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All
Saints, Carleton Rode
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Just
to the west of St Michael at Bunwell, this is
another very big church off the Norwich to
Attleborough road. Carleton Rode appears a
pleasant, busy little village, and the
award-winning school building directly opposite
is also worth a look. All Saints is part of the
lovely Pilgrim Group of parishes, and as such is
welcoming and accessible. The
hunch-shouldered tower is the big difference
between Bunwell and here. The 19th century
topping- off is so well done that it may appear
as if a huge church has been built against a
small tower. In fact, the top collapsed in the
18th century, and it has been truncated.
Otherwise, this is a Decorated tower against
another of Norfolk's fine Perpendicular naves.
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When the
nave was rebuilt, probably at some time in the late 15th
century, this was already an aisled church. The east
windows of the two aisles are older than the nave, and
the east end of the new arcades falls short of the wide
chancel arch, leaving an earlier arch on the south side
which is little more than a large doorway. Could this
have been the entrance to the rood loft stair? But the
chancel, as you quickly notice, is something quite
different again. It is an extravagant Early
English-becoming-Decorated structure of just before 1300.
Chancels
of this size and age are rare, because they often denote
fairly wealthy parishes which were in a position to
rebuild towards the end of the Middle Ages, as happened
here with the nave. They also suffered more from the
depredations of time, and were easy victims to Victorian
enthusiasm. In fact, the Victorians were busy at Carleton
Rode, but still the integrity of this beautiful chancel
remains largely intact, including several of the
consecration crosses from its original opening in the
late 13th century. Even more exciting, there are three
large panels of the original glass surviving in upper
lights, a rare thing to find in East Anglia. Two of them
depict Evangelistic symbols, the Ox of St Luke and the
Eagle of St John. Indeed, they even have scrolls
declaring Luccas Bos and Johannes Aquila.
The third depicts a king playing a harp, and is David
from the Old Testament.
Unusually in this part
of Norfolk, All Saints retains the dado of its
roodscreen, which is contemporary with the rebuilding of
the nave. Its twelve panels depict eleven disciples and
St Paul, but they have been repainted - or, more exactly,
their restoration filled in the gaps left by time and
iconoclasm. They are still worth a look, being a fairly
good textbook series if you are interested in the symbols
of Saints.

Inevitably,
a large church that has had such an extensive 19th
century restoration will have a tendency towards an urban
anonymity; when the Victorians tried to recreate the
medieval integrity of our parish churches, they scoured
away the local peculiarities of the intervening
centuries. But All Saints is not without character, and
retains one great curiosity in the form of its font. This
is unlike any other I have seen in East Anglia. Although
in proportion it is similar to fonts of the the 14th and
15th centuries, its relief, consisting of pairs of tall
niches, appears secular, as if no religious significance
was intended, and this was mere decoration. Could it be
not medieval at all, but a product of the 18th century?
Having
mentioned the Victorians and their enthusiasms
several times in this piece, it is worth
recalling that many of our church buildings were
in a parlous state by the early years of the 19th
century, and some would have been completely lost
to us by now if the Victorians hadn't rolled
their sleeves up. A sign at the back of the
church, recording a now-lost inscription on the
tower, remembers this too: This
church was built, in it God to adore, and ought
to have been repaired long before.
By which neglect, we did great sums expend. Then
let successors look in time to mend,
For if decays they early don't (sic)
prevent, they will, like us, when 'tis too late,
repent.
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Finally, in the north aisle, a memorial
recalls two Norfolk tragedies among many during the
Second World War. Twenty-eight American servicemen lost
their lives in two separate mid-air collisions over this
village, in 1944 and 1945. Their names are recorded here.
Simon Knott, February 2006
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