St. Peter Mancroft Church, Norwich

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carving, churches, flushwork, medieval, Norwich, St Peter Mancroft church, stained glass

St Peter Mancroft Church

This large church is close to Hay Hill where my last Norwich post came from.  It is the largest of the thirty-one Church of England churches in Norwich and is often mistaken for one of the two cathedrals.

The building was begun in 1430 and was consecrated in 1455, a twenty-five year single phase of construction which gives the church its unity of style.  There have been only a few additions to the exterior of the building since then, notably the little spire on top of the tower (a fleche), the parapet round the top of the tower and the ‘pepperpots’ on the corners added by the architect A E Street in 1895.

St Peter Mancroft before the Victorian additions to the tower.

St Peter Mancroft Church. Beyond it on the left of the photo you can see The Guildhall featured in a recent post of mine.

This church wasn’t the first to be built on this site.  One of William the Conqueror’s barons, Ralph de Guader, Earl of Norwich, had had a church built there in 1075 but shortly afterwards he lost everything he had after rebelling against the Conqueror.  Fortunately he had already bestowed the church on one of his chaplains, Wala, who fled to Gloucester after the rebellion.  Wala passed the church on to the Abbey of St Peter in Gloucester and so for 300 years this church was known as ‘St Peter of Gloucester in Norwich’ – quite a mouthful!  After pressure from the citizens of Norwich in 1388, the church was passed to the Benedictine Community of St-Mary-in-the-Fields in Norwich whose church (long since destroyed) was where the Assembly Room and the Theatre Royal are now.  The Dean and Chapter of St Mary’s found the old church dilapidated and in very poor condition and so decided to re-build.  It took them 42 years to save enough money through gifts, legacies and donations to be able to start the construction work.

Norwich Castle can be seen beyond St Peter Mancroft church

St Peter Mancroft on the right and the Forum ahead

St Peter Mancroft

I include here a link to an aerial map of St Peter Mancroft (marked in purple).

http://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/map-record?UID=MNF257&BBOX=622901,308412,622961,308442&CRS=EPSG:27700&count=1&ck_MON1=true&ck_MON=false

During the Reformation the College of St-Mary-in-the-Field was suppressed and the patronage of St Peter Mancroft was passed through several families until 1581 when it was acquired by trustees on behalf of the parishioners.  The church was originally the church of St Peter and St Paul but the name was shortened to St Peter after the two saints were given independent saints days during the Reformation.  ‘Mancroft’ probably came from the ‘Magna Crofta’ (great meadow) on which it was built.

St Peter Mancroft – the tower is 146′ high

The church is almost completely faced with limestone which was brought many miles over land and sea at great expense.  (There is no local free-stone in Norfolk).   It was a deliberate display of wealth on the part of the 15th century citizens of Norwich.  There is some knapped flint flushwork decoration most notably on the tower which is well buttressed and was probably intended to carry another lantern stage  The tower also carries a peal of 14 bells.

There are two fine porches to the church on the north and south sides.  The North Porch has a parvaise (a room over the porch).

This is a view of the interior of the church from the back looking towards the East window.

It is 60′ from floor to roof and has eight arched bays with slender columns.  The church is also very long at 180′.

The Crib was about 5′ tall and 5′ wide. I could have got into it easily – if I had so wished!

Richard, Elinor and I visited the church on a very rainy day last week.  Amazingly, the church was warm inside!  Even the cathedral doesn’t get as cosy as St Peter Mancroft.

Font and Font Canopy in the Baptistery

The font was a gift to the church in 1463 by John Cawston, a grocer from Norwich.  The Seven Sacraments were carved on panels round the font basin and an eighth panel showed the ‘Sun in Splendour’, the badge of Henry IV.  Eight saints were carved on the shaft of the font.  Sadly, the Puritans hacked off all the images, plastered the font with lime and daubed it with black paint.  It was found in the crypt with other rubbish in 1926 and was cleaned and put in its present position.  The four pillars and the base of the canopy over the font were made in the 15th century but the upper part of the woodwork is 19th century Victorian work.

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I apologise for the poor quality of the photos in the slideshow but all of the objects were in glass cases in the St Nicholas Chapel.  These objects are just a few of the many treasures owned by the church and known as the Mancroft Heritage.

The Jesus Chapel.

This chapel is normally used for weekday services.

The tomb of Francis Windham, Recorder of Norwich in the reign of Elizabeth I

The Chancel or Choir

The Reredos (the panel behind the High Altar) has some beautiful carved figures made in 1885 and gilded in 1930 to mark the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the building of the church.  At the same time the lower line of larger figures were added by Sir Ninian Comper.

The Chancel roof

This roof (and the roof of the Nave) is of open timbered construction supported by hammer beams.  Most hammer beam roofs are ornamented and uncovered but this one is covered by fan tracery or vaulting in wood.  Most fan traceries are made from stone so this roof is very rare.  It is also an angel roof – there is a single row of small angels on either side of the Nave roof but a double row on either side of the Chancel.  There are also gilded suns in splendour on the ridge bosses.  The roof was restored in 1962 -64.  Some amazing work was done then by the restorers who raised the roof on jacks and then pulled the walls straight which had been driven outwards by the weight of the roof over the centuries.

Here is the memorial to Sir Thomas Browne, the subject of my previous Norwich post

I have discovered a quote of Sir Thomas Browne’s from his treatise ‘Urn-Burial’ at the beginning of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’.

 

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The most memorable sight in the church is that of the Great East Window.

The East Window

It has 39 tracery lights (windows/panes of glass) and 42 main lights, all of which are 15th century except seven main lights which are Victorian.  The Victorian ones are the lower five in the centre colomn and the two bottom ones either side of the centre colomn.  This window contains some of the finest work by the 15th century School of Norwich Glass Painters.  Most of the church would have originally been full of glass like this but during rioting between Puritans and Royalists in 1648 there was a gunpowder explosion nearby in a house in Bethel Street which left many people dead and much of the glass in the church blown in.  It wasn’t until four years later that the glass was gathered together from around the church and most put into this window.

Please click on this link to see each light in detail.

I am obliged and indebted to the Church Guide I purchased in St Peter Mancroft for some of the information in this post.

Thanks for visiting!

Orford Castle

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bailey, curtain wall, Hugh Bigod, keep, King Henry II, medieval, Orford, Orford Castle, Orford Ness, Orford Quay

It was a beautiful day on Saturday so R, E and I decided we would like to go out for the afternoon.  We would have liked to go to the beach but at this time of the year the beaches are very busy and the car-parks full so we decided to visit Orford.  We hadn’t been there for years and we couldn’t remember having been there in warm weather before.  It takes about forty minutes to get to Orford from our house and we first travel south on the A12 towards Ipswich, the county town of Suffolk.  We then turn off eastwards and drive past Snape where I took my mother last month.

A map of part of Suffolk showing Orford (bottom right) and not showing north Suffolk where I live

I always think I am going to get lost and am always surprised when I don’t.  I was surprised to find I got to Orford with no trouble at all and I even managed to squeeze the car into the last space in the car park. The castle is very impressive.

Orford Castle

Acknowledgements to the English Heritage guide book. The castle was built by King Henry II who reigned from 1154-89 and it took about eight years to build, 1165-73.  Though a formidable king, he had almost constant trouble from rebellious barons, his problematical family and his one-time friend, Thomas Becket. The castle was built to proclaim his authority to the barons of East Anglia, especially Hugh Bigod, Earl of Suffolk and to protect the coast from foreign attack.  It is a grand domestic residence as well as a defensive structure.  The castle has a unique design and amazingly the building accounts for the whole period of its construction still survive.  When the castle had been built, a new church, a new street plan and improved port facilities in the surrounding village followed on. Almost as soon as the castle was completed it helped defeat a rebellion by the united forces of Henry’s wife, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and their three sons, the French king and Earl Bigod.   Orford was to remain an important royal castle for another 150 years and was controlled by the king’s constable.  It served as a military stronghold and a centre of local administration. I am fascinated by this period in history.  I remember going to see the 1968 film ‘The Lion in Winter’ when it was re-shown in cinemas in the 70’s; a film based on the Broadway play by James Goldman.  The film is full of brilliant actors – Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton – and at the time I thought all the men so good looking – a feast for the eyes! Poor old chaps they are now, but then I’m no spring chicken myself!

Orford Castle and village by Henry Bright 1856

The keep of the castle survives to its full height and can be seen from afar.  It is cylindrical within and polygonal without and has three buttresses.

As you can see from the photos above the castle is very bulky and angular.  The top left photo is of the earthworks round the castle.  The part of the castle that remains is the keep.  Immediately surrounding the keep is the bailey (a courtyard) and round the bailey was a curtain wall.  The curtain wall was the last to be built and probably had six projecting towers and a gateway.  An outer ditch lay some distance in front of the wall (perhaps the bailey was originally intended to be larger).  The deep ditches that can be seen close to the keep nowadays are probably the result of the demolition of the curtain wall and the quarrying of its stone for re-use elsewhere.  The last fragment of the curtain wall collapsed in 1841 ‘with a tremendous crash’.

This is a water colour painting of the castle by John Norden c. 1600 before the loss of the outer walls and towers

This was drawn by Noble/Hogg in c. 1786 which shows how much of the curtain wall had been destroyed during the preceding 180 years

The keep contains two circular halls, one above the other and each hall has its own two storey suite of rooms arranged within the turrets and the thickness of the walls.  The hall windows are quite large but the rooms in the turrets have only slit windows.  Underneath the lower hall within the sloping plinth is a basement for storage with a well, the water of which was probably rather salty.

Window alcove in the Lower Hall

Notice the wear on the step up into the alcove.  This was the way to the kitchen and you can imagine all the kitchen scullions carrying countless dishes of meat and jugs of wine and beer into the hall over this step.

A slit window

The Lower Hall has a large fire place.

Notice the stone bench which encircles the hall

The kitchen has two small fireplaces and a stone sink which would have been adequate for cooking for the small number of people who were the normal residents of the castle.  When there was  major feast with many guests there was probably a larger kitchen outside in the bailey and this kitchen would have been used for heating food.  If the castle was under attack then this kitchen would have been essential.

Stone sink with drainage hole to the outside just visible behind the pot

The next picture is of something that always fascinated our daughters when they were little.

A double latrine

There had been a short wall between the latrines but this was removed for some unknown reason during the Second World War when the castle was requisitioned by the government and a radar observation post was built on top of the south turret.  The latrines are in a garderobe, a cloakroom, and possibly ammonia given off by the latrine may have helped to protect any robes stored there from insect attack.

A selection of passageways. The constable’s chamber is accessed from the Lower Hall and is up a spiral staircase from one of the alcoves and along a passage in the north turret.  For some reason we didn’t go up there so no photo.  There is another chamber for middle-ranking guests off the Lower Hall.  The main doorway to the main stair which fills the south turret and connects all levels of the keep from the basement to the roof is also accessed form the Lower Hall.

Looking down the stairs

Like most stairs in castles, this one rises clockwise, giving a right-handed defender space to wield his sword while hindering an attacker coming from below. We then went up to the chapel and chaplain’s room which is, like the constable’s room, half way up the keep between the Lower Hall and the Upper Hall.

The chapel with the altar to the left

You can also see E’s elbow on the right.  This is the most richly decorated area in the keep. There is a squint to the left of the altar that allowed people to hear divine service from the passage.

The squint

The chaplain’s room is further along the passage.  Beyond his room he had his own latrine and a store-cupboard for his clothes and books.

Chaplain’s room with archway through to his cupboard and latrine

We then went up to the Upper Hall which is now holding the Orford Museum.

The Upper Hall

This would have been much more richly decorated than the hall below as this was where the most important visitors stayed, even the king himself.  The original form of the roof was a high conical or domed construction supported by thirteen projecting stone corbels around the walls.  Whoever designed this roof for Henry was highly educated, and by designing it to look like roofs in palaces in Byzantium he was associating the king with the great monarchs of antiquity.  The roof rotted and decayed away through the 17th and 18th centuries. An alcove off the Upper Hall leads to another kitchen for heating food prepared elsewhere.

Floor-level drain in the upper kitchen

Single round-arched fireplace in the upper kitchen

This room could also double as a washroom where visitors could bathe in comfort with water heated by the fire and then afterwards poured down the drain.  There is a sleeping chamber intended for grand visitors easily reached from the Upper Hall.  It also had its own latrine with two doors to keep odours at bay.  In another alcove there are a pair of large cupboards facing each other for the safekeeping of valuables and clothes.  There is evidence that there were large doors to these cupboards. Going further up the stairs we found another passageway leading to a lost gallery.

Looking down into the Upper Hall from the end of the lost gallery

Looking across to a doorway that the gallery would have joined

There is also a cistern on this upper level lined with finely dressed stone.  Rainwater was collected from the roofs and stored in this cistern and then distributed to other rooms through a system of pipes.

The cistern

We then went onto the roof where there is a bakery and also the reinforced concrete platform, erected during the Second World War, which was originally used as a gun platform but then adapted as a radar observation post.  The flat roof is modern with the turrets rising still higher.  The medieval conical roof would have kept below the level of the surrounding parapet, both now destroyed.  The tops of the turrets would have served as fighting platforms and watchtowers and were originally reached by ladders.

A turret

Baking chamber in the bakery with a second firing chamber to the left

This is the view we saw from the top of the keep.

A small portion of the battlements is still there

Looking down to the ground from the top of the keep

This view includes one of the ‘pagodas’ on Orford Ness

Orford Ness is a long shingle spit now owned by the National Trust.  For many years the Ness was owned by the Ministry of Defence who began work there during the First World War finding out how to use an aeroplane as a weapon.  After WW1 it became a ballistics testing facility and work was done using radio beacons resulting in the birth of the radar.  Ballistics testing continued during WW2 and the Ness was used to improve aircraft and munitions design.  After the war lethality and vulnerability trials continued and work on aerodynamics of ammunition.  Ballistics testing continued and extended to include rockets with jets fired from almost no altitude into King’s Marsh.  Later Orford Ness hosted one of its largest secrets – the huge Cobra Mist radar project.  At the height of the Cold War the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment used the Ness for development work on the atomic bomb. This continued all through the 1960’s and the ominous, half-buried concrete structures known as ‘pagodas’ were built to contain these most lethal of weapons.  From the 1970’s the Ness was home to RAF Explosive Ordnance Disposal and large quantities of munitions were destroyed here which was often very noisy.  The last service personnel left in 1987 and the Ness remained officially closed to the public with occasional trials of new equipment.  The MoD sold the Ness to the National Trust in 1993.  In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s the site and buildings were re-used for the Orfordness Transmitting Station.  The powerful medium wave radio station was originally owned and run by the Foreign Office, then by the BBC and then, after privatization in the 1990’s by a series of private companies.  It is best known for transmitting the BBC World Service in English round the clock to continental Europe from September 1982 until March 2011.  It has been disused since May 2012.  Access is only available by the National Trust ferry from Orford Quay on designated open days.  The importance of the landscape of the spit and the wildlife it supports had become apparent by the time the National Trust took over the Ness.  It cares for the internationally rare and extremely fragile coastal vegetated shingle as well as the historically important military buildings.  Acknowledgements to the National Trust web page on Orford Ness for this information. We then left the castle and walked through the village to the Quay passing by lots of attractive cottages on the way. We spent an enjoyable hour at the Quay watching people, boats, dogs and seagulls. We bought fish and chips for our tea on the way home, so no cooking for me either – hooray!

Trinity Sunday and Father’s Day

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19th century, acanthus, altar, bedstraw, church architecture, common knapweed, corn dolly cross, cypress, Easter Sepulchre, Father's Day, font, greater knapweed, hardheads, hedge bindweed, hedge mustard, hogweed, Hoverfly, jack-go-to-bed-at-noon, kneelers, meadow vetchling, medieval, mosquito, needlework, Norman, parvise, pyramidal orchid, Rood loft stairs, rood screen, St Margaret South Elmham, Trinity Sunday, tutsan, village sign, village stocks, yarrow

This is R’s Father’s Day present from E.  This is the third year she has got him the Tour de France premium pack and I am sure he is really happy with it.  He cycles whenever he can and has enjoyed watching the Tour for many years.

It was also Trinity Sunday on Sunday, the day on which we have to consider God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Many people have difficulty with this concept but I have never found it difficult to understand that God is one god but has three parts or roles; though of course my ability to express this is woefully inadequate.   I can accept this without having to question it.  I can accept that God is Father (the Creator) and that God is Son (Jesus, who lived on earth experiencing everything that a human could ever experience and who died for us) and that God is Holy Spirit (the Comforter, our strength when we are in need).  I think we are all different things to different people and have to behave differently depending on what is needed of us but at the same time we are still the same person, so we have an idea of where to start from when considering the Trinity of God.  A human father has many other roles as well as being a father – son, husband, wage-earner, jack-of-all-trades.  I hope all fathers were made to feel appreciated on Sunday.

The Trinity Sunday service was at St Margaret South Elmham church which is close enough for us to walk to which R and I really enjoy.  The weather was cloudy and cool again but we were fortunate in that it didn’t rain while we were going to and coming from church.  I saw a number of interesting plants on our walk and took a couple of photos on the way home.  After doing a few chores after lunch I decided to walk back to St Margaret’s and take some more pictures and include some of the pretty church too.  The light was bad and it rained a little while I was out so some of the photos didn’t come out at all well.  The interior of the church was too dark for some of my shots and even with the flash most didn’t come out.  I did have enough fairly good pictures though, to give you an idea of what I saw.  I am indebted to the history of the church leaflet I bought at the church for some of the information below.

The old village stocks which are kept in the porch.

The beautiful South Door with the Norman archway. The stonework is at least 800 years old.

The porch has a room above it, a parvise or priest’s room but it is not normally open to the public.  Parvise means ‘paradise’ but I doubt whether it is like paradise up there!  The books and documents belonging to the church used to be kept in a parvise and sometimes the priest used to live there.  Some of these rooms in other churches are made into little chapels for private prayer.

The 15th century font.

The font is of a design which is common in East Anglia.  It is octagonal and the symbols of the four Evangelists alternating with angels bearing shields are round the bowl.  There are lions round the stem of the font, too.

The Easter Sepulchre.

I was unable to get all of the medieval sepulchre in;  there are a couple of pinnacles and a finial above it.  This is where some of the consecrated bread from the Mass was placed on Good Friday and then brought back to the altar on Easter Day which symbolised Jesus’ burial in the tomb and then resurrection.

Panels from the base of the former rood screen.

These old medieval panels are not in a good condition but you can just see remnants of the paintings that once covered them.  In my photograph you can’t see the one on the left, thought to be St Hubert but you can see the ones on the right who are probably bishops.

The 19th century altar

Beautiful needlework

These are just a few examples of the many lovely kneelers in this church.  The photos are worth zooming in on!

The tiny narrow rood loft stairs.

The stairs enabled the priest to get to the top of the Rood Screen where lots of candles were lit.

A corn dolly cross behind the pulpit

I saw many pretty flowers on my walk to St Margarets and some less pretty but equally noteworthy.

Hedge Mustard

This plant is recognised by its branches which protrude almost at right-angles to the stem.  The French used to use an infusion of this plant as a gargle and to improve their vocal performance.  The pungent taste of the concoction was improved by adding liquorice or scented honey.  The British were not so keen and used the plant to make a sauce to be served with salt fish.  The sap was mixed into a syrup with honey or treacle as a cure for asthma.

Tutsan

Another plant with antiseptic properties, the leaves of tutsan were laid across flesh wounds to help heal them.  Tutsan derives its name from the Anglo-Norman word ‘tutsaine’ (toute-saine in French) meaning ‘all-wholesome’ or ‘all-healthy’.  When fresh, the leaves have no particular smell, but a day or so after drying and for four years or so afterwards they emit a subtle, pleasant odour.  This is likened by some to that of ambergris so tutsan is known by some people as sweet amber.  Richard Mabey in ‘Flora Britannica’ says the leaves have ‘an evocative, fugitive scent, reminiscent of cigar boxes and candied fruit’.  I wonder if this helps anyone imagine what it smells like?  Its dried leaves have been used as scented book-marks, particularly in prayer books and Bibles.

Common Knapweed or Hardheads

Common Knapweed

Common Knapweed

According to folklore this flower can be used to foretell a girl’s future.  She must pick the expanded florets off the flower-head and then put the remainder of the flower in her blouse.  After an hour she must take it out and examine it; if the previously unexpanded florets have now blossomed it means that the man she will marry is shortly coming her way.

Yarrow

Achilles was said to have cured wounds made by iron weapons by using yarrow.  The Anglo-Saxons believed yarrow could purge and heal such wounds when pounded with grease.  It was used to drive away evil and sickness, to increase physical attractiveness and to protect people from being hurt by the opposite sex.  In a Gaelic chant a woman says: ‘I will pick the green yarrow that my figure may be fuller….. that my voice will be sweeter….. that my lips will be like the juice of the strawberry…. I shall wound every man, but no man shall harm me.’  Scary!!

Meadow Vetchling

Bedstraw

Bedstraw

I cannot decide whether this is Common Marsh Bedstraw or Hedge Bedstraw.  It is probably Common Marsh Bedstraw and was used to stuff mattresses with.

Greater Knapweed

Greater Knapweed with visiting mosquito

This plant and common Knapweed are very similar but this is the larger plant and has more thistle-like leaves.  Also the outer row of florets are larger than the rest and more spreading.  The bracts under the flower-head are slightly different too.  For many years this plant was used to treat wounds, ruptures, bruises, sores, scabs and sore throats.

Hedge Bindweed

These beautiful white flowers glow in the dusk and the flowers stay open into the night, sometimes all night if there is a moon.  They attract the convolvulus hawk moth which has a long enough tongue to extract the nectar at the base of the flower and the moth pollinates the flower at the same time.

St Margaret’s village sign

This is on the village green.  The old building behind looks as though it used to be the forge.

Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon

And it had already gone before I found it!  I will see if I can take a photo of its large dandelion-like flowers one morning.  It also has enormous ‘clocks’ of downy seeds.  The long tap-roots are sweet-tasting like parsnips when cooked.

A hoverfly on hogweed

Acanthus

An acanthus plant by someone’s garden fence.

Cypress with cones

Not a very clear photo I’m afraid.

Lastly, a few photos of some Pyramidal Orchids.