Gargoyles - St Withburga's Church, Holkham Hall Estate, Holkham, Norfolk. NR23 1RW - Gargoyles and Chimeras on Waymarking.com

This Grade II* listed estate church seems larger than it is, set on a mound to the south of the main A149 road in the Holkham Hall estate grounds it is very impressive when seen for the first time: the dedication of St Withburga is said to be unique. The mound is entirely sand and is thought to be a dune although the sea is some 1ml to the north, and it is said to have been used by Iron Age people, perhaps for burials or a temple.

The C13th tower on the south side is a tower porch this being the main entrance but is at the western end of the south aisle and replaces an earlier, possibly Saxon or Norman, tower which was at the west end of the nave, the foundations were found at the restoration. There is a core of a medieval building but it was extensively rebuilt in 1767 and again in 1868-71 by James K Colling. This latter rebuilding was paid for by Juliana, Countess of Leicester, but sadly she died in 1870 just as it was completed. Her simple effigy lies in the bare north aisle chapel.

Built in flint with limestone dressings the church is Grade II* listed. It has plain tiled roofs to the nave and chancel. There are flushwork panels in the parapets of the tower, the chancel and the aisles. The tower has set-back buttresses up to the first stage and two early C13th lancet windows in the south face, one lancet low down on the east face gives some light to the balustraded staircase to the ringing chamber, the bell openings have 'Y' tracery from the C14th. A C19th south door in the tower with double opening and quatrefoiled spandrel opens into a large porch with the main door into the church opposite and possibly of C13th. The embattled parapet has four corner pinnacles and beneath them a small gargoyle, each in the form of a fanciful beast. The rain spouts usually fitted are not there / are missing. Condition seems fair but as the tower was rebuilt in 1870 they are not particularly old.

Water spout is used: no Condition: Lightly Weathered

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