Buxton with Lamas is a joint village straddling the lovely River Bure, and Lamas is the prettier half. The church is beautifully placed on the banks of the river, down a long grassy path beside a paddock from the village street. The most remarkable thing about St Andrew is the extreme degree to which the chancel weeps - that is to say, is out of alignment with the nave. This kind of thing is more common than you might suppose, because chancels and naves were, until the 14th century at least and often beyond, built separately, and often on the foundations of an earlier building. But the chancel here isn't so much weeping as turning a corner, and it is all the more surprising to discover that it is the work of a 19th century rebuilding. Reset in the chancel wall is a poignant 18th century memorial to John and James Utting, two young children who died within ten days of each other in 1741. It gives a phonetic spelling of the neighbouring village of Hautbois as 'Hobbis'.

Three times I have visited this church, and on each occasion I have found it locked. However, something rather wonderful happened on the occasion of my most recent visit in June 2019. I went and sat on the bench under the willow on the river bank, and watched the sun flash on the fast flowing water, a bevy of young ducklings tumble over each other as their mother rounded them up, large brown fish in the shallows hanging languidly just below the surface. Eventually, I hauled myself away, but before heading back to the road I saw that the light on the headstones was good, and decided to photograph a few of the inscriptions. As I was pottering about in the churchyard, two women came down to swim in the river. It turned out that one of them was the churchwarden, and finding I was interested in seeing inside the church she hurriedly went off and came back with the key. Even better, she told me that from July they plan to have the church open everyday, so do go and visit if you can so that they know it is worthwhile.

You step into a church which is full of light, and lovingly well-kept. The weeping chancel is striking, even distracting, but delights include a deliciously painted organ, a pleasing 1990s memorial window, and lashings of heraldic roundels for those who like that sort of thing. The royal arms are dated 1953 for Elizabeth II (there is another set of the same date at neighbouring Scottow, though quite different). Two brass inscriptions either side of the Reformation are set in the nave floor.

On the north wall of the nave is a memorial to Walter Rye, whose books on Norfolk will be familiar to anyone who haunts antiquarian bookshops. Rye was a founder of the Norfolk Broads Protection Society, and also, perhaps surprisingly, found fame as an athlete, particularly as 'the father of cross-country running'. He is buried in the churchyard. But the most famous name associated with Lamas is, of course, Anna Sewell, author of Black Beauty. The daughter of a Quaker family, she is buried nearby with her mother in the former Lamas Quaker Chapel.

Simon Knott, June 2019

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