St.Mary and All Saints' Church, Creake Road, Sculthorpe, Norfolk. NR21 9NJ
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member greysman
N 52° 51.067 E 000° 49.171
31U E 353173 N 5857936
This medieval parish church was Victorianised in c.1846 but contains much C14th work.
Waymark Code: WMV55R
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/25/2017
Published By:Groundspeak Premium Member Dorcadion Team
Views: 0

The church of St.Mary and All Saints' was almost entirely rebuilt in c.1846 but it retains the original north aisle and the C14th late medieval tower. The Decorated chancel is the work of Richard and James Brandon, with the south aisle by the more famous Thomas Jekyll, indulging himself in his enthusiasm for Early English. The church is to the north of the present village adjacent to the moated manor house which has been here since before the Domesday Book was commissioned. The rebuilding of the church in the C14th was at the expense of the Knollys family who still exercise their patronage of the church today.

The Parish church is built of flint with stone dressings and has tiled, partly variegated roofs. It consists of a nave, a south tower built over the porch, both C14th, a north aisle, C15th, the chancel, 1846-7 by Raphael and Joshua Arthur Brandon architects, and a south aisle, 1860-1 by Thomas Jekyll of Norwich.

The south tower serves as a porch on axis with the second nave bay. It has an Early Decorated arch, a second stage above a string course with a single lancet window in the ringing chamber on the south side, and a belfry stage with Y-tracery windows on each face. There are diagonally set buttresses except on the south-east, and a crenellated parapet with corner finials. A ring of six bells hangs in the tower cast by Alfred Bowell of Ipswich in 1929/30, tenor 411kg, the ringing chamber reached by a spiral stair in the north-west corner of the porch.

The south aisle has three paired-lancets to the south and a triple lancet to the east with trefoil over all set in the outline of a previous single Decorated window, the chancel has lavish Decorated traceried windows and a priest's door set in buttresses, and a Decorated east window of three-lights. The variegated diaper pattern to the chancel roof is not repeated on the north side.

The west nave bay is Decorated with three-light south and west windows, the north aisle with 3-light east and west Perpendicular windows, has 4 straight-headed 2-light windows to the north.

The roofs are C19th.

Inside we find a four-bay Perpendicular north arcade with octagonal piers and double hollow chamfered arches, a three-bay south arcade with round pillars with composite heads and ogee chamfered arches, and arch dividing the western-most nave bay by Jekyll.

There is much mid-C19 stained glass including a 2-light William Morris south chancel window, the 3 lancets Faith, Hope, and Charity by Burne-Jones in the south aisle east window, a three-light Clayton and Bell c.1860 in the nave, west bay, south window, and Robert Bayne's signed window of the story of Ruth in the south-west corner.

The Norman font in the north aisle is C12th. square, with corner collonettes, beast masks to the corners three interlace panels with foliage, and knots, and a fourth with the Holy Family and Adoring Magi under five interlaced arches.

In the chancel is a brass plaque set in a rich stone canopy, a memorial to General Sir John Thomas Jones, 1st Baronet KCB (25 March 1783 – 26 February 1843) a British major-general in the Royal Engineers who played a leading engineering role in a number of European campaigns of the early nineteenth century. Jones was regarded by Wellington and asked to advise on fortifications including the modernisation of the defences in Gibraltar. He was also notable as an English amateur cricketer who made six first-class appearances. (Wikipedia)

In front of the chancel arch there is a really excellent 1521 set of brasses to John and Elizabeth Humpton and their family. Father and mother stand above the inscription, their seven sons grouped below on one side and their solitary daughter on the other. Across the nave is a brass to a knight of about fifty years earlier.

Details from British Listed Buildings with own on-site amendments.

The co-ordinates are for the south porch.

Building Materials: Stone

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