home I index I latest I glossary I introductions I e-mail I about this site

The Norfolk Churches Site: an occasional sideways glance at the churches of Norfolk

St Andrew, Attlebridge

Attlebridge: a proud little church

Read the captions by hovering over the images, and click on them to see them enlarged.
delightful south porch barn-like

NB: please read the postscript below before planning a visit to this church

    St Andrew, Attlebridge

This church was once a familiar sight to travellers on the Norwich to Fakenham road, but the village is now thankfully bypassed, and this little church sits proudly on its mound at the crossroads in the centre. As at nearby Alderford, the church is long and narrow, with a narrow 14th century tower, although this is not as pencil-like as Alderford's. Unlike its neighbour, St Andrew retains a north aisle. The church is so small that it would seem rather claustrophobic without it.

A final remainder of the Catholic past of Attlebridge   Cautley said that there was not much of interest here, but half a century on it is possible to see St Andrew as a delightful example of a rural 19th century restoration of a 14th century church. The late medieval period, so typical of East Anglian church building, didn't get much of a look-in here. Some rather anonymous windows in the south side of the nave, and that's it.

The porch is not huge, but the roofline of the church is so low that it appears like a small barn against the south side. There's a fine 14th century doorway inside, and Mortlock thought that the triple lancet east window was contemporary and unrestored.

Inside, the church retains much of its rural character, the sense that this building could only be in East Anglia, and would seem quite foreign if you found it somewhere else. This sounds an obvious thing to say, but so many Victorian restorations of country churches turned them into anonymous, urban spaces that might as well be in Birmingham or Calcutta. That did not happen here, and it is still quite easy to imagine the ploughboy and the wheelwright sitting on the benches in their best clothes on a Sunday morning.

The font is an oddity, with tracery designs that seem to be for clerestory windows in a much larger church. Another intriguing survival, and perhaps the only remainder of this church's Catholic past, is the chalice brass and inscription for the Priest George Conyngham, who died in 1525. This is up in the chancel, and to reach it you'll need to pass an extraordinary construction, the Priest's desk at the west end of the stalls. It is presumably 19th century, by local hands, but includes turned balusters that Mortlock thought were 17th century. I wonder where they came from?

Simon Knott, March 2006

  an extraordinary construction
   
    postscript 19th May 2006 Wensum group webmistress Cassie Tillett writes: 'Attlebridge church is closed until further notice. During maintenance work this week we discovered that the roof is in far worse condition than we thought, and both our architect and the Archdeacon have advised us to close the building at once on Health & Safety grounds. We are looking for an alternative venue for the Post Office service which has been running in the vestry two mornings each week, but at present it looks likely that this will also have to stop, at least in the immediate future. The church's Morning Prayer on Saturdays and 8am Eucharist on Sundays are cancelled from now onwards – its Sunday 10am Eucharists, beginning next Sunday, will all take place at Alderford. Please watch these notices every week for further updates, and pray for the PCC while we try to plan ahead.

Anybody who has visited the church recently will have seen the problem: great holes in the roof. We applied to English Heritage last year for the full grant to deal with the problem - around £90,000 on last year's estimate - and were turned down on the basis that it "wasn't urgent". We will be re-applying, naturally, but such a process is a long one, and the church will still have to remain closed until we have found a solution.'
   

looking east font chancel 14th century door looking west


Amazon commission helps cover the running costs of this site.

Free Guestbook from Bravenet 

home I index I latest I introductions I e-mail I about this site I glossary
Norwich I ruined churches I desktop backgrounds I round tower churches
links I small print I www.simonknott.co.uk I www.suffolkchurches.co.uk

The Norfolk Churches Site: an occasional sideways glance at the churches of Norfolk