Church Micro 4309…Norwich-St Mary Magdelen
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A small straight forward plastic micro for tall people (I can reach it at a stretch) Please bring a pen and tweezers may help extract the log
Thaken from The Norfolk Churches Site: an occasional sideways glance at the churches of Norfolk
St Mary Magdalen, As the medieval churches of central Norwich fell redundant during the course of the 20th Century, so they met with fates of varying degrees of kindness. None suffered the indignity of demolition, other than most of those destroyed and damaged by the Norwich blitz, but conversely only a few have retained any liturgical integrity. For the others, their furnishings were often rescued, and placed elsewhere in the city according to demand and suitability. When the church of St James the Less fell into disuse after the Second World War, its more significant furnishings were moved a short distance up the hill of Silver Road to to the modern church of St Mary Magdalen.
St Mary Magdalen must be considered a suburban church, but it is in fact very close to the city centre. It sits back from the road. As I approached, I could see that the small car park in front was full of cars, and at first I wondered if something was going on in the church. But then I noticed the Weightwatchers Club placard at the entrance to the extension. This extension is very good, about 1970 I should think, with meeting rooms, kitchens and forming a kind of cloister down the north side of the church. As if to echo and complement it, the south side has been opened up with what can only be described as patio doors (how did they get past the Diocesan architect?!), but generally it is all harmonious, and works very well. St Mary Magdalen dates from 1903, and was the work of diocesan architect AJ Lacey. It is an elegant church, a world away from the ponderous exercises in neo-Norman which his predecessor Herbert Green was imposing on the diocese only a decade or so earlier. It has much in common with Charles Spooner's Ipswich St Bartholomew, with which it is almost exactly contemporary. The use of a wide open interior broken up by two arcades to create aisles, with a clerestory above, is a conscious echo of the traditional medieval East Anglian church, but is also a reference to an Italianate basilica, a form thought proper by the early 20th Century Anglo-catholics. The west frontage, meanwhile, is nearly identical to that of St Cuthbert, a mile or so up the Sprowston Road, a less interesting church, but one which predates St Mary Magdalen, so the arrangement must have been thought worth repeating. There are two doors separated by what appears to be the church office. However, the main entrance to the church is now through the northern extension - as, ironically, it is now at St Cuthbert. The interior of St Mary Magdalen has been considerably reordered since the medieval font and rood screen came here from St James in 1946. Today, the congregation sit in modern chairs, whch always looks good in a church, although in this case the effect is a little marred by the retention of banked pews at the back of the church. The screen once ran across the last bay but one to the east, but the panels are now exhibited on the south wall. They are very beautiful, although perhaps a little more restored than Pevsner and Mortlock allow. The artist may well have been the same as at Old Hunstanton. There are ten panels, and the Saints depicted appear to be St Barbara, St Sitha, St Agnes, St William of Norwich, St Joan de Valois, St Martin, St Blaise, St Walstan, St Helen and St Nicholas. St Barbara St Sitha St Agnes St William of Norwich St Joan of Valois St Martin St Blaise St Walstan The font is set neatly on a pedestal beside the south arcade. It seems unlikely that this is where it would have been put originally, so I wonder if it has also been moved since 1948. It has similarities with that at St Julian now. Apostles stand in pairs around the bowl, while the stem is flanked by eight female Saints - St Helen, St Etheldreda and St Anne stand out. The foliage under the bowl is proto-Renaissance in style, showing that this font, like the screen, dates from the early 16th Century rather than the 15th. The east window is filled with clear glass surrounding the central figure of Christ the King, an excellent setting, and a fine piece of work, I assume by the King workshop. But this is not the only glass of interest. While the font and screen are well-known, and I'd been expecting them, I hadn't expected the interesting collection of roundels, figures and fragments in other windows. Some of this is Continental glass, including an excellent Dives and Lazarus, and a rather gruesome mass martyrdom scene. But it is the English glass which is the most interesting. The most striking figure is that of St Barbara holding her tower, and it took me a moment to decide that it is probably a modern replica, possibly also by the King workshop. But the heads of St Agnes (a gory dagger puncturing her throat) and St James (a jaunty seashell on his hat) are medieval, surely? And if so, where did they come from? I could find no mention of them in Ann Eljenholm Nichols' Early Art of Norfolk, a book which I have come to trust as the single most reliable guide to the medieval glass of the county. Did they also come from St James? Pondering this mystery, I continued my journey up the hill. Rex Mundi Simon Knott, February 2009 looking east font font looking west St Helen font Rex Mundi aisle St Barbara St Agnes St James a messy martyrdom Dives and Lazarus
Simon Knott, February 2009
“If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication.
There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”
Congratultions Tkccevans on your First to Find
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