St Mary, Stody   

It is always a delight to be lost in the meandering, narrow lanes of north Norfolk, and Stody is particularly pleasing in its remoteness, with sharply doglegging lanes deeply cut beneath cushion-like fields giving occasional glimpses of this church across the fields. The curious name of the parish means simply 'an enclosure for horses', the word 'stud' coming from the same root. The 12th Century round tower of the parish church morphs seamlessly into its 14th Century bell stage, and then the end of the medieval period brought the attractive bell top. As you come closer the church rises above a steep bend, best seen from the road to Hunworth where its lovely east end and transepts splay beneath the tower. Cruciform round towered churches are unusual, although there is another not far off at Great Ryburgh.

A smaller earlier church was augmented by the current chancel in the 14th Century, and then the following century brought the nave and transepts with those great Perpendicular windows intended to flood the interior with rational light. You step into a space with a crispness that comes from a major restoration at the start of the 21st Century. There is an austerity to the furnishings, the white walls, the windows almost entirely filled with clear glass. This is a remarkably good setting for Stody's great treasures, for here there is one of the best collections of figures in 15th Century glass in north Norfolk. They are set high in the lights of the north side windows, and in the east side of the south transept.

Broadly speaking, there are four different groups. Firstly, pairs of Kings and Prophets as on the contemporary screen at Kersey in Suffolk. The juxtaposition of Kings and Prophets seems to have been a late medieval enthusiasm, sometimes pairing historical English King saints with the Old Testament Prophets. Also in the lights on this side are the remains of a set of Apostles, and, most interesting perhaps, a Coronation of the Blessed Virgin, which was probably part of an extensive scheme of Marian images. Finally, in the transept is part of a set of female Saints.

The other old feature is a pretty Purbeck marble font of the 13th Century, which sits on a colonnade at the west end. Simon Jenkins' observed that the medieval parish churches of England constitute the world's finest folk museum, but perhaps St Mary feels more like an art gallery, with so much of the ancient dust of the past scraped away. Not so much a sense of the long generations as the pride of its parish and a fine setting for some beautiful jewels.

Simon Knott, May 2022

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