Just east of the churchyard and along the river bank to the north was Wiveton Quay, and in the Middle Ages, during the fifteenth century when the church was built, and for long afterwards, ships went from here to Continental ports. In 1575, eight ships belonged to the town; and twelve years later the port possessed four ships of a hundred tons or over. There was considerable trade with the Low Countries, Scandinavia and Iceland, though by the seventeenth century coasting seems to have become more important than the foreign trade.
But early in the seventeenth century, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden’s success in draining the Fens inspired the Calthorpe family to reclaim part of their coastal estates in Norfolk, with the assistance of another Dutch engineer, Van Hasedunck. During the seventeen thirties and forties the marshes eastward around Salthouse were embanked to the ruin of that town as a port; and with the making of a bank across the estuary—on the site of the present coast road between Cley and Blakeney—the merchants of Cley and Wiveton, especially Wiveton, eventually succumbed to the same fate.
Wiveton Church was entirely rebuilt during the fifteenth century at the time when the port was most prosperous, and it is one of the most splendid buildings of the period in the district. Of the earlier church little remains. The tower, with its right-angle buttresses and with its lancet windows in the lower stages, represents all that is left of the earlier work, which was brought into line with the new building by the addition of a top belfry stage and parapet. The pinnacles at the corners, in the shape of urns, belong to the seventeenth or early eighteenth century.
Unlike many mediaeval church buildings, St. Mary’s, Wiveton, seems to have been built all at one time, and it presents a very good example of the fifteenth century “Perpendicular” style, as that style is represented in East Anglia. A lofty Nave with very beautiful slender columns and arcades rising to a clerestory and arch braced roofs in the Nave and Aisles. The Aisle Windows are also arcaded, as is often the case with fifteenth century churches in East Anglia, and the sills have been lowered for seats.
Across the Chancel Arch was the Rood Screen, remains of which have been worked up into a tower screen set into the fifteenth century Tower Arch. The Rood Loft and Rood Beam above the screen was lighted by the window in the east wall of the Nave above the Chancel Arch, and the Loft was reached by a stair, to which there was access through a doorway at the east end of the North Aisle, and by another doorway (now blocked) in the north wall of the Chancel. A double entrance to the Rood Stair like this is very unusual, but it can be seen also in the church at Cley.
At the east end of the aisles were Altars, the piscinas for which remain. As St. Mary’s Church, the high altar would be dedicated to our Lady; and the Archdeacon of Norwich’s Visitation Return of 1368 makes it clear that the other altars were dedicated to St. John and St. Thomas. In the Chancel, the windows to the north (now blocked up) and to the south, are similar in style to those in the aisles, and there is a very fine East Window with wide interlacing tracery On the exterior of the east wall of the Chancel, around the parapet of the Tower, and in other parts of the church are designs in flint flush work. The original Sacristy remains on the north side of the Chancel, and there are two fifteenth century Porches on the north and south.
Throughout the nineteenth century it received a number of careful restorations. In 1809 the old bells were recast and two new ones added by William Dobson, bell-founder, of Downham Market, to make a ring of six with the following inscriptions: —
Treble: ”Let us sing praises unto the Lord on high.”
2: “William Dobson fecit Anno Domini 1809.”
3: “Fear God and honour the King.”
4: “Let us lift up our voices with joy.”
5: “William Dobson Founder Downham Norfolk 1809.”
Tenor: “Thomas Crofts and William Gowen Churchwardens 1809.”
In 1849 came the existing oak Pulpit and Box Pews, which unfortunately enclose the bases of the pillars. In 1864 the whole building was thoroughly restored, and again in 1874. The Choir Stalls were given by Sir Alfred Jodrell in 1912, in memory of the Rev. J. G. B. Parmien.
Above the arches are a number of inscriptions from the bible.
The church is home to many excellent brasses, including a very rare and unusual 1470 cadaver brass, once one of a pair, the rotting corpse of Thomas Brigg entwined in its shroud. Another brass, for William Bisshop, a Priest of 1512, is a rare survival in itself, considering how his Catholicism became anathema in in the next half a century; but there is an aspect to it that makes it quite remarkable. The stone into which it is set also remembers another Minister, Robert Lowde, a Vicar of Wiveton in the late 17th century. A few short years after the restoration and triumph of Anglicanism, he is remembered in Latin as Presbiter Ecclesiae Anglicanae, a Priest of the Church of England, either as a mark of that triumph or, indeed, demonstrating a need to cut through the confusion of the previous decades. Whatever, he deliberately chose to tie his passage through eternity to that of a Catholic Priest who happened to have led the parish almost two centuries earlier.
There is a tiny piece of glass set high up in the north sanctuary window. It depicts St Mark, holding the opening of his Gospel and accompanied by his lion. It was actually found about ten years ago in the top of the next window to the west, where it had been bricked up, probably as part of a 17th century attempt to save money on heating and glass.
You are looking for a camouflaged tube. There is only enough room for a log so please bring a pen, and tweezers to extract the log may be helpful,
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