Visting some Norfolk Churches 1st September 2022

For the first visit of the Autumn, we enjoyed exploring some of Norfolk’s ancient Churches, with John Vigar as our guide. He was with us the whole day to explain various points in the Churches.
 
We met up at the Holiday Inn in Norwich and by 9.30am we were well on the road to Brisley Village, where a cup of coffee or tea was waiting for everyone. John Vigar met us there to guide us around the lovely old churches.

We were soon within the magnificent 15C medieval Church of St Bartholomew where there is much to see. This church is a strikingly tall medieval building standing at a midway point between, Kings Lynn and Norwich.

The 15C benches are from the time when sermons were becoming an essential part of the liturgy. The bench ends include an engaging dog  with a duck or goose in its mouth. However, the most memorable feature to be found is when you have stepped through the 15C screen into the chancel. There is a doorway which leads down into the crypt, below the sanctuary. You follow the stairs into a space that accommodated prisoners overnight before moving them on to Norwich and the Gallows! We all spent a short time exploring this beautiful old church.

We then moved on to the Village of Gately to explore the Church of St Helen. The church is said to be a rare survival as this village was mentioned in the Doomsday book and the nave dates from the 15C. There is an interesting Rood Screen painting featuring 8 medieval female and male figures on the panels.

Lunch at The Kings Head in North Elmham gave us the opportunity to eat, drink and relax for a short time. The food, ordered a while ago, was very good and the staff were excellent.

Our next port of call was Stanfield, and St Margaret’s Church. This church was delightfully rustic and had amazingly survived from the 13C. It is a grade 1 listed Parish Church that was possibly built in the late Saxon or early Norman period.

Following afternoon tea and delicious cakes at the Elmham Tea Post, we were expecting to have time to visit the remains of Bishop Losinga’s 11th Century church with a moated castle built in the 17th century by the Bishop of Norwich.  Sadly however, time had caught up with us and we all boarded our coach to return to Norwich, having said a big thank you to John Vigar.

A huge vote of thanks to our driver who was so helpful. Everyone really enjoyed their day.