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Our Lady of Consolation and St Stephen, Lynford
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Our Lady of Consolation and St Stephen, Lynford On the edge of Norfolk's Stanta Battle Training Area, hidden away in the woods, is the tiny Catholic church of Our Lady of Consolation and St Stephen. It was built for the fabulously wealthy Mrs Lyne-Stephens in 1878. She lived at Lynford Hall, and, as Pevsner puts it, tired of travelling into Thetford for Mass. Mrs Lyne-Stephens was one of the richest women in England, the widow of a man who'd inherited the fortune made by a relative who'd patented moving dolls eyes. In 1860, she received over a million pounds from her husband's will, which is equivalent of about two hundred million pounds in today's money. She's most famous for bank-rolling the vast Our Lady and the English Martyrs catholic church in central Cambridge, which many tourists mistake for a cathedral, but Our Lady and St Stephen was her private chapel, and she maintained her own chaplain. The church was built
in a corner of the Lynford Hall estate, a short carriage
ride from the Hall. It's a small building, which makes
its bell turret seem overlarge and perhaps a little
ungainly. A long flushworked tracery panel at the top of
each side echoes a clerestory. A large statue of the
Blessed Virgin and Christchild sits in a niche above the
entrance. Although the architect was Henry Clutton, the
altar and reredos here were made to a design by the
then-late Augustus Welby Pugin who'd been busy next door
at West Tofts a couple of decades earlier, and Pevsner
suggests his ideas influenced the design of the building
as well. Simon Knott, December 2023 Follow these journeys as they happen on X/twitter. |
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