Patrick Comerford
We were at two funerals over two days last week, one after another, the first in Holy Trinity Church in Seer Green, a Chilterns village on the edge of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, and the second in Saint Peter’s Church in Lingwood, Norfolk. We travelled through London three times over the two days and stayed in Norwich overnight, within sight of Norwich Cathedral.
Lingwood is close to the east edge of Norwich and one of a group of parishes that form a peninsula between the River Bure and River Yare, with the marshes beyond. The village is known for its railway station and its proximity to the Broads. It is about 13 km (8 miles) east of Norwich, off the A47 between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, and about 3.7 km (2.3 miles) south-west of Acle.
Lingwood is not listed in the Domesday Book but the name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for bank wood. Lingwood Railway Station opened in 1882 and remains a stop for services between Norwich and Great Yarmouth.
The civil parish of Lingwood was abolished in 1935 and merged with Burlingham. The village is part of the Broadland and Fakenham constituency and Jerome Mayhew has been the Conservative MP since 2019.
Saint Peter’s Church on Church Road, Lingwood, dates from the 14th century and has been Grade I listed since 1962. The church is a little distance north of the village, set apart and slightly remote. It is disproportionately long, with no chancel arch and only a tympanum marking the transition from nave to chancel. The nave roof is the original roof from the late 15th century, but the chancel roof is later.
Saint Peter’s is a mediaeval parish church dating mainly from the 14th century, although the west tower is possibly older. The church is built of flint with limestone dressings, and there are slate roofs over the nave, chancel and south porch.
An evaluation of the church by the Norfolk Archaeological Unit in 2004 recovered fragments of a highly decorated medieval floor tile.
The east end of the church has been heavily rebuilt in brick with tie irons. The original window was much wider and not so tall, and signs of the original sill can still be seen on either side of the present window. The three-light Perpendicular East Window was probably inserted in the 19th century and is one of the two areas of stained glass in the church. Above the centre cross is a small canopy of 14th century glass.
The altar is made of Austrian oak from a door originally in Saint Peter’s Church, North Burlingham. The words ‘Till he Come’ (I Corinthians 11: 26) are carved on the front edge of the altar and gilded. The altar frontals were given to the church in the mid-1980s.
The Laudian Communion rail has 17th century turned balusters, and was renovated in 1994 in memory of Selina Barber. The church plate includes an Elizabethan chalice (1567), an Elizabethan paten, a brass alms dish, a silver wine decanter (1729), and an Italian silver Communion bread box.
The Creed, the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer are displayed in four stone panels, two on each side of the altar and the east window.
The chancel has a blocked north door or ‘priest’s door’, 15th century benches with poppy-head ends and figure carving on the arm rests, and a 14th century ogee-headed piscina in the south east corner of the chancel with a trefoil arch and a foliage terminal.
The south chancel wall has two two-light windows with late 13th century ‘Y’ tracery (1280-1300), and a priest’s door with plain hood mould stops. The chancel roof is modern with hardboard in between the timbers.
The organ built by Norman and Beard in 1911 is two-manual with seven stops and three couplers. It was restored in 1984.
There is no chancel arch, the break being formed by the lower ceiling and roof in the chancel. At this point, where the nave meets the chancel, a rood screen would once have stood.
The cross above the pulpit was given in memory of a previous rector, the Revd Ivor Welch.
The two two-light perpendicular windows in the south nave wall are divided by a staged buttress. The arches over the window openings are formed in alternate brick and flint voussoirs. There is a three-light Perpendicular north nave window.
The upper half of a medieval wall painting in poor condition and depicting Saint Christopher was uncovered on the north nave wall in 1965.
A community quilt on the north wall was made in 1997 to celebrate a visit by the Bishop of Thetford. The panels were decorated by Lingwood organisations and the churches of the other parishes in the benefice: South Burlingham, Strumpshaw, Hassingham and Buckenham.
The octagonal font at the west end has a plain octagonal bowl dating from the 13th century. The large centre base stem of the font is probably original, but the eight outer circular legs are 19th century replacements.
A set of royal arms of George IV (ca 1820) on the west wall above the tower arch may originally have been set on the tympanum.
A wooden screen and door have made the west tower into a vestry. The west tower was built in the late 13th century in the Early English style and is unbuttressed. The west window inside the vestry has plate tracery of this period and a hood mould above it with head stops. The belfry has only one bell, accessible only by ladder.
The south doorway is of the 14th century of the Decorated period. It has a hood mould above it, with good head stops. These figures have become weathered, but the one on the right can still be seen holding an axe. The north doorway leads to the church centre built in 2006, with a meeting room and kitchen and toilet facilities.
There are interesting memorials on the walls, the floor, behind the communion rail, under the organ, under the east end of the choir stalls on the north side, and along the aisle. The churchyard has graves going back hundreds of years. The registers dating back to 1537 have been deposited in the Norwich Archives.
After the funeral in Saint Peter’s Church, we went to a reception in Lingwood Village Hall which has a range of facilities, a fully stocked bar and a community café.
• The Revd Christina Rees is the Associate Priest at Saint Peter’s Church, Lingwood, Norfolk. Sunday services are on the first, second and fourth Sundays at 9:45 am.
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