A small cache with a few swaps.
This gorgeous little church is on the outskirts of the village, and is now redundant. In common with several villages around here, Barton Bendish had more than one parish church, and the other, St Andrew, is at the heart of the village a mile or so off. St Mary is a tiny building, the chancel slightly larger than the nave which was truncated by the collapse of the tower in the early 18th century. The roofs are beautifully thatched, the graveyard is pleasingly overgrown, and If it wasn't for the bellcote and the fine collection of 14th century windows, you might mistake this for two ramshackle cottages in a wild gardenwas brought here to help repair the nave of St Mary after the collapse of the tower You enter from the west, and here is one of the finest Norman doorways in Norfolk. This may lead you to suspect that the Nave, at least, is the original Norman church, but in fact this doorway is not from St Mary at all. Barton Bendish had a third church, All Saints, and before it was completely demolished in the 1780s, the south doorway
**************************************
For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.com.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
*************************************