St Maurice, Briningham

The church of an a attractive village in the rolling landscape between Holt and Fakenham. Briningham is an interesting example of the development of early English placenames. The neighbouring village is called Brinton ('Brina's farm'), and Briningham means 'the homestead of the people of Brina'. One day, in perhaps the seventh century, some people from Brinton set off to found a settlement of their own here. The church sits close to the handsome Georgian pile of Briningham House, but by contrast is a slightly ramshackle and quirky construction.

St Maurice is one of Norfolk's dozen or-so churches with a tower on the south side. They are more common in Suffolk than in Norfolk. They all date from the start of the 14th Century, and it is a reasonable assumption that they are mostly the work of one mason, likely based in Norwich or Ipswich, for almost all of them can be reached upriver from those two places. The tower is cut somewhat awkwardly into the south wall, and there is a curious roofline on its east side. There is a remarkably large and convoluted window towards the east end of the south side of the nave, looking almost as if it was intended for the east end of the chancel, but ended up here instead. If it was set here in the 1340s, does that mean that someone had big plans for this church but they were cruelly snuffed out by the waves of pestilence that ravaged Norfolk in the middle years of that century?

When I first came to Briningham in 2006 I stepped into a church which had a vague air of clutter and untidiness. The view to the east was marred by the filling in of the chancel arch with plasterboard, with doors at the bottom opening it up to a height of about six feet. this screen was presumably intended to divide the chancel off and keep the heat in when it was in use. Simon Cotton tells me that it was here when he visited in 1975, but coming back in 2022 I was pleased to find that it has now gone. Before and after:

Today, the church is tidy and well-kept. Everything is plain and simple, and endearingly rustic. Stepping into the chancel, high up on the east wall in two large niches are large statues of St Maurice and the Blessed Virgin. They look curiously out of place, because otherwise there is little sign of a High Church tradition, and perhaps they also look a little uncomfortable, as if they would rather be back home in France or somewhere. The east window is clear, but glass on the south side of the chancel includes a Resurrection and Ascension scene of 1862 by William Wailes, and the elegant figures of St Cecilia and St Agnes in 1950s glass that looks as if it might be the work of Alfred Wilkinson. Cecilia holds her portative organ, Agnes her lamb on a book and a sword. They both stand on the black and white chequer floors familiar from 15th Century Norwich school glass.

An elegant Christ with his hands raised remembers 20th Century members of the Brereton family. The Breretons owned much of the land here and in neighbouring Brinton, and a large monument with their emblem of a muzzled bear stands to the east of the church. In the 19th Century they provided rectors for both Briningham and Brinton. They were descended from the famous 17th Century Admiral of the Fleet Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who had been born not far off at Cockthorpe, and they often appropriated one of the admiral's distinctive two names when naming their own offspring.

Simon Knott, May 2022

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