All Saints, Weybourne

The marshes peter out as they head eastwards, and then before the cliffs of Sheringham and Cromer take over there is Weybourne Hope or Haven, where the deep water lies just off of the coast. Because of this, and by tradition, Weybourne sits at the least easily defended point on the coast, and as the old rhyme says He who would all England win must at Weybourne Hope begin. The Reverend FW Russell, in his 1859 book Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk, remembered that the Vikings were said by locals to have landed in their thousands at Weybourne. He thought back to the wars at start of his own century, and asserted that at the time it was generally thought in Norfolk that if Napoleon invaded England, he would do so at this point.

Of itself, All Saints is by no means the most exciting church on the Norfolk coast, but it intrigues because Weybourne was home to an Augustinian priory, and remains of the priory buildings survive to north and east. Even more interesting, the early 13th Century priory swallowed up an earlier late Saxon cruciform church, and the remains of the tower of that church can still be recognised to the north of the modern chancel. The north aisle of the present church is on the site of the nave of the Saxon church, the arcade between the current nave and this aisle being set in what was the south wall of that church. It appears that the priory built the current church for the parish to replace the older one they'd taken over, but the priory was never wealthy, and by the early 15th Century there were just two canons left in residence. The fact that the tower of the current church was rebuilt later in that century suggests that by then the parish was wealthier than the priory.

All Saints was restored in the 1880s by diocesan surveyor Herbert Green, and there was a major refurbishment of the interior early in the 20th Century. However, Green thought highly enough of the late 15th Century roof to reinstate it after rebuilding the south wall. A curiosity is the off-centred chancel arch, which sits hard agains the north arcade. Pevsner suggests that this is because the 14th Century parochial chancel was improvised from the transept of the monastic nave, which was set slightly to the north. There is no east window.

The aisle was designated as a war memorial chapel after the First World War, but now appears to be in use for meetings and children's activities. There is a splendid prayer globe for candles at the east end of it. The door beyond leads through into a 19th Century vestry that Herbert Green built in the base of the old tower. This is a church that has rightly reinvented itself over the centuries, and is today fitting and purposeful for modern Anglican worship, a pleasant little church serving a small coastal parish, perhaps rather overshadowed by the glories of some of its neighbours. But an old bench end has on it a cowled female head who witnessed the glory days here, and almost alone survives of them to tell the tale.

Simon Knott, March 2022

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