Benchmark - St Mary - Redenhall, Norfolk - U.K. and Ireland Trigpoints on Waymarking.com

A cut benchmark on the north east corner of St Mary's church, Redenhall.

"Reminiscent of the towers at Eye and Laxfield over the Suffolk border, the tower was almost certainly the work of the same masons. It was bankrolled by the De la Poles, one of the richest families in East Anglia in the 15th century, and the fact that the elaborate flushwork is only in three sides of the tower, but not on the south side which cannot be seen from the road, shows that they were a pretty wily bunch when it came to splashing the cash.

The De la Poles had been beneficiaries of the pestilences of the previous century, when the deaths of roughly half the people of Norfolk and Suffolk resulted in the break-up of the old estates and the rising of wages and prices, enabling those with money to buy land cheaply. This emergence across northern Europe of a property-owning independent middle class without historic ties and loyalties to their parishes and people would inevitably lead to the continent's two great ideologies of the second half of the millennium, Protestantism and Capitalism.

But that was in the future when the De la Poles and fellow proto-capitalists the Brothertons were making bequests to rebuild St Mary. Up went the tower and the clerestory, and the aisle windows were all replaced in the fashion of the day. Only the chancel was left looking rather mean and slight. Perhaps they would have got to that too had priorities not changed. Around the base of the tower you can see their leopard and wild man symbols. You might also spot tortoises, for this was the symbol of the Gawdy family. One curious detail is the carving of farriers' implements on the west door. These have been taken to mean that the door was paid for by the local farriers' guild, but I see no reason to suppose that the carving is contemporary, and I think it is as likely to be the work of an idle 18th century hand.

Redenhall church is famous for one particular medieval survival. This is the spectacular double-headed eagle lectern, the glorious product of a 15th century East Anglian workshop. There is another in one of the Kings Lynn churches, and the one at St Mark's in Venice is said to be from the same workshop. I love the little lions on the pedestals best of all. Remarkably, the church has a second medieval lectern, a wooden one, and both are solidly chained down to prevent theft."

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