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St Faith,
Lenwade
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St
Faith will be a familiar sight to anyone who
travels the road between Norwich and Fakenham.
Lenwade was a hamlet within the parish of Great
Witchingham, but by the end of the
19th century it had outstripped the population of
the mother village, and begun to sprawl along the
busy road. This was the time when the
ideas of the Oxford Movement were in the
ascendant in the Church of England. We usually
think of liturgical sacramentalism as the
evidence of this, and this was certainly a
symptom of their ideas, but their main argument
was that the Church of England was a national
Church, and as such should have a presence in
every community.
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Keble and Newman had seen as early as the
1830s that the Church was under attack from two sides -
non-conformism, and Catholic emancipation. The
populations of most Norfolk villages were shrinking in
the late 19th century - where they were rising, it was
usually the result of outsiders seeking employment, as in
Lenwade. The radical ideas, political and religious, that
some of them brought could not be countered effectively
by a medieval church far outside the village in a sleepy
hamlet, so as at hundreds of other places in England the
Parish established a mission down in the new village.
These mission rooms were often dual purpose, allowing a
space for assembly outside of services, and St Faith is
more ecclesiological than most, although curiously the
chancel appears to face west. This may be a symptom of
the development of an earlier building.
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dedication is taken from that of the beautiful
little medieval church at Little
Witchingham, which had fallen into
disuse and decay at the time. I assume that the
Lenwade church replaced an earlier building, as
what you see today appears to be from the early
years of the 20th century, a rather handsome
little building in red-brick with mock-Tudor
details. There is a bell-turret, and curious
little faux dormer windows, which appear
never to have contained glass. I imagine that
they were something to do with ventilation. St Faith is
part of the busy, friendly Wensum Group of
parishes, but for the last couple of years it has
been surrounded by an orange safety fence,
presumably awaiting repairs. Services now take
place at the mother church in Great Witchingham.
Ironically, the original St Faith at Little
Witchingham has been restored to sound order by
the Norfolk Churches Trust, and is now in the
care of the CCT.
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Simon Knott, June 2006
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