St Margaret, Topcroft

It was good to come back to this beautifully-set church in the rolling fields and narrow lanes of south-east Norfolk, particularly as it is one of the Hempnall group of parishes whose churches are always open every day. With its south aisle and substantial brick-built chancel this is one of the larger churches in the group, but most memorable perhaps is the tower which rises in four distinct stages. The lowest stage, which is round, may well date from the late 11th or early 12th Century, but so much has been restored here that it is hard to tell. The octagonal stages above are later, culminating in the lovely flushwork bell stage of the 15th Century. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 18th Century which can be a happy date, as, for example at nearby Surlingham, but unfortunately the windows were remedievalised, as Pevsner puts it, in the considerable restoration of 1874.

We arrived to find the nave floor being replaced, but the friendly workman was very happy to chat and then let us wander around. Unsurprisingly the 19th Century restoration fell equally hard inside, but it in turn left its own points of interest, including the stencilling to the chancel and chancel arch, which used to be more common elsewhere but which was often considered unfashionable by later 20th Century tastes and was painted over. A fine, typical East Anglian font of the 15th Century survived the restoration but has been considerably recut. An unusual charity board in the aisle remembers bequests of land to the poor of 1659 and 1807 forever in lieu of the right of common, perhaps at a time of land enclosure.

Another curiosity is a small, high window to the south of the chancel arch which must have been intended to light the rood. It has been glazed with a decorative panel of what looks like 18th or early 19th Century glass. Below it, Richard Wilton's memorial of 1637 is set curiously in the angle between the chancel arch and the arcade, suggesting perhaps that the chancel was in ruins before its 18th Century rebuilding. There are memorials in the new chancel to Robert and Susanna Smyth, who died in 1787 and 1765 respectively. His pompous inscription strays from Latin into Greek and then back again, but hers tells us that her amiable character placed her out of the reach of censure during life, and needs not the support of panegyric after death, although perhaps one might argue that the opening clause is exactly that.

Simon Knott, June 2022

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