All Saints, Weasenham
Weasenham is a long village on the busy Swaffham to Cromer road. There are two parishes, and two medieval churches, one at each end of the village. Both used to be kept locked, but they are now both open every day to passing pilgrims and strangers. All Saints is set slightly further away from the road than its unfortunate neighbour, and there is an illusion of peace in the lane, but still the traffic hurtles past to the east of the churchyard as if there was no tomorrow.
The church presents its most attractive face to the lane, a fine 15th Century porch with details picked out in stone rather than the more usual East Anglian flushwork. The top parapet is of 1905, as, in fact, is pretty much the whole of the rest of the church. The tower had fallen in the 17th Century, and in the 18th century the upper parvise of the porch was replaced by a brick structure which was removed by the Edwardians. The corbel heads which supported the upper storey survive in situ in the porch. The only other earlier survivals are the north arcade, and one rather good medieval surprise which we shall see inside.
You step into a wide open space that feels all of its early 20th Century date, the height of Anglican triumphalism. But All Saints appears to have always been relatively Low Church, and there are none of the exuberant furnishings one associates with the period. There is no coloured glass at all, and the wooden parquet flooring helps impart a peaceful simplicity.
The great survival here is the dado to the 15th Century roodscreen. On the north side are the figures of the four Latin Doctors, from left to right St Ambrose, St Augustine, St Jerome and St Gregory. On the south side are the four Evangelists, from left to right St John, St Luke, St Mark and St Matthew. The Latin Doctors are in reasonable condition, and while not of the quality of the figures at nearby Wellingham you can see that they must once have been rather fine. By contrast, little survives that is discernible of the four Evangelists, except for the haunting detail that you can just make out the symbols of St John's eagle, St Mark's winged lion and St Matthew's winged man. Of St Luke's winged bull I could make out no trace.
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