered significant damage and iconoclasm during the 17th century, resulting in the faces on the painted figures being scratched out, but it retains its authentic medieval structure without heavy modern over-restoration.
A closeup of one of the panels of the Rood Screen
Below are one or two images from a place we arrived at accidentaly! - Brancaster. We thought we were somewhere else but enjoyed the stroll along the Brancaster beach.
This is the entrance to the beach and shows the imprint of the feet of many visitors - on other days.
Not many visitors today I think!
At least one other person doing her exercises by the sea front
Burnham Overy Staithe - lots of boats moored here. We have visited here before, but there appeared more boats today than from my earlier memory. Then we headed for Norton Burnham Market to look at the church of St Margaret.
Burnham Overy Staithe Mill was built in 1816 for Edmund Savory, a miller who was running a watermill on the River Burn known as the Lower Mill. Savory worked the mill until his death on 9 February 1827, when it passed to his son John.
It was last worked in 1919. In 1926, the mill was sold to Hugh Hughes who had it converted to holiday accommodation.
Here we are at St Margaret`s church, Burnham Norton, one of the round tower churches of Norfolk, of which there are around 125. This means Norfolk has around two thirds of Englands round tower churches.
A view from the churchyard of the ancient and modern windmills
A view of the simple sanctuary.
The Norman baptismal font stands as one of the primary surviving remnants of the original Norman church structure on the site.
Then for the real star - the 15th-century wineglass pulpit is widely considered one of the finest and most complete surviving medieval pulpits in England. The pulpit is notable in that it still has a substantial amount of it’s medieval polychromy, or colours, remaining, carefully restored in the twentieth century by Pauline Plummer. The subject matter of the panels is appropriate for an item of furniture used for preaching and teaching, on four of the six panels are images of the four Latin Doctors of the church: St Gregory the Great, St Ambrose, St Augustine and St Jerome.
Then to finish the day at Burnham Deepdale church of St Mary. This little church in its coastal village deserves fame for its three outstanding features: - it’s Saxon round tower (pre-Conquest of 1066), its Norman font, and its collection of medieval glass.
The Saxon round tower dates approximately from 950 years ago. This simple construction, making intricate corners unnecessary, is a feature of many churches in Norfolk. The tower houses a 15th century bell cast by Thomas Derby of Kings Lynn.
The Rood is of modern design
The Norman font of Barnack stone is square in shape and depicts a figure for each month of the year from a farming man's point of view. For example February shows a person with his feet up before the fire, June, a person weeding, September, threshing and December, feasting together.
The west window of the north aisle. I think this one is one of the Medieval windows in the church
All in all, a great few days and the desire to come back another time.
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