Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Norfolk

  • Knapton – St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church (War Memorial)

    Knapton – St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church (War Memorial)

    This war memorial is located in front of the village’s church and was installed here in 1919. There was a grant of £273 provided for by the War Memorials Trust in 2010, which was used to clean up the lead lettering which had become hard to read.

    There are seven names on the war memorial from the First World War:

    Tom Colin Barcham

    Percy William Swann

    George Turner

    Douglas Lambert

    Albert John Mace

    George Wild

    Robert Christmas Yaxley

    Another three names were added to the side of the memorial following the end of the Second World War:

    Frederick Watts

    Thomas BB Wood

    Sydney E Woollsey

  • Knapton – St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church (James Riesbrow)

    Knapton – St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church (James Riesbrow)

    It took me a little while to work out this name, but it’s the grave of James Riesbrow, located in Knapton’s church. It’s such a rare name that this is the only person I can find in the country over the last few centuries with that name, which makes tracking him down that bit easier.

    James was married to Mary Means at the church on 14 October 1759 and the ceremony was witnessed by Charles Coleby and James Downing. It’s clear the clerk was confused by the name as well, trying to originally spell it as Riesborough. James died at the age of 48 on 7 June 1778 and I note that someone with the same surname was buried at the church in 2018, so the name has continued on.

    There aren’t that many graves from the late 1700s that remain in Norfolk’s churchyards, particularly not in this good a condition.

  • Knapton – St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church

    Knapton – St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church

    As part of our church spotting evening (yes, I know, churches aren’t that hard to spot in the scheme of things), Richard noted this one which is St. Peter and St. Paul’s Church in Knapton.

    The current building (including the tower) primarily dates to the early fourteenth century, although there was likely a church on the same site before this. As an aside, apparently the tower’s weather-vane was designed by John Sell Cotman.

    I don’t know why the Priest’s door has its own little porch and I’m not sure that picket gate arrangement does much for it either. I have no idea how old it is, but it looks like something that the Victorians would have done. The church was modernised by the Victorians (overseen by George Gilbert Scott) and there was a re-opening ceremony on 7 September 1883, with an advert in the Eastern Daily Press providing details of what trains or omnibuses people could catch.

    Visible here is that the church tower is off-centre, which isn’t a usual arrangement. But, I’ve learned something new by reading the description of this church at Norfolk Heritage, which notes:

    “The odd position of the tower was not the result of a change of plan but clearly deliberate from the first as demonstrated by the straight joint on the north wall close to the tower showing that provision for the tower was made. The slightly later building of the tower was separated from the nave at first – a practice commonly observed in other medieval churches where towers took long to build and tended to settle at a different rate from the nave.”

    I hadn’t realised that this was a thing, but building the tower and nave separately does make sense, although I’m still unsure quite why it’s off-centre.

    The porch, so near to the treasures within and one of the most important roofs in the country apparently, dating to the beginning of the sixteenth century.

    Alas, the church seems to be rather nervous about opening up for 72 hours before a service and 72 hours after a service. Seems a bit much to me, but there we go, there’s always another day to see what is apparently a glorious interior. The roof has been a problem in recent decades, with an expensive restoration having just been completed at the church. The church authorities have had problems with death-watch beetles throughout much of the early twentieth century as well, proving to be an expensive pest to remove.

    The churchyard is curious, there are a couple of eighteenth-century graves in noticeably good condition, which I assume is simply because a different stone was used, but nonetheless. There are also large gaps in the churchyard where graves must have been, but there is an absence of gravestones in some areas.

    Back to this photo again, we deliberately tried to find the spot where George Plunkett stood to take his photo (in 1993, so this was a later one). His photo is here, so I think that our effort was creditable…..

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Air Raid Damage in Norwich)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Air Raid Damage in Norwich)

    From the collections of the Imperial War Museum (© IWM HU 140004), I’ve never seen this photo before. There’s no address on it, but it was taken in Norwich following a Baedeker Raid which took place on 29 April 1942. The man was the owner of the shoe shop which had been destroyed, looking through to see if he could salvage any of his stock.

  • London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Troops on Sheringham Beach)

    London – Lambeth – Imperial War Museum (Troops on Sheringham Beach)

    And my last photo (for today at least) from the Imperial War Museum archive (© IWM H 11689), this is a photograph of Sheringham beach which was taken on 12 July 1941 by Captain Len Puttnam. The military had allowed the public to access the beach, but they were present to ensure that they didn’t stray too far, with the men of 2/5th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment overseeing proceedings.

  • Mulbarton – Spong Lane

    Mulbarton – Spong Lane

    We walked along this lane on the 18-mile walk I led around Mulbarton last week and it was a word I liked, but didn’t understand the origin of. Anyway, after checking I have discovered that a ‘spong’ is a long and narrow piece of land, or an irregularly shaped piece of land. You learn something every day….. Well, most days.

  • Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church (Snake Warning Sign)

    Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church (Snake Warning Sign)

    Richard spotted this as we left St. Andrew’s Church in Bacton and all I can say is that I might not have meandered quite as much around the churchyard if I had seen the sign on the way in…..

  • Bacton – Name Origin

    Bacton – Name Origin

    After visiting the church in Bacton, I felt the need to check where the village’s name comes from. I’m like that…. Anyway, The Concise Oxford Dictionary Of English Placenames notes:

    Bacton, Norfolk. Baketuna in Domesday Book, Baketun in 1150 and Baketon in 1185. From Bacca’s Tun.

    The name in the Domesday Book is a little unfortunate as it sounds like a dish from Ready Steady Cook, but not much has changed in its pronunciation over the last millennium. The ‘tun’ is a settlement, usually one which has a farming element, but I don’t know who Bacca was, probably just an Anglo-Saxon farm owner.

  • Bacton – Bromholm Priory (Gateway)

    Bacton – Bromholm Priory (Gateway)

    The gatehouse of Bromholm Priory remains standing, unlike much of the rest of the monastery. More on other sections of the monastery in other posts, but this was a prestigious priory which was shut down during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The above photo is from within the priory grounds looking outwards.


    The above photo is taken from around the same place, and there’s not much change other than some bricks added, a little unsympathetically, to the right-hand side of the arch.


    This is another photo taken from the same location, but is likely from a couple of decades before the 1955 date quoted by Francis Frith. This looks more like the photo taken in 1937 by George Plunkett.

    A photo of the gatehouse from the outside.

    This photo is also from the outside, showing that the gatehouse was formerly quite a substantial structure with two floors and two bays. Anyone coming to the priory for the first time would have likely got a positive first impression. This is a Cluniac priory and it reminds me of the gatehouses at Castle Acle and Thetford, also both Cluniac.

    One of the rooms inside the gatehouse.

  • Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church

    Bacton – St. Andrew’s Church

    Overlooking the sea and Bacton Gas Terminal, this church was originally constructed in the fourteenth century, although was remodelled in the fifteenth century.

    The church was heavily restored and faffed about with in 1847 and it was partly reroofed in 1895. What was discovered during the Victorian restoration were numerous wall paintings, some half an inch thick, which displayed stories relating to St. Christopher. Some of these wall paintings, thought to be from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries, are still visible inside the church. And, as a reminder that crime has always been a problem for churches, in the 1840s someone pinched lead from the roof.

    The sign said that the church was open. The church was shut.

    The four-stage tower is from the mid to late fourteenth-century.

    I understand that sometimes creativity is needed with historic buildings when elements such as air conditioning, heating or ventilation are added. But this is bloody ridiculous.

    I’m not sure that we were entirely aware when we were at the church how dark it had become.

    Below is a photo of the church in 1955, those neat bush things leading to the porch have now gone.