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St Mary,
East Carleton
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East
Carleton is a straggle of close houses on the
road to nowhere, like a skein of Norwich suburbia
adrift on the edge of the Ketteringham Hall
estate some eight miles from the City Hall; but
the church of St Mary backs on to fields and
copses, and is attractive in its small graveyard.
Although, like nearby Bracon Ash, it is at
heart an Early English building with some late
medieval remodelling, St Mary now is almost
wholly the work of the 19th century, the nave and
chancel redone in the 1880s and the tower rebuilt
in the 1890s. Everything is crisp and clean, and
there are a few older survivals discernible in
the walls. Coming back here in Open Churches Week
2010 was unfinished business, because on my
previous two visits the keyholders had both been
out. Thus, it was a pleasure to step into this
pleasant and well-kept building, which, although
of no great historical significance, is a nice
place to visit and which deserves to be better
known. Unfortunately, St Mary is still kept
locked, in an area of generally more remote yet
better-known churches which are kept open,
although there is still a keyholder notice, of
course. As you approach the church, you
might notice a low wall in the second graveyard
on the other side of a private roadway. This is
all that is left of the second East Carleton
church of St Peter. Beyond,
in the graveyard, is a rather elaborate memorial
which must have had its ironwork removed during
WWII. The pillars are now sinking into the soft
ground, and it would be nice to think that it
could be restored while it is still salvageable.
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The porch,
which was built in the early years of the 20th Century,
is a pleasing feature, the windows showing design poised
on the point of becoming Art Deco. It protects the
southern doorway, which Pevsner noted was the single
unrestored feature of the church. However, it is not the
only medieval survival, as we shall see inside. The
interior is as you might expect from outside, a crisp and
fairly middle-brow restoration of the 1880s, but it is a
good example of what could be done on a small scale by a
rural parish where the pennies had to be counted. It has
been very well cared for since. The north aisle is,
perhaps surprisingly, rebuilt on the outline of a
medieval predecessor.
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the west end, the brickwork in the top of the
tower arch is exposed, and is of the 16th
century, an unusual date, suggesting a late
rebuilding in this rural backwater. The font is a
narrow, rather urban 15th century piece, looking
quite at home in its Victorian surroundings. The
church retains its WWI roll of honour, proudly
displayed near to the War Memorial. The best glass is the representation
of Charity and Faith by Powell & Son, the
figures conflated into a single panel by the
device of the elder child of Charity holding the
cross of Faith. The most interesting panel is a
hexagonal lozenge in the chancel which is a
composite of a medieval head of Christ and modern
coloured glass. A modern roundel beside it
depicts the monogram AM with a sword. Reset in
the 19th Century floors are a couple of good
ledger stones of the late 17th century, both
inscribed with skulls, and one of them nagging us
Hodie Mihi Cras Tibi - today this is
mine, but tomorrow it will be yours.
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Simon Knott, February 2011
  
 
   
   
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