This is an amazing and beautiful building, with a fascinating history. The church also boasts a Norman & Beard organ which - bizarrely - is fed by a blower in the corner of the churchyard! The air is pushed through an underground pipe to the organ. The churchyard is being extended. At the back of the church (between the church and the cliff edge) you can see the work being done. So far it has been leveled and reseeded, and soon will be fenced off and consecrated. Have a look at some of the inscriptions on the gravestones: there are heartbreaking events depicted including a teenage flyer of the last war, and an unknown merchant seaman whose body was washed ashore at Mundesley. The church itself is unusual in that it has no spire or tower. Mundesley is part of the Trunch Team, which is in interregnum at the moment (September 2014). However, we do have a team of four clergy and five lay ministers. The group comprises Mundesley, Gimingham, Knapton, Paston, Swafield, Trunch, and Bradfield.
In the early 19th century, Ladbroke had found All Saints a ruin, but the western third of the nave roofed and still in use - roughly, that part between the first and second buttress that you can see above. Mundesley's reinvention as a resort created a need for a new church, and so the ruin was rebuilt, spectacularly well, in two stages. Firstly, in 1904 the western end was extended to make an organ chamber, and then in 1914 the nave was extended eastwards, with a new chancel on the site of the old one. From the outside, the most obviously 'old' feature is the porch, although in fact a lot of old material seems to have been reused in the new building.
The first sign that anything is unusual comes as you step into the porch; the way into the church is just a small doorway, and you may want to open it before closing the main door behind you.
You step into a church which is very similar to nearby Sidestrand, which was rebuilt at almost exactly the same time. There is a similar air of an early 20th century enthusiasm for the Anglo-catholic, but also a gentle, rural feeling. For example, the vivid rood on the chancel screen is balanced by a fine west gallery. The royal arms of Victoria are on the front of the gallery.
The early 20th century glass is also very triumphalistic, the last gasp of a style which within twenty years would have been utterly replaced by simpler, starker styles. The Adoration of the Shepherds is rather lovely. The image of Christ in Majesty being censed by angels is rather unsettling,
There is ample parking in the car park next to the church or in nearby streets.
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