Houghton on the Hill is a

deserted medieval village In the United Kingdom, a deserted medieval village (DMV) is a former settlement which was abandoned during the Middle Ages, typically leaving no trace apart from earthworks or cropmarks. If there are fewer than three inhabited houses the convent ...

in the

Breckland district Breckland is a local government district in Norfolk, England. Its council is based in Dereham. The district had a population of 130,491 at the 2011 Census. The district derives its name from the Breckland landscape region, a gorse-covered sandy ...

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 ...

, England, notable for its Grade I listed church. The only surviving buildings are a farm and St Mary's church. The church was rescued in the 1990s after being left in a ruinous state. During the restoration some wall paintings dating from about the time of the ''Domesday Book'' were discovered; these are the earliest-known large-system wall paintings in the country. The restoration was driven by the efforts of one man, Bob Davey MBE. The church is supported by a charitable trust 'The Friends of St Mary's', who open the church on a regular basis and provide guided tours.

History

There is evidence of habitation in this area going back to prehistoric times, with flint tools and a Bronze Age spearhead being found in local fields. The village was located close to the

Peddars Way The Peddars Way is a long distance footpath that passes through Suffolk and Norfolk, England. Route The Peddars Way is 46 miles (74 km) long and follows the route of a Roman road. It has been suggested by more than one writer that it was n ...

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

, and a large villa and, possibly, a temple were located nearby. The village is mentioned in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'', being owned by Reynold, son of Ivo. A man called Herlwin held land in Houghton from Reynold. The present nave of the church was built at this time, and the paintings inside probably date from this period. Francis White's ''History, Gazetteer and Directory of Norfolk'' of 1854, states that the parish consisted of 10 houses, with 50 residents and 600 acres of land. During the

First World War 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 ...

, the church was damaged when a

Zeppelin A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

dropped a bomb close to the churchyard. The church was abandoned in 1937. The last derelict cottages were demolished in the 1990s. Bob Davey MBE of North Pickenham started the rescuing of the ivy-covered roofless ruin in 1992.Pollitt M (2021
Man who 'put everything' into saving Norfolk church dies aged 91
''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk and eastern Cambridgeshire, and is published daily in Norwich, UK. Founded in 1870 as a broadsheet called the ''Eastern Counties Daily ...

'', 20 March 2021. Retrieved 20 March 2021. He was honoured in 2006 "for services to Church Restoration in Norfolk". Davey died on 4 March 2021, aged 91 and his life and the restoration of the church were discussed on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's obituary programme ''

Last Word ''Last Word'' is an obituary BBC radio series broadcast weekly on Radio 4. Each week the lives of several famous people who have recently died are summarised with narration, and interviews with people who knew them. The programme is normally p ...

'' in April 2021.

St Mary's Church wall paintings

Extensive polychrome wall paintings were noticed during restoration in 1996, and it soon became evident that they were of major significance. Romanesque wall paintings are very rare, and certain aspects of the iconography, particularly the

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

cross on God’s knee on the east wall, have given rise to a date of around 1090, or late 11th century. The best-preserved scheme is on the east wall, which depicts the

Last Judgment The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...

. Over the arch of the chancel, we see the

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

, comprising Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, set within a triple

mandorla A mandorla is an almond-shaped aureola, i.e. a frame that surrounds the totality of an iconographic figure. It is usually synonymous with '' vesica'', a lens shape. Mandorlas often surround the figures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary in trad ...

. Beneath and to the left are the souls of the saved, and to the right, probably the souls of the damned (one seemingly wearing a crown). Further down and to the left are a well-preserved set of figures holding scrolls, which might be construed as apostles or saints, and to the right a badly damaged matching group of figures that some have interpreted as demons. Beneath and to the left is a scene depicting the Raising of the Dead. File:Houghton-on-the-Hill (Norfolk) St Mary's Church - geograph.org.uk - 69011.jpg, File:St Mary, Houghton-on-the-Hill, Norfolk - Interior - geograph.org.uk - 309242.jpg,

References

External links

Official Friends of St Mary's website
{{authority control Villages in Norfolk Breckland District Civil parishes in Norfolk