This Estate Church in Raynham Park was rebuilt by the 5th Marquis of Townshend 'At His Sole Cost' between 1866 and 1868 by Clark and Holland of Newmarket, Architects, at a total cost of £7,000 and the dedication was on April 17th 1868, the Friday of Easter Week. Now listed Grade II* it is built of flint with stone dressings and slated roofs, except for a leaded chancel. Despite the building dates this is not High Victorian in style but still "archaeological" Decorated / Perpendicular in detail and form following in plan the church it replaced: consisting of a west tower, clerestoried nave, north and south aisles, north and south porches, chancel and a south transept. The tower is square buttressed and battlemented with pinnacles with a south stairs turret with lancets, also battlemented. The west three-light window is Perpendicular, and the two-light belfry windows are Decorated, there is also a quatrefoil window to the clock room. It contains a ring of eight bells hung for ringing in the English style, and a clock bell to sound the hours.
The aisles have three Perpendicular windows, are battlemented and have porches with Decorated details, the clerestory is battlemented with Perpendicular tracery. All gables have stone crosses of different designs at their apices, that from the nave gable is missing.
The Decorated-Perpendicular chancel was the gift of the Rector Mr. Phayre with the south transept expressed as a porch and now converted to an organ chamber. The five-light Perpendicular east window has the head of the bishop and Queen Victoria. A carved stone plaque in the ringing chamber recalls the rebuilding of the church thus:- “SOLI DEO GLORIA / The Nave Aisles And Tower Of This Church / Were Rebuilt By The Fifth / Marquis Townshend / At His Sole Cost / The Chancel Being Rebuilt By / Richard Phayre Rector / This Edifice Was Opened For / Divine Service On Friday / April 17th 1868.” Translates as 'Glory to God Alone'.
The nave is of three-bay arcades, an arched braced nave roof with exposed rafters and boarding. The three-light stained tower west window is c1868 by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake. Other furnishings are of 1868 and include benches with a 'T' monogram. The C15th octagonal stone font has traceried stem and in the bowl panels alternate roses and crosses and some traces of its original paint. In the south aisle a C15th brass figure with its inscription to George Townshend, son of Roger Townshend, armiger, in the north aisle a brass to Robert Godfrey, 1522. The carved royal arms on the north-west tower arch pier, Hanoverian, are of period 1714-1802 and there is a painted hatchment over the tower arch.
Completed with 1868 furnishings and C19th Townshend family wall monuments in the chancel. On the north wall is a 1499 freestone Easter Sepulchre or monument commissioned by her will dated November 1499 by Elianore, wife of Sir Roger, commemorating John Townshend, d.1463, Roger Townshend, d.1493, and the said Elianore his wife, daughter of William Lunsford of Sussex. It is 'cunningly graven a Sepulchre for Easter Day', a tomb chest with three panels with shields set in foliage under a Purbeck marble slab, broad panelled surround, four-centred arched recess, and a big attic also with foiled or traceried panels. The recess back wall has five stepped niches with fragments of the former statuettes. A funerary helm of carved stone in the attic was reinstated in the 1950s. On the south wall the piscina has three re-used spiral-fluted Norman shafts, possibly inverted, carrying a stilted arch.
The glass in the aisle east windows is modern, depicting the Road to Emmaus on one side, and Christ flanked by St Margaret and the Blessed Virgin on the other.
When the church was rebuilt in 1868 the Whitechapel bellfoundry cast a new ring of three bells for the church. These were rung from a cavernous room immediately below the bell chamber. By the 1990’s the bells had become extremely difficult to handle and in 2003, more than 130 years after the original installation, the same firm completed the octave by adding numbers 1 to 5 to the existing three. The new bells were gifted by both various members of the Townshend family and by local people. They are now rung from a splendid new gallery in the tower reached by a staircase from the ground floor.
The Eucharist is celebrated every third Sunday @ 1100.
Words from British Listed Buildings, Simon Knott's Norfolk Churches, and Pevsner's Norfolk 2 Buildings, Norwich Diocesan Association of Ringers bell pages with amendments from own on site observations.
Coordinates are for the south porch entrance.