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St Mary,
Shotesham
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Of
the four medieval churches of this parish, two
survive, with the ruin of a third, St Martin,
immediately beside St Mary. All Saints, the other
working church, is near to the centre of the
pretty village in the rolling hills south of
Norwich, but St Mary sits dramatically beside its
ruined twin on a hilltop, with just a large
farmhouse for company. It is a remote church, and
as such you might expect it to have fallen to
redundancy. There is no electricity, no permanent
heating, but it is still in use, for which the
parish is to be much admired. It is also
a surprisingly large church, and the tower is
particularly handsome with details picked out in
red brick. There is much red brick in the nave
wall, and a substantial north aisle. This is,
like its neighbour across the valley, an early
church which looks late medieval because of
strategic rebuildings in the late 15th and early
16th centuries. The windows here seem to be all
19th century, adding another layer of disguise.
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You step
into an atmospheric interior, a common feeling in a
lonely church. Although the 19th century restoration here
was a fairly substantial one, there is still the rustic
feel of a simple country church here, probably because
not much has been done since. And there are some good
medieval survivals, not least some medieval glass which
has been reset in the aisle window. One pane depicts an
angel musician playing a lute. The other is a composite
of pleasing fragments: some faces, flowers, a sheep, an
eagle, a heraldic device. They are arranged about a
Marian monogram.
  
Nearby,
the piscina is an odd thing. It has been surrounded by
terracotta tiles depicting heraldic animals, which
probably came from an early 16th century tomb. Another
odd thing is a banner stave locker - there is another
across the road at St Martin. Again I was given cause to
wonder why such things are only found in this part of
Norfolk and Suffolk.
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is a very fine 1528 double figure brass under the
carpet in the middle of the chancel which is
particularly interesting because it depicts a
civilian wearing armour. He is Edward Whyte, she
his wife Elizabeth. The inscription records that
they died of the 'sweating sickness', that
virulent killer of the middle ages which would
die out within half a century. From a later era,
St Mary has a William IV royal arms. Unusual in
itself, there is another one across the valley at
Shotesham All Saints. The chancel
is somewhat dominated by one of those massive
off-the-shelf stone reredoses depicting the Last
Supper under vaulting, which were produced in
their thousands at the start of the 20th century.
Happier is the beautiful 15th century font, an
ur-example of the East Anglian style, angels and
evangelistic symbols around the bowl and proud
lions about the stem. And the parish, too, should
be proud of their continued care and use of this
fine church.
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