St Martin, New Buckenham

New Buckenham is a south Norfolk new town, but this being Norfolk it is a 12th Century new town rather than a 20th Century one. William d'Albini, who we have already met at Castle Acre, was given the manor of Buckenham by the Conqueror. He rebuilt the castle a mile or so to the east, and a new town grew up below it. It appears, from the street grid which survives, to have been a planned town, although it is possible to drive through and not realise this, because the Attleborough road tears through mercilessly. But on foot you get a better sense of it, and it really deserves to be better known.

Much of what survives in the village is late medieval, and the best example of this period is St Martin. Externally this is a grand, urban building, easily the equal of most of the churches of Norwich and Ipswich, from the pinnacles on the tower to the crisp array of clerestory windows. There are minor remnants of an earlier 13th century building, but this might as well have been a complete rebuild. The narrowness of the graveyard only accentuates the way it rises like a rocket above the roof tops.

The Victorians seem to have taken this urban triumphalism as their motif for the inside. The interior is spacious, with a sense of height and width, but it has been pretty well scoured of any former character. It might just as well be anywhere. But it feels well used and looked after, and there are a number of interesting and unusual survivals.

The most interesting is the font. The stem is that of a typical East Anglian font of the 15th Century, guarded by wild men and lions, but placed on top of it now is an early 17th century bowl. Fonts of this kind are often considered 'Laudian', but in fact this predates Laud's reign as Archbishop of Canterbury by 13 years. There are several of these interesting fonts in Norfolk, but this one has the added detail of the churchwardens' names, Thomas Colman and Christopher Sudbury, and a very precise date, February 1st 1619. The stem has been recut, more likely by the Victorians than the Jacobeans.

At the west end of the nave there are several curious carved bargeboards that probably date from the 16th Century. They came from the market cross on the village green, and one of them has a carved relief of the town as it was before the Civil War.

The best glass here is 20th Century, designed by AL Wilkinson for King and Son. WWII memorial glass depicts St George, while a later window of the Adoration includes medieval Norfolk shepherds who would have been quite at home in this parish when the church was rebuilt. .In the south-east corner of the nave a Madonna and Child sits on a windowsill, and the inscription below reads Remember here Hugh Whitwham, Priest Vicar of this parish 1959-1977 who restored this chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary for worship after 400 years of disuse. That's all, nothing fancy, just a cool white space, and it suits well the simplicity of modern Anglican spirituality as well as being a memory of a recent Anglo-catholic tradition here at New Buckenham.

Finally, outside in the churchyard, a headstone with a carved relief of a lamb on a globe, bottle, glass, haunch and bell between open books above the inscription Life is short. The inscription below it tells us that Near to this place lies Honest John, Was a friend but to few, a foe to none...

Simon Knott, November 2020

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