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All
Saints, Great Melton
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All
Saints is an unusually massed building standing
in the same graveyard as the ruin of St Mary, the
church it superceded in 1883. All Saints was
itself built on the site of a ruin, of which the
15th century tower survives here as part of the
new church. The rest is the work of the architect
Joseph Pearce, an essay in replicating medieval
functions in a fairly utilitarian Victorian
manner; a successful combination, I think.
Especially when seen from the north-east, the
church might be an institutional building of some
kind, or a house, or even a factory. From the
south, the view is more conventional, and it is
also on this side of the graveyard that the ruin
of St Mary stands. |
The
process by which All Saints was reconstructed was also
rather unusual. By the middle of the 19th century, the
other church, St Mary, was the working
church, and All Saints was almost derelict. However, it
was also the bigger of the two, and it was decided to
restore All Saints by demolishing St Mary and using some of
the materials. The congregation then moved across to All
Saints, leaving St Mary as a ruin.
| Seasoned
Norfolk church explorers tell me that this is one
of the hardest churches in the county to get
inside. The Rector tells me that this is because,
in such a widely scattered parish, no regulars
live close enough to the building to be in charge
of the key. Be that as it may, we are fortunate
to have Peter Stephens' photographs of the
interior below; apparently, again, it is an
unashamedly Victorian worship space, as
successful in as out. You won't
need a key to get into the porch, where you will
find the only medieval survivals in the form of
two medieval benches fixed to the wall and a 14th
century stone coffin lid with a foliated cross on
it. And you won't miss the funeral bier either,
because it is outside sheltering under the yew
trees.
Simon Knott, December 2005
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