All Saints is one of the four churches of the Norfolk Battle Training Area and is not generally accessible by the public. Stanford is at the very heart of the training area, the live firing area, and it is so far from civilisation that the silence in the air is remarkable. I had not heard such a silence in England before. The sheep were fearless, inquisitive as we let ourselves into the churchyard, but their lambs hid behind them, chins tilted upwards as they watched. As at Tottington, the roofs are blast-proof panels rather than tiles, but this is well done that you wouldn't know what they were unless you were told. As I wandered about the churchyard, tiny spring rabbits bolted from beneath my feet. At first this was startling, and then comical, for they had never seen a human before, and they waited until I was right on top of them before running for the scrub. I became wary lest I step on one, but I don't think they were ever in any real danger.

All Saints has wide aisles, but there is no clerestory and this is not a large church. It has the only round tower in the Battle Training Area, although there are several more nearby. As often, the 12th Century round lower stage is surmounted by an octagonal belfry stage, with particularly tall bell windows. It probably dates from the 15th Century. You step into a wide, almost square space after which the chancel beyond seems almost an afterthought. The small octagonal font tucked in the south-west corner could be any age, but is probably late 14th Century I expect. The church underwent a considerable 19th Century restoration apparently entirely to the design of Frederick Sutton, the rector. His are the chancel murals, the raised steps, the great rood, and even the painted glass in the north aisle window, which Pevsner thought worthy of mention, but which is mostly now lost. The arcades rest on elegant, fluted columns, and something very odd has happened at the east end of the south aisle, where a former archway appears to have been truncated by the eastern wall. Or was it begun and never finished? Curious.

As with the church at Tottington, the roof tiles are stored inside here, but the benches are gone, the bells have gone. And yet the ghosts of the past remain. This feels as if it must have been a warm and welcoming building, busy in the years of its restoration, and still a touchstone for generations. Outside, they lie. Quantrills and Clarks, Rudds and Gathercoles. A weathered Gathercole memorial is profoundly evangelical: Weep not for us our children dear, because we die and leave you here. But look to Christ the crucified, that you may feel his blood applied. Another for a Quantrill wife hopes that God shall wipe away all the tears from their eyes. All about, the silence continues.

Simon Knott, May 2004, revised December 2022

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an introduction to the churches of the Norfolk battle training area

LANGFORD STANFORD TOTTINGTON WEST TOFTS