St Margaret's Church is a

round-tower church Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berkshi ...

in Burnham Norton,

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. Likely to have been built in the 11th century, the building retains many medieval architectural features, and is

Grade I listed 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 ...

. It also retains an elaborately decorated 15th-century

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

, considered one of the finest surviving examples of its type.

Architecture

The village of Burnham Norton is one of the Norfolk Burnhams, a group of villages in

, England. Approximately west of

Wells-next-the-Sea Wells-next-the-Sea is a port town on the north coast of Norfolk, England. The civil parish has an area of and in 2001 had a population of 2,451,Office for National Statistics & Norfolk County Council (2001). Census population and household c ...

,Ordnance Survey (2002) ''OS Explorer Map 251 – Norfolk Coast Central'' it is separated from the sea by tidal marshes. Burnham Norton's parish church, St Margaret's, is one of 129 surviving

es in Norfolk. Opinion differs as to its date of construction. Most historians conclude that the tower and at least part of the main building is

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

in origin, built between 1000 and 1066 AD. However, no church is listed in Burnham Norton in 1086's

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 ...

, leading some historians to believe that the building is of early

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

construction. The building was gradually altered in later years, and is not internally symmetrical. The north

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

is supported by 13th-century round

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

s, while the south arcade is supported by more elaborate 14th-century octagonal columns. The east window of the church is an ornate

stained-glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

installed in the late 1920s, depicting saints

Margaret of Antioch Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina the Great Martyr ( grc-gre, Ἁγία Μαρίνα) in the East, is celebrated as a saint on 20 July in the Western Rite Orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Church and Anglicanism, o ...

and Margaret of Scotland. The church building is

, the highest level of recognition available to a historical building in England.

Internal elements

Internally, the church retains many of its medieval architectural elements, including an unusually large stone

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

. A recess near the north door was once the wafer oven used to bake

communion wafer Sacramental bread, also called Communion bread, Eucharistic bread, the Lamb or simply the host ( la, hostia, lit=sacrificial victim), is the bread used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist. Along with sacramental wine, it is one of two elemen ...

s. St Margaret's also retains its

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, or ...

, donated in 1458 by William and Johanne Groom; the screen's panels originally depicted images of saints and the Grooms, but these images were defaced during the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. St Margaret's has two

s. One is in regular use, and was built in the 19th century to a plain design, using early 17th-century paneling from the church. The other is no longer in use, and was gifted to the church by John and Catharine Goldale in 1450. The latter is considered one of the finest surviving examples of its style. A "wine glass" shape, a hexagon tapering at the base to a narrow point, it is heavily decorated; its six panels depict the Goldales,

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregori ...

Augustine of Canterbury Augustine of Canterbury (early 6th century – probably 26 May 604) was a monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English" and a founder of the English Church.Delaney '' ...

Saint Ambrose Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promo ...

and

Saint Jerome Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is comm ...

Burials

* David Jamieson VC is buried in the churchyard *

Lady Margaret Douglas-Home Lady Alexandra Margaret Elizabeth Douglas-Home (née Spencer, 4 July 1906 – 26 May 1996) was an English musician, writer, and arts promoter. She founded the Burnham Market Festival and served as its director for almost two decades. Early year ...

(great aunt of

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997) was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

) *

Richard Woodget Richard Woodget (21 November 1845 – 5/6 March 1928) was an English sea captain, best known as the master of the famous sailing clipper ''Cutty Sark'' during her most successful period of service in the wool trade between Australia and the Unit ...

, master of the ''

Cutty Sark ''Cutty Sark'' is a British clipper ship. Built on the River Leven, Dumbarton, Scotland in 1869 for the Jock Willis Shipping Line, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of ...

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnham Norton, Saint Margaret Church of England church buildings in Norfolk 11th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in Norfolk King's Lynn and West Norfolk Round towers