St Martin, Hindringham

Hindringham is a pretty village in an area of pretty villages, for Walsingham, Binham, Great Snoring and Bale are all near at hand. The church is larger than most around here, and it stands tall on a rise behind a long line of red-roofed flint cottages. A wall separates the churchyard from the drop to the road below to the east, but there is a gate here and it is worth approaching from this direction if only to see the curious way that the chancel and aisles cluster beyond the nave. The chancel is offset to the south against the nave, the south aisle falling short beside the nave but the north aisle continuing eastwards for a bay or two more. The impressive reticulated tracery of the five light east window only adds to the attractive and quirky composition, and while the overwhelming impression here is of the 14th Century there was a considerable restoration in 1870 that reroofed the whole building and rebuilt much of the chancel.

You step into a bright, wide interior, a reminder that these vast spaces were never meant to be full. Everything is cleared of clutter and full of light. Hindringham's 15th Century font is similar to that nearby at Wighton, with a Crucifixion, Instruments of the Passion and a Holy Trinity symbol along with heraldic shields. Beyond to the east, the carpeted floor and varnished benches might be anywhere I'm afraid. The tiled chancel weeps dramatically to the south, and stepping into it you can't help but be struck that this church is pretty much wholly 19th Century in character despite the architecture. The east window is by Ward & Hughes, and depicts a sequence of the martyrdom of St Martin, very much in their 1870s style. All the more remarkable then is the ancient chest that sits there. It is generally considered the oldest in England, and it probably dates from the end of the 12th Century.

Such a large church in a relatively remote spot inevitably lacks the customary memorials you might find in a more urban setting, but one memorable inscription of 1834 remembers Mary Ann Orris, and tells us that this excellent woman survived the birth of her 15th child but a few hours leaving an afflicted husband and 12 children (7 sons & 5 daughters) to mourn their irreparable loss.

Simon Knott, May 2022

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