St Mary's Church, Barton Bendish facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids St Mary's Church, Barton Bendish
St Mary's Church, Barton Bendish, from the southeast
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OS grid reference	TF 709 054
Location	Barton Bendish, Norfolk
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Churches Conservation Trust
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	8 July 1959
Architectural type	Church
Style	Norman, Gothic
Groundbreaking	14th century
Specifications
Materials	Brick and stone Roofs thatched

St Mary's Church is an old Anglican church in the village of Barton Bendish, Norfolk, England. It was built a long time ago, during the Middle Ages. This village used to have three churches. These were St Mary's, St Andrew's Church, and All Saints' Church, which is now gone.

St Mary's is a very important building. It is listed as a Grade I listed building. This means it is a special historic place. The church is now looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust. A famous expert on buildings, Nikolaus Pevsner, said its west door is "one of the best Norman doorways in England". The church stands by itself, a little way from the main part of the village.

History
What the Church Looks Like
- Outside the Church
- Inside the Church
  - The Main Room (Nave)
  - The Chancel
Gallery
See also

History

Early Times

Experts have studied the area around the church. They found signs that people lived here in the Middle and Late Saxon times. Many believe that all three churches in the village started in the Late Saxon period. However, only two churches are mentioned in the Domesday Book from 1086. It is not clear which church was missing from that record.

In 1979, workers dug a ditch around the church. They found many pieces of Late Saxon pottery. These were likely old household rubbish. But they did not find any signs of a Saxon church building.

Medieval Changes

The church building you see today was mostly built in the 1300s. Studies show that the chancel (the part near the altar) was built first, around 1340. It has a beautiful window. This chancel was probably added to an older nave (the main part of the church). We don't have any proof of that older nave now.

Later, around 1370, the old nave was taken down. A new nave was built to match the chancel. However, this new nave was not as well built or designed as the chancel. It was described as "ill-proportioned" and "provincial". The church used to have a south porch. Parts of its wall were found in 1979.

Before 1710, St Mary's Church looked similar to St Andrew's nearby.

The church once had a tall tower. In 1421, a rich person left money for bells. This suggests the tower was new then. It would have been built in the Perpendicular style. This would have made St Mary's look very much like St Andrew's Church nearby.

Around the same time, a vestry (a room for clergy) was likely built on the north side. The door leading to it has a carved face of a lady from the early 1400s. Also, some changes were made to the south chancel wall. A later window in the Perpendicular style was added there.

The Reformation, a big change in the church, did not affect St Mary's much. Some church items like the rood screen (a screen separating the nave and chancel) were damaged. But unlike other villages, all three churches in Barton Bendish survived this period.

The 1700s

In 1710, the church tower fell down. It destroyed the western half of the nave. The south porch, however, survived. A note from 1731 said the tower's base was still about 30 cm (1 foot) high. It also said the north vestry was ruined. The south porch was being used as a vestry instead.

Robert Forby, who helped restore the church.

The famous writer and clergyman Robert Forby lived in the village in the 1780s. He was the rector (head priest) for St Mary's. He arranged for the church to be properly repaired in 1788-1789.

In 1787, the churches of All Saints and St Mary were joined together. This meant one church could be taken down. It was decided to demolish All Saints in 1788. Some of its materials were used to fix St Mary's. The rest were sold to help pay for the repairs. Robert Forby oversaw this work.

During the repairs, a 12th-century doorway was saved from All Saints. It was moved and placed in the new west wall of St Mary's.

St Mary's Church after the repairs in 1789.

The church got a proper west wall and entrance. A new south doorway was also put in. The ruined north vestry was taken down. The remains of the old tower were cleared away. A small, attractive bell-turret was added to the new west gable. The chancel roof stayed thatched, but the nave roof was redone with tiles. The floor was relaid with bricks, and new box pews (enclosed seats) were added.

The repairs cost £80. Selling parts of All Saints' Church, including its bells, brought in £56.75. So, Robert Forby had to pay the rest of the money himself.

The 1800s

The church was repaired again in 1858, 1865, and 1871. In 1858, the top part of the west wall was rebuilt. A new two-light window was put in. In 1865, the inside of the church was rearranged. The box pews were made smaller. In 1871, the bell-turret was replaced by a bellcote (a small structure holding bells).

Around this time, the tiled and thatched roofs were changed to slate. This was first noted in 1903. The north vestry, which had been demolished, was rebuilt. The old south porch, which was used as a vestry, was then taken down.

A New Purpose

The church was last used for regular services in 1967. It was officially declared "redundant" (no longer needed for regular worship) in 1974. Luckily, it was given to the Churches Conservation Trust. This group looked after the latest repairs in 1976.

During these repairs, the slate roofs were replaced with thatch. This included the Victorian vestry. The nave roof had not been thatched since 1789. Since then, the church has been open for visitors. Sometimes, special church services are held there.

What the Church Looks Like

The Norman west doorway, moved here from All Saints' Church.

Outside the Church

Walls and Roofs

The church has a simple layout. It has a nave (the main part) and a narrower chancel (the part near the altar). There is also a north vestry next to the chancel. The chancel and nave are not perfectly straight. The chancel leans a little to the right.

The walls are made of small, rough flint stones. There is also some brick and a type of stone called carrstone. The walls used to be covered with stucco (a type of plaster). Much of this covering is still there. The stucco on the east wall and part of the north wall was put on in 1976.

The roofs are thatched (made of straw). The nave roof is steeper. This helps to hide that the nave walls are lower than the chancel walls.

The West Doorway

The lower part of the west wall was built in 1789. It is covered in stucco. The upper part, made of rough flint, is from 1858. This is also when the two-light window was added. This window is in the Early English style. It has a round opening. On the west gable (the triangular part of the wall) is a bellcote from 1871. It has a wheel cross decoration on top.

The west doorway is from the mid-1100s. It was saved from All Saints' Church in 1789. It is very fancy. The arch has two layers of decoration. The inner layer has a continuous bobbin pattern. The outer layer has standard "beakhead" carvings. The columns on the sides have strange, narrow beakhead carvings. The top of the arch has a hood mould with dog-tooth patterns and half-circle cuts.

Side Walls

Each side wall of the nave has a two-light window. These are in the Decorated style, from around 1370. However, the stone patterns (tracery) are not very well designed. These windows used to be deeper, but the bottom 0.5 meters (19 inches) have been blocked up.

West of these windows, you can see signs of two lost windows. In the south wall, next to these old window traces, is a plain doorway. This was put in in 1789 to replace a window. The wall next to these traces is also from 1789. Near the southeast corner of the nave, the wall has been patched. This was done with stones taken from the church's old rood stair.

Chancel Walls

The east wall has a very large and beautiful three-light Decorated window. It is from around 1320. The hood moulding above it ends in carved faces of a king and a queen. The gable above is prominent, like the nave's east gable. It has carved figures of Atlas holding up the world.

Similar two-light windows from the early 1300s are in the side walls, near the nave. These also have carved faces on their hood stops. The ones on the north side look "sad". The lower parts of these windows have also been blocked up.

In the south wall, to the east, is a three-light window in the Perpendicular style. It has a square top and no tracery. Some say it's from the 1800s, but others believe it's from the 1400s. St Andrew's Church has a very similar window.

Between the two windows in the south wall is the narrow priest's door. It has a curved top with leaf-like decorations. It is crowned by a large finial (a decorative top).

The Victorian vestry is next to the north wall, near the east end. It has a single window on each side. What looks like a window in the gable wall is actually a painted wooden board. The gable was made taller when the roof was thatched in 1976. In the chancel wall, west of the vestry, you can see traces of an original doorway. This was there before the medieval vestry was built.

Inside the Church

Inside the church, with a wall painting on the right.

The Main Room (Nave)

The inside of the church is painted white. This includes the wooden and plastered ceiling. Behind the ceiling, the roof timbers are arranged in a scissor-like pattern. The floor is made of bricks laid in a herringbone pattern. This was done in 1789. The box pews (enclosed seats) are from the same time. They were made smaller in 1865. Some older pews from 1637 still exist.

On the south wall of the nave, you can see parts of an old wall painting. It seems to show Saint Catherine with her wheel. Some think it might be a Wheel of Fortune instead.

The arch leading to the chancel is similar to the one at St Andrew's Church. It has a sloped edge. The top of the arch is hidden by the ceiling.

The nave windows have clear glass. Only the west window has stained glass from the Victorian era. It shows Jesus blessing children and raising Jairus' daughter. The font (for baptisms) is Victorian, from 1857. It is octagonal and has patterns on each side. On the north wall are two memorial tablets for former Lords of the Manor. One is for Hanson Berney (1870) and his wife Agnes. The other is for Matthew William Gotobed (1953), who died in a shooting accident.

The Chancel

The chancel walls and ceiling are like the nave's. Both have the same brick floor from 1789. The sanctuary (the area around the altar) is one step higher. Its floor also dates from 1789 and includes two old grave-slabs. On the left is a worn stone coffin-cover, possibly from the 1300s. It has a cross carved on it. On the right is a black stone slab for the Tiffin family, with the latest date being 1743. It has a carving of a skull with crossed palm branches.

The chancel side windows are set in wide wall arches. These arches are cut short by the chancel arch. This shows that the chancel was built before the nave and used to be longer.

The priest's doorway on the right is plain inside. Next to it is a simple step sedilia (seats for clergy). It is built into the window opening. Below the seat is a row of decorative four-petalled flowers. In the east wall, to the right of the communion table, is a simple ambry (a cupboard for church items). This is where the piscina (a basin for washing communion vessels) would have been in medieval times.

The old altar is gone. It is replaced by a fancy wooden communion table from 1633. Above it, the east window's opening goes down to a shelf. On the wall next to the window are two triangular wooden pieces carved with angels. We don't know what they were originally used for. The original ambry in the north wall is fancy. It has a curved top with patterns and a finial. It also has two small pinnacles (pointed decorations). To the left is the vestry doorway. It has a carved door frame with leaves. The carvings at the top of the frame are faces with fancy headdresses.

Like the nave, the chancel windows have clear glass. Only the east window has some yellow pieces in its tracery. These look like the start of a stained glass project that was never finished.

The chancel has two wall memorials. On the south side is one for Philip and Anne Jenney (1819). It is in a simple Neoclassical style. On the opposite side is a simple triangular slab. It remembers Stephen Gooch Read, who was the rector of the church for 59 years, from 1865 until 1924.