There's not much to Mautby. It sits on the edge of the Broads on the Runham to Ormesby road, and consists of nothing more than a group of houses, a farm or two and this little church. There were sixty-five people living here at the time of the 1851 census when rural East Anglian populations were reaching a peak. It's unlikely that there are that many today, and in any case Mautby's statistics are not collated separately because it now forms a joint civil parish with Thrigby and Runham. The church sits a short climb up from the main road and is set in a picturesque churchyard beside the lane. There's some carstone banding in the round tower, suggesting a fairly early date, perhaps even the 11th Century. The thatched roof is continuous over nave and chancel, but this will not be reflected inside, as we will see. A lot happened here in the later medieval period, for the nave was remodelled with a south aisle, an octagonal bellstage was added to the tower and the chancel was entirely rebuilt.

The aisle was later demolished, and the church as we see it today is largely the result of Arthur Hewitt's 1880s restoration, which brought the elegant Dec-style windows in the arches of the blocked arcade. His also was the south porch. You step through it into a light airy interior, much of the character of which comes from an early 20th Century restoration. As with a number of churches around here Mautby was enthusiastically in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, and although that has now gone there are a number of survivals, including the rood group set on top of the early 16th Century screen. This is set within a remarkably tall chancel arch, which reaches right to the nave roof. Did they plan to add a clerestory to the nave, but the Reformation intervened? Stepping through it, the 1930s brought two striking windows by Powell & Sons on either side of the chancel. That on the north side depicts the Annunciation, while on the south side are St Thomas Aquinas and St Clare.

It's unusual to find St Thomas Aquinas in glass, and even St Clare is not terribly common, so these two perhaps tell us something about the enthusiasms of the parish at the time. Incidentally, Birkin Haward was obviously having an off-day when he visited Mautby for his majestic survey of post-Reformation Norfolk glass, for he tells us that this window is unsigned, and suggests it is rather Webb in style. But in fact it is clearly signed at the bottom with the Powells' white friar logo, and so is the Annunciation window, which Birkin Haward omitted to even record! A further curiosity is that neither window is in the Powells order book, which he might have been using and which probably misled him. The order book is certainly not complete, but it seems too much of a coincidence that neither window is listed, so this might suggest that they were a joint commission, perhaps of 1934 or 1935.

When I came here twenty years ago the altar was still set against the east wall and had a tabernacle for the Blessed Sacrament set on it in the Anglo-catholic style. This has now gone, and the altar has been moved westwards, furnished with a simple white cloth and a bare cross. It is all neatly done and the kind of thing the late Tom Muckley used to describe as being seemly and fitting for Low Church Anglican worship. But Mautby has known its grander days. A fair number of Norfolk parishes have a connection with the famous Paston family, but Mautby's is more significant than most, for Margaret Paston of the famous Paston Letters is supposed to have been buried here. In 1481 she left money to lead, roof and glaze the south aisle, but if there was a monument it has now gone, as has the aisle itself. Only a 13th Century knight, now in poor condition, lies in a recess at the east end of the former arcade. He may have been moved there when the aisle was demolished. Perhaps more memorable in any case is a plaque recalling the victims of a 1947 plane crash near here. It must have been a traumatic event in such a quiet little parish.

Simon Knott, June 2023

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