The Church of St Mary Rockland St Mary

Transcription

1 The Church of St Mary Rockland St Mary NHER: Hundred of Henstead Deanery of Brooke Fig.1. General from south East Stephen Heywood FSA Norfolk Historic Environment Service Norfolk County Council Union House Gressenhall East Dereham 30 August

2 Introduction This report forms part of the investigative stage of the procedure for grant aid and is intended to serve as an aid to the architect and as a reference document for the parish. The church has a simple plan of an un-buttressed west tower, an aisleless nave with a south porch and a vestry to the north. There is a differentiated chancel of the same width as the nave but lower. The church has undergone very extensive restoration under the direction of the architect Herbert Green in 1893 (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Herbert Green s plans for rebuilding. All that is coloured red in the plan is what was proposed to rebuild in In the event he added buttresses to the west end of the nave, rebuilt the porch, replaced all the nave windows and rebuilt the chancel arch buttresses. He left alone the south nave doorway and the east wall of the chancel with its small east window. Also the south west window in the chancel with its two-light brick-dressed opening was left in situ. However, additional works, unplanned at this stage, were the rebuilding in brick of the eastern end of the north and south walls of the chancel. The roofs were replaced, the south nave wall refaced and the church repewed (fig.1). Ladbrooke s lithograph of the 1820s shows the church before restoration (fig. 3). It can be seen that the nave had a thatched roof and the chancel and porch had plain tiles. The surviving east window is shown as is the south west chancel window. There are just two nave windows of different designs as opposed to the present three. 2

3 Fig. 3. Labrooke s lithograph circa 1825 The tower was left alone by the 1893 restoration. The un-buttressed, narrow tower has a slight batter and a tall crenellated parapet (fig. 1). The fabric is a of tightly jointed galletted broken flint and there is a fine narrow west window with an ogee head and hood surmounted with a fleuron (fig.4). Fig. 4. West wall of tower 3

4 This is a 14 th century detail which dates the tower and the dressings of the nave south door confirm a date during the first half of the 14 th century. The tower has a tall tower arch with plain responds supporting an arch of two chamfered orders. The first floor chamber is lit by small windows with brick dressings and the bell stage houses three bells supported on a modern steel frame. The bell openings have been damaged and roughly repaired with brick and the openings have been reduced slightly. The surviving original dressings are also of brick. (fig. 5). There are brick internal quoins to this stage. Fig. 5. Bell stage The nave has a plain-tiled roof supported on a fine scissor-braced roof of 1893 with closely spaced trusses (fig.6). The south doorway is medieval with ogee and roll moulded jambs with a hood mould on carved head corbels (fig.7). The door itself is also of medieval date with some original ironwork surviving. There are three traceried windows to the south, each one copying a different type of late medieval tracery within rectangular openings. To the north similar windows flank the flat-roofed vestry which was added to the church in 1937 (Fig. 9). 4

5 Fig. 6. Nave roof looking west Fig. 7. South nave doorway and door 5

6 The chancel has a more complex history. The east wall is largely the original wall along with the simple lancet east window without tracery which suggests a date in the first half of the 13 th century before the introduction of bar tracery (Fig. 8). The medieval facing remains in situ. However, the eastern halves of the north and south walls have been rebuilt in brick (fig. 9) Fig. 8. East window Fig. 9. North side of church showing vestry and brick repairs to chancel The windows incorporated in the blocking are 19 th copies of the original round-headed lancets. It is of interest that the chancel restorers did not attempt to face the brick work with flint a common Victorian practice. The patron who is responsible for the repair of the chancel was prepared to settle for a less expensive repair. The position of a former buttress can be seen on the north side of the chancel (fig. 9). Fig. 10. South side of chancel 6

7 On the south side of the chancel the same brick strengthening occurs with an additional rather obvious and clumsy piece of underpinning which appears to predate the brick work (Fig. 10). The fabric of this anomalous masonry contains several large pieces of re-used limestone ashlar. In the surviving flint masonry is a two-light window within a rectangular opening which has escaped replacement. The chancel roof is not of quality to that of the nave and its type suggest that it was repaired or re-made before the 1893 work (fig. 11). It consists of trusses of quite light scantling with single side purlins wedge-tenoned to the principals. There are three heavy tie beams which are jointed to the wall plates and hidden behind plain plastered ashlaring. A ceiling towards the top of the roof structure is supported perhaps on a second set of side purlins or else collar beams. The chancel arch is part of the 1893 restoration. Fig. 11. Chancel roof Summary The history of the fabric can be summarised as follows Early 13 th century Chancel Early 14 th century The Tower and Nave Later 18 th century chancel roof 1892/3 Re fenestration of nave, renewal of nave roof, buttresses to west corners of nave built and rebuilding of porch. The repairs to the chancel walls with brick work may have taken place at the same time but under different instruction Vestry 1987 New steel bell frame Stephen Heywood. September