St John - Beachamwell, Norfolk
Posted by: 
SMacB
N 52° 37.299 E 000° 34.438
31U E 335781 N 5832947
The ruined remains of the medieval parish church of St. John's, one of three parish churches in Beachamwell. The tower is the only part of the structure still standing, and dates mostly from the 14th century.
Waymark Code: WMXZB5
Location: Eastern England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/21/2018
Views: 0
"The remains of St John are more substantial than those of All Saints, a mile or so off, and so it is interesting to discover that this church fell into redundancy many years before All Saints did. When Catholic England came to an end, and the Anglicans inherited more churches than they possibly knew what to do with, it was inevitable in this area of tiny parishes that many of the churches would no longer be needed. Tiny parishes, probably because this part of England was relatively heavily populated in Saxon times, and the manors were necessarily small. Each had its own church, and, before the 16th century, congregational worship was fairly low down on the list of priorities for a parish church. There was no need to count bums on seats, but the Reformation put an end to all that.
There is an intriguing vignette in the work of the early 18th century antiquarian Blomefield. He came this way, and found that the ruins of St John had been converted into cottages.
Today, all that survives is the tower, and that is not long for this world. While we wait for it to fall, the sheep enjoy it as a shelter."
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"Former church. Medieval. Flint with ashlar and some brick dressings. Consists mainly of a surviving west tower. Unbuttressed west tower with prominent dressed putlog holes. Window dressings and quoins have been extensively robbed."
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