ST LAWRENCE’S CHURCH THEN AND NOW

Only a small fraction of the once magnificent medieval church of St Lawrence stands today

but if walls could talk, they would certainly have some tales to tell!

The church has stood at the heart of this community for more than 500 years and now provides a unique arts centre and village meeting place.

In AD 1075 historical records show that Ralf de Guader, Earl of Norfolk, was Patron of St Lawrence’s but there is no archaeological evidence of this early church as it was entirely rebuilt in the 14th century. It was constructed in the Decorated Gothic style developed by early European architects. Features included pointed arches and large windows with intricate tracery – a finer, lighter design than that used by Norman architects. Later our church was modified again to include the later Perpendicular architectural style, with an emphasis on vertical lines.

Tragically, St Lawrence’s was devastated by fire in 1827 which destroyed the nave and half of its tower. Parishioners took the bold step to extend and re-roof the remaining chancel which was used as a church until 1890, when the parish was merged with that of its sister church of St Mary . St Lawrence’s continued to be used for Sunday School until 1946, after which its contents were sold and it was abandoned.

In 1991, the then Rector of South Walsham, the Rev Graham Hendy, led a project to restore the church and create a centre for training and the arts. Work began in 1992 and was completed in 2000, with a dedication of the restored building by the Bishop of Norwich in 2001.

The restoration included weatherproofing the roof, restoring windows, rebuilding several buttresses and stitching cracks in the east and west walls. The flintwork was repointed and a grant from the National Lottery Fund paid for the installation of under-floor heating and a pamment tiled floor. A small extension, which was awarded a Craftsmanship Award, was built to provide accessible toilets for the centre.


ARMORIAL TILES, RELIQUARY AND LINK TO NORWICH CATHEDRAL

In the cabinet near the screen are eight fragments of decorated medieval tiles which were found when the original floor was excavated by an archaeological team during restoration work. They are pieces of four armorial tiles which show the coat of arms of Thomas, Lord Morley, who died in 1417, and his wife Anne, niece of Bishop Henry Despenser of Norwich, who died in 1426. The coat of arms shows the Morley lion rampant with a crown on the left side, while the Despenser family is represented by the shield on the right which bears a diagonal stripe and two fretted quadrants (see below).

Archaeologists described the tiles as extremely elaborate and felt they would have been specially commissioned. An identical tile was found in the 19th century in a demolished reliquary chapel in Norwich Cathedral. Reliquaries were special caskets in which holy relics were stored or displayed – these items had a particular significance or link to a Christian Saint.

RELIQUARY

Archaeologists believe that the wide but shallow arched feature at the east end of the building may have been a recess for such a reliquary. The armorial tiles were found to the left and right of this arch. It is thought that the Morley and Despenser families were patrons of the chapel in Norwich Cathedral and perhaps they were also involved in the building of a similar reliquary at St Lawrence’s, although there is no concrete proof of this – yet!


BROADLAND IN EMBROIDERY

Six embroidered panels are set into the screen which divides the main part of St Lawrence’s from the font and kitchen area. They were designed by local artist Chris Springham and stitched by the Rector, the Rev Graham Hendy, a keen textile artist, and a group of local embroiderers, who were all members of the Friends of St Lawrence’s. They combined a love of the Broadland landscape with incredible needlework skills and each panel was worked by a different embroiderer. Viewing from left to right, you will see:

Panel 1 by Joyce Church; an oak tree in autumn with blackberries, fir cones, a hedgehog and a water vole.

Panel 2 by Doreen Hamilton; a fisherman with an umbrella, a heron and rabbits.

Panel 3 by Audrey Kinder; a wherry (a traditional Broads cargo vessel) and a sailing yacht with a foreground of typical marsh and reed.

Panel 4 by the Rev Graham Hendy; St Benet’s Abbey worked in canvas and the derelict hull of a wherry.

Panel 5 by Joan Wortley; a collage showing horses and cows in the background, motor cruisers on the river and realistic foliage and flowers in the foreground.

Panel 6 by Daphne Reeve; conveys the look and feel of a Broadland scene, with a canvas-worked windmill, arable fields and a distant church.

The panels reveal many other intricate details on closer inspection and all try to capture the varied flora and fauna of Broadland Norfolk.


TEXTILE PANELS ON THE NORTH WALL

These panels were created by textile artist Jo Gallant, who grew up in Norwich and whose parents, Rosemary and Allan Sewell, lived in Upton. They were very closely involved in the restoration of St Lawrence’s in the 1990s and Rosemary commissioned Jo to create the work. Traditional crafts of Norfolk, such as spinning and weaving, thatching, eel catching and basket work, were the inspiration for the piece – Jo studied historic artefacts relating to these crafts at the Bridewell Museum in Norwich. You can read more detail about the tools and crafts depicted on the information panel below Jo’s work. She now lives and works in the south west of Scotland and more information can be found at
www.jogallant.co.uk


CARVED FIGURE OF ST LAWRENCE

St Lawrence was a third century martyr, originally from Spain, who became one of seven Deacons of Rome in the early Christian church. He was the custodian of the assets and treasures of the church and also ministered to the poor and needy of the city, who, it is said, loved him dearly.

During the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Valerian in AD 258, Lawrence was warned that the Romans were about to seize the church’s riches and so he hastily distributed its wealth to the poor, a move which, not surprisingly, incurred the wrath of the emperor.

When asked where the riches had gone, he replied: “The treasure of the Church is its people.” He was executed in a barbaric way, being roasted alive on a gridiron.

St Lawrence’s day is celebrated throughout the Christian world on 10th August.


MONUMENTS

The Revd William Beevor was Rector of St Lawrence’s from 1699 until his death at the age of 59, in 1718. His memorial tablet on the north east wall is testament to a remarkable man.

“This Reverend person was no less famous for his consummate learning, and for his steady & Constant adherence to the Orthodoxy of the Church of England as by law established & also for his strenuous asserting the rights of his Church which he left in a Flourishing Condition nor must it be omitted that he was a most tender father of 7 children whom he brought up and educated handsomely and left them all a competent provision. And during the whole course of his life his beneficence to the poor was conspicuous.”

The Lacon family vault was created in 1785 in St Lawrence’s for the burial of members of a prominent Great Yarmouth brewing family. John Lacon, his wife Elizabeth and their daughter Mary are all buried in the vault, which is below the paved area to the right of the small entrance door. John’s mother Martha was one of Revd Beevor’s daughters – hence the connection to South Walsham – and their son Edmund Lacon was knighted in 1793 and became the 1st Baronet of Great Yarmouth in 1818.

The Revd John Toplis was Rector of the parish in 1827 when fire destroyed St Lawrence’s Church. He was also a fellow and tutor of Queen’s College, Cambridge and a noted mathematician. He died in 1857 but his widow Elizabeth lived until 1880. In her will, she left the sum of £600 to be invested in bonds, with dividends to be distributed among the poor of the parishes of both St Lawrence and St Mary. It is still administered today as part of the South Walsham Parish Charity.


FONT
An octagonal font was installed during the rebuilding of the church in 1832 and dates from this period. It can still be used for baptisms today.


Acknowledgements: we are grateful to historian Nicholas Groves whose work on shared churchyards has been invaluable, to author GS Amos for information taken from his excellent book History and Description of South Walsham 1981 and to Kenneth Penn, of the Norfolk Archaeological Unit, who reported on excavations in May 1996.