St Peter from the Main Croft (Mancroft) a large market place church in the European fashion. The church has several amazing, large stained glass windows. Some of these windows date from medieval times.
The text below comes from a web site, with excellent photos of each individual satined glass panel, if you hover the mouse, over each panel, it gives the title, click and it and links to larger photos.
"Pevsner tells us that the gilded reredos in the sanctuary is by JP Seddon, but that Ninian Comper restored and enlarged it in the early 1930s. It is not exciting, but that is probably as well, for above it is one of the greatest medieval treasures of East Anglia. This is the medieval glass that survives from the first few decades of the existence of the church. Some of it was probably in place that first Petertide. It has been moved around a bit since then; the whole east side was blown out by an explosion in 1648, and the glass has been removed on several occasions since, most recently during the Second World War. After East Harling, it is the finest expanse of Norwich School glass of the 15th century.
I had for some time felt the need for a new camera, and when circumstances fell sympathetically (sufficient Co-op divi, and an impending birthday) I became a proud owner of a Fuji S9600. I bought it from Amazon, and the morning it arrived I cycled off to the station and headed up to Norwich to try it out. The first place I came was St Peter Mancroft, and the first thing I photographed was the glass of the east window. After a few false starts, I photographed every panel. I had no tripod, and the light was not perfect, so be merciful, but here is the great east window of St Peter Mancroft presented in virtual form. Hover over an image to find out what it is, click on it to go to a page on the flickr website that gives you it in enlarged form. By selecting 'all sizes' on that page, you can also see it very big indeed. Text source: (
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"At the west end of the north aisle sits the font on its pedestal. You can see at a glance that it was one of the seven sacraments series, and that all of its reliefs have been completely erased, as in the great churches of Southwold and Blythburgh in Suffolk. At Wenhaston, we know that this happened in the 19th century - could the same thing be true here? Above the font is the famous font canopy. Now, font canopies are so rare - there are only four of them, and they are all so different - that it is not particularly useful to compare them. Certainly, that here reflects the rather grander example at Trunch, some twenty miles away. Since the other two are either post-Reformation (Durham) or made of stone (Luton), it might make sense to think of the Norfolk two as a unique pair. Here at St Peter Mancroft, much of the upper part is a 19th century restoration, and there seems to have been some attempt to copy Trunch. The lower part is more interesting, with its niches and canopies. It must have been spectacular when the font was intact. Text Source: (
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"The great urban churches of northern Europe sit on their market places, especially in Cathedral cities. It is as if they were intended as late Medieval statements of civic pride. They are a reminder of the way that the cities rose to prominence in the decades after the Black Death, as if the old order had been broken and a new one was beginning. They were a great affirmation of Catholic orthodoxy and social communion, in the years before the merchants that paid for them embraced Protestantism and capitalism. They are European culture caught on the cusp of the Renaissance, the beacons that lead us into early modern Europe." Text Source: (
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"The present building was begun in 1430, on the site of an existing church, and consecrated in 1455. It is an ambitious building, 180 feet long and flint ashlar faced with a tower at the west end.
It has a Norman foundation dating from 1075, a 1463 font, a 1573 Flemish tapestry, medieval glass and a memorial to most famous parishioner Thomas Browne, author of Religio Medici. The small lead-covered spire with flying buttresses was added by A.E. Street in 1896.
In 1850 two L-shaped trenches accommodating a number of acoustic jars were discovered beneath the wooden floor on which the choir stalls had previously stood. The earthenware jars were built into its walls at intervals of about three feet, with the mouths facing into the trenches." Text Source: (
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