|
|
St
Swithin, Bintree
 |
|
Central
Norfolk's churches were awash in a sea of cow
parsley. The image at the top of the page is
typical of May 2006, but in fact this is an
unusual view, taken from the far corner of the
graveyard in a place nowhere ever goes - or, at
least, no one had been for a while. There wasn't
even a churchcrawler trail to follow, and so I
had to battle my way through the undergrowth. The
result is a fairly typical Norfolk church with a
14th century tower and some late Perpendicular
windows, but in fact this does not show St
Swithin in its true light at all. No, for
back on the road you can see that this elegant
building, shoehorned into the tightness of its
graveyard, has a long south transept, probably
contemporary with the tower, and the chancel was
taken down and rebuilt in truncated form in the
19th century. St Swithin is an almost L-shaped
church, a curiosity.
|
The result
is interesting, creating a series of spaces which unfold
as you walk through the building, and all of them lit by
some excellent late 19th and early 20th century glass.
The great east window is by Alexander Gibbs, and is a
gorgeous depiction, most unusual in style and
arrangement. Sometimes it takes a bit of detective work
to find the maker's mark, but there's no problems here -
Mr Gibbs has signed it in a vibrant blue, telling you he
fecit ('made it') and even giving his address in case you
fancy putting a little bit of work his way.

The glass
in the transept is by William Wailes. It shows Christ the
Good Shepherd and Christ with the little children
flanking a central Christ in Majesty - well, these are
common enough subjects, but again there is a distinction
here, a feeling of quality, as there is with the nearby
Annunciation scene.
The
font is strange, perhaps the least symmetrical
I've come across, and another curiosity is the
Holy Trinity symbol in the sanctuary. It is dated
1664, just after the end of the Commonwealth, and
was presumably an attempt to reassert orthodox
Trinitarian doctrine after twenty years of the
world being turned upside down with all manner of
Unitarian sects. Stranger still is the story
told by Mortlock; Bintree was the parish in the
1890s of Father Enracht, who had been the last
Priest imprisoned under late Victorian
legislation aimed at preventing the introduction
of ritual into Anglican churches. Amazingly, the
processional cross still in use at Bintree is the
very same one that had caused all the trouble.
|
|
 |
Simon Knott, May 2006
|
|
|