Church Heritage Record id19334

West tower, nave of three bays with south porch and transepts and chancel.

An earlier church on this site was completely rebuilt in the fifteenth century. The tower and chancel were complete by about 1431, followed by the rather more elaborate nave and transepts some thirty years later. The south porch dates from 1497. Twice the church has almost disappeared through neglect but has been saved, once in the 17th century and once in the latter years of the last century. It was restored in 1906, at which time the law pyramidal roof was put on the tower. Still not in regular use, the building once more began to deteriorate, but was repaired in 1933 by the Norfolk Archaeological Trust for use as an exhibition gallery before it finally became in 1936; a permanent home for the collection of church art and antiquities.

The walls of the church are entirely faced with knapped, flints interspersed with some areas of whole flints and a little brick infilling on the east gable. The dressed stones round the windows and at the corners are of Ancaster stone. The low pitched roofs of the have and transepts are leaded, but the steeper chancel roof is tiled with mellow red tiles. The crosses formerly on the gables have gone, only the stumps remaining. The walls of the nave and transepts are neatly finished, the flint being use as a facing, but it seems that the chancel walls were rebuilt after the chancel roof fell in in 1604 and were plastered externally. This plaster was removed in the 1906 restoration. At the other end of the church, the tower was originally one stage higher, with large traceried windows and battlements, but, has since been reduced in height. It still has a three-light window in-the west wall, and a small cinque-foiled opening in each face above the stringcourse higher up. In the corner between the tower and the south porch rises a little turret containing the stair which leads to the bell-chamber and the parvise. 

Apart from the porch, the north and south walls of the nave are symmetrical with uncommonly large windows; two in each wall set between slim buttresses which rise to the eaves, set back four times on the way. At the two western corners are diagonal buttresses of the same pattern. The windows have four lights, with ogee heads, leading into elegant tracery. The tall narrow transepts have similar windows in the north and south walls, and smaller three-light variants of the same style in the eastern walls. The western bay of the nave has no windows; for it has a door in both north and south walls, although the north door has no porch. The windows in the chancel are much like smaller versions of the nave, but show the change of style in the 30 years separating the building dates of the two parts of the church, for the chancel windows are definitely more old—fashioned and owe more to the Decorated style than their very Perpendicular successors, for example having cusped heads to the lower lights instead of the ogee shape. The east window is even more typically decorated, having a more steeply pointed arch and the usual.mouchettes and daggers. 

The church is normally entered by the south parch which has a simple moulded arch with dripstone and label stops over the step down from the path. In each wall is an open two-light window with cinquefoiled head. These windows are set in wide arched recesses which perhaps owe something to the unusual arcade in which the nave windowsare set. The wooden bosses of the porch ceiling remain, showing the symbols of the Four Evangelists and two floral patterns.

Stone benches are set on plinths along each side and at the end of the righthand one is a stone bracket for the Holy Water stoup set above a carved stone pillar. On the floor is the black marble slab with fossil patterns in the stone which commemorates Nicholas Ingham who left money for the construction of the porch and parvise.

The timber roof is supported on corbels which are placed on the 'piers' of the arcade. The roof itself is of a hammer-beam type and it is a beautiful example of the type with gilded angels holding a variety of objects, some musical, but one definitely a scroll and another a mitre. The roof continues into the transepts in one piece with diagonal beams to make a smooth transition at the crossing. The central boss represents the Last Judgment, with Christ enthroned on a rainbow attended by St. John and the Virgin Mary. By Christ's right fort, a blessed soul is rising to Heaven while the damned are being dragged down by a demon on the left. The stone corbels supporting the roof are also carved, in groups of four. Those in the nave are the Latin Doctors, those at the crossing are the Four Evangelists. In the transepts are four of the benefactors towards the restoration of the church.

A tall narrow arch opens into the tower and through it can be seen the west window in the far wall. To the south, the small door leads to the stair by which is reached the ringing chamber and the parvise. A projection above the door houses the passage from the stair to the latter. The only monument to survive on the walls of the church is here, to the north, but there is also a notable group of ledger slabs in the centre of the nave and chancel floors. The floors were relaid to some extent at the time of the conversion of the church into a museum, and the Norfolk pamments used for this give a welcome touch of warm brown to a church interior which is otherwise largely white or black. The ledger stcnes occupy their original position in the central aisle area of the nage and chancel.