St Mary, Aldeby

Aldeby is one of those drowsy villages on that rise of Norfolk which is squeezed in the triangle of the valleys of the Yare and the Waveney. Not particularly on the way to anywhere, this area was nevertheless one of the most populous parts of England a thousand years ago, when proximity to the east coast and ease of access up creeks and lanes made it attractive to the Anglo-Saxon settlers who established their smallholdings and settlements. It is a reminder that civilisation thrives not where the living is easy, but where ordinary men and women have to work hard to carve out a living.

In this land of small churches St Mary comes as a surprise, for it is a large cruciform church with transepts and acentral tower. This is explained by the fact that Aldeby was home to a Benedictine Priory, one of five in East Anglia dependent on Norwich, although as Pevsner remarks Aldeby was the least important of them, with a prior and four monks whose primary concern was farming. There were 800 acres and a mill in 1275 but by 1514 the church and farm buildings were in a ruinous state. St Mary served a dual purpose as both the priory and the parish church. The priory was suppressed in 1538. Some ruins survive at the adjacent Priory Farm.

The entrance to the church today is through the north porch, but at one time it was from the west where a grand Norman doorway survives, typical of this area but seeming more in proportion than at some of this church's smaller neighbours. The long north transept, now a locked store, is the size of a small church in itself, and the high, Early English chancel and tower arches beneath the central tower make the nave appear long and high. The 15th century font, in common with others locally, has small peasant heads projecting from beneath the bowl, and a Jacobean cover. In the spacious south chancel aisle there is an indent of a shroud brass, and the sedilia survives from the time of the Priory.

On display at the back of the church are paintings which show designs for a planned Anglo-Catholic makeover of the sanctuary. I don't suppose this was ever done, and if it was there is no trace of it now, but it would certainly have been dramatic. Perhaps the plain sanctuary of today contributes to, rather than detracts from, the peaceful atmosphere here, and is in any case a foil for the vibrant 1880s east window of the Transfiguration above it. There appears to be no record of the workshop, although Birkin Haward felt there was some connection to Clayton & Bell.

A curiosity on the memorial to Henry Carpenter who died at Ormesby September 7th 1888 is that although his wife Ellen May is named below him, her age and date of her death are left blank, the inscription simply reading Who died __________ aged _____ years. Henry was only 35 when he died so perhaps we can assume that Ellen married again. If so, did she move away from Aldeby, or if she didn't then did this blank inscription remain a constant reminder to her of her first husband's intentions, almost a reprimand?

Simon Knott, November 2020

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