Church Clock - St. Peter and St.Paul's Church, Upper Market, Fakenham, Norfolk, NR21 9BX
Posted by: greysman
N 52° 49.835 E 000° 50.827
31U E 354963 N 5855596
Two simple faces for the church clock at Fakenham.
Waymark Code: WMVDJH
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/05/2017
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This C14th church is built of flint with freestone dressings and slate roofs and has been granted Grade I listing. It consists of a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with north and south chapels, a tall west tower and a two-storey C15th south porch with an early C14th inner doorway, the upper floor room of which was sealed in 1864. The north doorway is all that remains of an Early English church which was on this site, it may have been reset to its present position. The early-C14th chancel has Decorated style north and south windows, which were all much renewed after 1951, and a large Decorated east window of five lights with curvilinear tracery. The later C14th nave and north and south aisles are of six-bay arcades with octagonal piers and double-hollow-chamfered arches, both tower and chancel arches are tall as befits the lofty roof. The hammerbeam nave roof was erected during the 1864 restoration and has sizeable angels bearing shields.
The large, 115ft, 35m, tall, 4-stage Perpendicular west tower is circa 1400-50, restored 1899 and 1963, and has flushwork at the base and a cusped panel frieze of shields above, the west doorway has flanking niches with shields and tracery in the spandrels and a frieze over the doorway of crowned 'P's. Above this is a large six-light Perpendicular west window with an embattled transom. The tower has a panelled square buttresses, an embattled parapet and four corner pinnacles, of 1823, four three-light Perpendicular transomed and traceried belfry openings and three square ringing chamber windows with a grid of panel units. It contains a heavy ring of eight bells of mixed casting dates and founders hung for ringing in the English style. The ringing chamber is reached by way of a spiral stair leading off the space at the bottom of the tower going up the north-west corner of the tower. Besides being the ringing chamber it is the clock room, the clock, a Potts of Leeds, is on a timber balcony on the west wall and drives clock faces on the west and south of the tower.
The clock faces are of a simple type, no hood moulding, only one complete ring bearing the hour and minute marks, these marks, the Roman numerals on a slightly raised portion of the face are all painted gold-colour, the background black. The simple hands are gold on the indicator end and black on the balance end.
Words from British Listed Buildings and Pevsner's Norfolk 1 Buildings with amendments from own on site observations.