The Church of St Helen,

Ranworth Ranworth is a village in Norfolk, England in The Broads, adjacent to Malthouse Broad and Ranworth Broad. It is located in the civil parish of Woodbastwick. The village's name origin is uncertain 'Edge enclosure' or perhaps, 'Randi's enclosure.' ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

is a church of

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

origins notable for its collection of church paintings. Known as "the cathedral of

The Broads The Broads (known for marketing purposes as The Broads National Park) is a network of mostly navigable rivers and lakes in the English counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Although the terms "Norfolk Broads" and "Suffolk Broads" are correctly use ...

", the church dates from the 14th century, although with origins in Saxon times. It contains a major collection of medieval artefacts, in particular the rood screen and the Ranworth Antiphoner, a liturgical manuscript. The church remains an active parish church and is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

Known as "the cathedral of The Broads",

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

's listing records describes St Helen's as of the 15th century, although other sources date it to the 14th.

Pevsner Pevsner or Pevzner is a Jewish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aihud Pevsner (1925–2018), American physicist * Antoine Pevsner (1886–1962), Russian sculptor, brother of Naum Gabo * David Pevsner, American actor, singer, da ...

records roof beams bearing the date 1370. Restoration took place at the end of the 19th/early 20th centuries to prevent complete collapse. A fire in 1963 destroyed the

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

roof, but otherwise caused "little damage". The significance of the church lies mainly in its late medieval decoration, particularly of the rood screen. Simon Jenkins considers the work "England's finest church screen paintings". The

Twelve Apostles In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles, particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus according to the New Testament. During the life and minist ...

are represented in painted panels on the rood screen itself, with a total of 26 saints and bishops shown in panels elsewhere in the church. Pevsner dates them to the 1470s or 1480s and describes their "superb quality". St Helen's remains a functioning church in the parish of Ranworth with Panxworth.

Architecture and description

The church was begun in the

Decorated Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

style of the 14th century, although Pevsner notes the predominant influence of the

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

style of a century later. It is of

Rubble Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...

construction with

Clipsham Clipsham is a small village in the county of Rutland in the East Midlands of England. It is in the northeast of Rutland, close to the county boundary with Lincolnshire. The population of the civil parish was 120 at the 2001 census increasing ...

stone dressings. A three-storey tower, at the western end of the church, is followed by a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, with two porches, and a

. Beyond the interior paintings, Jenkins considers St Helen's as "of limited architectural interest". The interior also contains a field altar, used during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

by the Reverend Teddy Everard, subsequently vicar of Ranworth, as well as a memorial panel commemorating the 14 men of the parish killed in the war.

References

Sources

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External links

Norfolk Churches - An illustrated article on the interior of St Helen's
{{Authority control Church of England church buildings in Norfolk