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This is a big, urban church, and its setting is deceptive. It
sits in an overgrown graveyard towards the northern end of the Ber
Street and King Street area of social housing and rundown
warehouses, an area that has recently undergone modern
regeneration; it appears marginalised, and may even seem a little
suburban. In fact, it is as close to the castle as St Peter
Mancroft or St Andrew, and closer to the Cathedral than either. In
past times, this was an important city church.
Now, it rests, quietly redundant as a place of worship, and you
might think that here is another victim of the Brooke Report, which
in 1969 recommended the closure of most of Norwich's medieval
churches. Not so. St Peter remained in use, becoming the main
church of the Parmentergate group of parishes in the south of the
city centre. However, in the early 1980s the church was faced with
declining congregations and a massive repair bill, and it was
decided to take St John The Baptist, Timberhill out of mothballs,
and restore it for use as the main church of the parish. St Julian,
to the south of here, acts as a kind of chapel of ease, and so St
Peter was closed. St John at Timberhill is a small, warm church in
the city centre, at the top of Ber Street, easily accessible by the
parish. St Julian is a little devotional jewel; but St Peter
Parmentergate is a great hulk of a building, and at this distance
it is hard to see why this wasn't the outcome in the first
place.
The church sits on a drastically sloping site, so much so that the
Priest door in the chancel has a flight of twelve steps leading up
to it from the graveyard. There is a two-storey building set
immediately against the east end of the chancel which does nothing
to obscure the east window. It is a sacristy of the early 16th
century, with a gigantic image niche set in its east wall.
You step through the south porch into a wide, bright interior, a
sense of openness enhanced by the slightness of the chancel and the
fact that it does not climb. The font is particularly pretty,
familiar from hundreds of rural East Anglian churches, and you
might imagine that it came to the big city on a day trip, and never
went home. It is not the only rustic medieval feature here, because
the northern side of the rood screen dado also appears to be
medieval, with a particularly good St Michael and the dragon in the
spandrils.
That St Peter was ultra-Anglo-catholic can be deduced from the
rich, camp reredos, and a memorial in the north side of the chancel
that asks us, of our charity, to pray for the soul of a
churchwarden. You'll be reassured to know that this tradition has
been carried on at St John at Timberhill. On the other side of the
chancel is an enormous box, which contains the 1623 Berney
memorial. This is intended to protect it, but the glass viewing
panel makes photography very difficult.
As for the future, it would be a great shame if this beautiful open
interior was carved up for office space or workshops; it cries out
for a use that preserves the internal integrity of the nave. St.
Peter Parmentergate appears to be currently in use by a martial
arts business, so it not currently open to the public.
If anybody would like to expand this series, please could you let
sadexploration know first, so that he can keep track of the
Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. Thanks!
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