
St Andrews Church - East Lexham Norfolk, UK
Posted by:
Norfolk12
N 52° 43.206 E 000° 45.132
31U E 348185 N 5843504
A small round towered church tucked away on a farm,in this tiny Norfolk Hamlet.
Waymark Code: WM45WC
Location: United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/12/2008
Views: 25
This is in a very tranquil setting and usually has sheep grazing in the churchyard.Inside the church is a painted war memorial to the seven villagers who died in the Great War.
St Andrew’s church has a round tower reputed to be the oldest in the country and dated to around 900 A.D. The churchyard is roughly circular and surrounded by a ditch, the church sits on a slight mound. This suggests that it was a site for pagan worship before the population was converted to Christianity in the 7th century. When the churchyard wall was being rebuilt a skeleton was found of a young man who had been shot with a musket through the head. The site of a Saxon village was discovered northeast of the church. Inside the misericords are believed to have come from Castle Acre Priory at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537.
details taken from the EDP Web page.{ norwich local paper article]
Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, almost solely in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, 6 in Essex, 3 in Sussex and 2 each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshire.
link to norfolk round tower churches
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visit link)