St Andrew's Church is an active

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

in the village of

Northwold Northwold ("''North forest''") is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,070 in 448 households at the 2001 census, increasing to 1,085 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of ...

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. It 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

The village of

was the birthplace of

Hugh of Northwold Hugh of Northwold (died 1254) was a medieval Bishop of Ely. Life Hugh was born in the parish of Northwold in Norfolk, the son of Peter and Emma. He became a monk at Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in 1202.Owen "Northwold, Hugh of" ''Oxford Dictionary ...

at the end of the 12th century. Hugh became

Bishop of Ely The Bishop of Ely is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire (with the exception of the Soke of Peterborough), together with a section of nort ...

in 1229. Known as a considerable church benefactor, he was the likely driver of the early church at Northwold. St Andrew's dates from the 13th century. The

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. Ove ...

was added in the 14th. The tower dates from the later 15th century. The church was partially reconstructed and enlarged in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

. In the 19th century, the

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

was Charles Manners Richard Norman, of the family of the

Dukes of Rutland Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in whos ...

. He married Caroline Angerstein, daughter of

John Julius Angerstein John Julius Angerstein (1735 – 22 January 1823) was a London businessman and Lloyd's underwriter, a patron of the fine arts and a collector. It was the prospect that his collection of paintings was about to be sold by his estate in 1824 ...

, a marine insurer and reputedly one of the richest commoners in England. In 2018, an attempt to steal the lead from the church roof was thwarted by the church’s security measures. Repairs to the roof and to the church fabric were carried out the same year. The church remains an active parish church in the Benefice of Grimshoe within the

Diocese of Ely The Diocese of Ely is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Ely, who sits at Ely Cathedral in Ely. There is one suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon. The diocese now co ...

. It is home to a colony of bats, housed in a specially-constructed bat house.

Architecture

The church is built of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

, which is partially rendered. The

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 ...

and

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

s are of the 13th century, the

of the 14th and the tower of the 15th. There is a

hammerbeam roof A hammerbeam roof is a decorative, open timber roof truss typical of English Gothic architecture and has been called "...the most spectacular endeavour of the English Medieval carpenter". They are traditionally timber framed, using short beams pr ...

. The most notable feature of the interior is the

Easter Sepulchre An Easter Sepulchre is a feature of British church interior architecture. Description The Easter Sepulchre is an arched recess generally in the north wall of the chancel, in which from Good Friday to Easter day were deposited the crucifix and sa ...

. Bill Wilson, in his 2002 revised edition of ''Norfolk 2: North-West and South'', in the Pevsner Buildings of England series, notes its "lavish composition", although he also records its poor state of preservation.

Listing designations

St Andrew's is a

. The churchyard contains a number of notable 18th century

headstone A headstone, tombstone, or gravestone is a stele or marker, usually stone, that is placed over a grave. It is traditional for burials in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions, among others. In most cases, it has the deceased's name, da ...

s, 13 of which are Grade II listed structures.

Gallery

Northwold Easter Sepulchre.jpg, The

St Andrew, Northwold, Norfolk 09.jpg, Detail of the

St Andrew, Northwold, Norfolk 05.jpg, An angel St Andrew, Northwold, Norfolk 08.jpg, Stained glass

Notes

References

Sources

* * * {{cite book , last1 = Pevsner , first1 = Nikolaus , last2 = Wilson , first2 = Bill , author-link1 = Nikolaus Pevsner , title = Norfolk 2: North-West and South , series = The Buildings Of England , year = 2002 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=qsqx_SK3bzUC&q=Norfolk+2:+North-West+and+South , location=New Haven, US and London , publisher =

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

, isbn = 978-0-300-09657-6 13th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in Norfolk Church of England church buildings in Norfolk English Gothic architecture in Norfolk