The Forncetts are a pair of villages which run into each other in the rolling agricultural landscape landscape between Long Stratton and Wymondham, a land of narrow jinking lanes and secretive copses that belies the modern world rushing through on the A140 and the Norwich to London railway line. Forncett St Peter is the larger of the two and has a memorable parish church, for its strikingly tall round tower is one of the earliest, being 10th Century almost to the top, with circular windows and typical bell windows with recessed supporting shafts. A curiosity is that the round tower has a west doorway, which is most unusual. The crenellation on the top appears to be a 19th Century adornment, although there seems to have been some work going on in 1516 when one John Davy left 20s to the reparation of the bell frame. The tower is set against a large church with aisles and clerestories which seems to have been completely rebuilt in several stages over the 14th and 15th Centuries. A grand north porch came at the end of the medieval period, with symbols of St Peter and St Paul. The church sits in a surprisingly large churchyard set some way back from the road, and all in all it is a splendid sight.

In the 1970s the church of neighbouring Forncett St Mary was abandoned, and St Peter became the parish church for both the Forncetts. It is much the larger of the two churches, and although both had undergone considerable 19th Century restorations it was the most historically interesting. After several decades of dereliction, St Mary has now been rescued and returned to community use, but it is now St Peter that is in serious trouble, to such an extent that it is now on the Heritage At Risk register. What started as an issue with water ingress and falling plaster has now revealed itself as a problem of structural movement. The chancel roof has spread and started to collapse, and has been propped up inside with scaffolding awaiting more permanent repair. There are cracks in the east end of the aisles, and surveys have suggested a repair bill of well over a million pounds. Ironically of course, if this had happened half a century ago it would have been St Peter that was abandoned rather than St Mary, but fortunately times have changed and there is an energetic local group engaged in raising money and applying for grant aid.

It is against this background that you step inside, because for the present you are not going to see this church at its best. The overall feel though is of the impressive range of 19th Century benches in the nave and aisles with their delightful collection of rustic bench ends. The appear to be the work of several different hands and include attempts at traditional sequences including the Labours of the Months and the Seven Deadly Sins. They are enhanced by the clear light which falls through most of the aisle windows, although the church does have a couple of windows of interest, including AL Moore's Presentation in the Temple of 1883, and Frederick Oliphant's 1854 glass of St Peter and St Paul, the two serious saints under towering canopies with angels lowering crowns which must have caused quite a stir at the time in enthusiastically protestant south Norfolk.

The font is 15th Century, likely contemporary with the rebuilding of the nave and aisles. There are brass inscriptions of 1484 and 1535 to members of the Baxter family, but the most significant medieval survival here cannot currently be seen. This is an incised tomb slab, an unusual thing in East Anglia, to Thomas Drake, who died in 1485, and his wife. It has suffered from the movement, falling plaster and water ingress at the east end of the north aisle, and is boxed in awaiting stabilisation. The work at Forncett St Peter is really only just beginning, and the church has a long journey ahead of it, no doubt with a few bumps in the road, but it is fortunate to be making that journey in an age when we have rediscovered our responsibility for sacred and community heritage, and are not so easily given to abandonment as we were in the 1970s.

Simon Knott, May 2023

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