The grave of Theodosia Colman is located on a path, which isn’t really ideal, at St. Mary’s Church in Attleborough.
Theodosia was born in 1752 as Theodosia Howes and she married William Colman on 6 February in 1778 in Besthorpe, a village near to Attleborough. Theodosia died at the age of 76 on 12 October 1828 and was buried on 18 October 1828 at a service overseen by the curate, John Fairfax Francklin.
The war memorial in Attleborough, located at the end of Queen’s Road, was designed by local sculptor AJ Harrison at a cost of £350, which was funded by public subscription. The memorial was unveiled on 27 June 1920 by Earl Albemarle at a ceremony attended by the Bishop of Norwich, which followed a service at St. Mary’s Church. Former servicemen and relatives of the dead walked to the memorial from the church whilst the Norfolk Regiment band played Beethoven’s Funeral March. At the end of the service, the Regiment band played Chopins’s Funeral March and finally, a bugler played the Last Post
There are 101 names on the 20-foot high memorial from the First World War, with 24 names added following the Second World War and an additional name from the Korean War. The full list of names of those who died during the First World War is at the base of this post, below the photos of the memorial below.
Barnard, Bertie
Beckett, Leonard
Bishop, Robert Sidney
Blaxall, Ernest William
Briggs, Elijah Samuel
Briggs, Percy William
Britnell, William Edward
Butcher, William Clarence
Chandler, Herbert
Chaplin, Charles Edward
Chapman, Bertie R W
Chapman, George Henry
Clarke, Alfred Bruce
Codling, Sidney F W
Coe, Cornelius Robert
Crummett, Frederick E
Cubitt, Terence A K
Dagless, Alexander
Dagless, Philip
Daynes, Albert
Daynes, Frederick John
Dunnett, Percy A
Dye, John William
Eagling, Arthur Walter
Edwards, Harry Ambrose
Edwards, John
Elvin, Ernest Robert
Elvin, Syndey James
Elvin, Wilfred Harold
Etteridge, Robert W
Fincham, Walter William
Forster, Philip James
Forster, Sidney Percy
Gapp, Sidney Jack
Gooda, Ernest George
Gould, Edward
Griffin, Arthur William
Griffin, William Albert
Halls, Frederick William
Hawes, Albert William
Hillier, Frederick William
Hilton, William Charles
Holman, William James
Howlett, Harry
Hunt, Arthur
Hunt, Ted
Hunt, William
Johnson, Robert Frederick
Lain, Frederick
Lain, John
Large, John Gerald
Laurence, Alfred
Lenney, George J W
Lincoln, Charles
Lincoln, Edward
Orford, Lancelot E
Ottaway, Walter James
Parker, Sydney Samuel
Patrick, Arthur
Patrick, Edward
Piercy, William John
Pinnock, William
Plumpton, Alfred
Ponder, Bertram Thomas
Pratt, Victor John
Rayner, George Alfred
Rayner, Walter Filby
Redit, Joseph
Redit, Sidney Charles
Redit, Walter John
Reeves, Arthur J
Rudd, Henry Reginald Wallace Kingston
Sharpe, Cecil G
Shaw, Albert
Shaw, Robert
Smith, Arthur George
Smith, George William
Smith, Henry John
Smith, Herbert
Speck, Frank W
Starke, Charles Arthur
Stebbings, Bertram E
Stephenson, Harold
Stubbings, Leonard Victor
Stubbs, Robert Henry
Sturman, William John
Taylor, John William
Tillott, Leonard William
Tufts, George Henry
Tuttle, Harry
Viney, Harry James
Warner, Forbes Mackay
Watson, Valiant A
Webster, William
Weir, Ronald
Weir, William Oswald
Welton, Norman
Woods, David E H
Yari, Ernest H
Youngman, Geoffrey W
Youngs, Percy
On this map of Attleborough from the early twentieth century, there’s B Gd. marked, or Burial Garden.
I didn’t add much to the debate on how Thieves Lane got its name, but one legacy that remains along it is the burial garden that remains along the road. The Wesleyan Methodist church opened here in 1809 and in the following year, this graveyard was laid out. The church built new premises nearby in 1872, on Station Road, leaving just the graveyard behind in a similar manner to that in Swaffham.
Today, the graveyard is a public park following its formal closure in 1991 for burials.
Most of the graves have been placed by the wall of the neighbouring building.
I like street names such as this, they sound like they have some interesting heritage. The book “the Newmarket, Bury, Thetford and Cromer Road” from 1904, which is intriguing in its own right, just makes reference to this being where thieves may once have preyed on locals. But, it’s clear the author probably doesn’t know. And, I can’t find anything else about this beyond it probably being an area where some crimes had been committed long ago, giving it a bad reputation.
The tree seems to have partly consumed the sign.
And the dangerous lane…. It’s not the most prestigious of road names to live on, but it’s memorable at least.
One advantage of looking at medieval churches in remote villages is that the buildings make some sort of sense to someone such as myself, who has a limited understanding of the architecture and evolution of the structures. St. Mary’s in Attleborough makes, at first sight, very little sense with all of its all additions and removals over the centuries. There has been a church here since Saxon times, likely the ninth century, although the current structure is mostly from the eleventh century onwards.
Unfortunately, this plan isn’t the clearest in terms of the quality. But it’s indicative at least, the north porch is visible on the left and Mortimer’s Chapel in the top-right.
This is the north porch and work started on this in the late fourteenth century and it was completed early on during the fifteenth century. Unfortunately, all of the statues which once stood in the niches are no longer present.
The west end of the church.
The area between the north porch and the west end of the nave.
Back to the north side of the building, this is the outside of the north aisle, which was a later addition.
The church’s complexity is evident here, it looks more like a closed down priory converted into a new building. But, this is where the chancel once stood, which was taken down in 1541. The tower, which dates from the twelfth century at the base and the thirteenth century at the top, then became the east end rather than the central tower that it once was. It also left a rather muddled appearance, although it all adds character. The tower did once have a spire that was built in around 1300, but that fell down in around 1700. Which isn’t entirely ideal.
An illustration of the church from the mid-nineteenth century.
An old doorway in the base of the east end of the church.
This is the south side of the church, where a new extension was added in 1994 to house a community centre.
Given the current health situation, the interior of the church wasn’t open, but I understand it’s worth seeing with numerous old treasures, including wall paintings and the rood screen. So, I’ll meander back at some point.
I accept that the title of this post (excuse the unintentional pun) being “pillar” isn’t exactly overly descriptive, but that’s what the listed monuments register calls it. If it’s good enough for them, then it’s certainly good enough for me.
This pillar was installed here in 1856 and it noted on the sides of its top section some of the battles which were fought during the Crimean War. That means that this is one of the few surviving monuments in the country which commemorates this conflict against the Russians, which led to over 20,000 British deaths.
At the base, and visible in the below photos, the column was used as a milestone with distances to various locations around the country. This is in a good state of repair, but I suspect much of that is because a car driver slammed into it in 1983, meaning that some restoration was essential. When it was repaired, it was realised that the monument didn’t have a solid core, but instead the slabs had been placed around a hollow middle section.
This water pump is located at Queen’s Square in Attleborough and it was installed here in June 1897, to mark the 60th year of Queen Victoria’s reign.
The timber water pump is now a listed structure and the original pump handle and spout are still intact. The pump was renovated and refurbished in 2002 and there’s a floral display around it in a trough-like arrangement.
This rather beautiful poppy was installed in Queen’s Square in 2014 to mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War.
The idea was to use 500 stones to make the poppy, with the red stones marking those who returned and the black ones marking those who didn’t come back.
Each of the stones has a name written on them, although some have faded over the last few years. The names of those who died are also etched onto the side of the memorial. Ridgeons, Monarch Landscaping, Travis Perkins and the local council all got involved with the project, which is something that likely didn’t cost too much, but which has a powerful impact.
I’m not sure that I can recall seeing such a neatly overgrown grave (is that a thing?), but this one stands out at St. Mary’s in Attleborough.
This is some fun and seriously intentioned branding, very nice. I wonder whether Liam should create something for the construction sites he works at…..
