A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

“Here Richard Anguishe sleepes for whom alyve
Norwich and Cambridge lately seemed to strive;
Both called him son as seemed well they might;
Both challenged in his life an equal right:
Norwich gave birth and taught him well to speake
The mother English, Latin phrase, and Greeke;
Cambridge with arts adorned his ripening age
Degress and judgment in the sacred page;
Yet Norwich gains the vantage of the strife,
Whiles there he ended where began his life.

September XXIII. Ao Dni. 1616.”

The church is a large handsome cruciform structure of freestone mixed with flint, begun in 1430 and finished in 1455. It is a good example of the perpendicular style, and is the finest parish church in the city. It is 212 feet in length, and 70 feet in breadth, with a noble tower 98 feet high, covered with paneling, and containing an excellent peal of 12 bells, a clock, and chimes. The bells weigh 183 cwt. 2 qrs. 14 lbs., and were exchanged for an old peal of ten in 1775, at a cost of £800 raised by public subscription.

The clustered pillars supporting the roof, with the arches surmounting them, are lofty and slender, and the windows are large and numerous, so that the whole interior has a light and airy appearance. The roof of the nave is of fine open timber work, with a sort of wooden vault over each window, like a stone roof. The Clerestory has seventeen fine windows on each side, with short transoms in the heads, and good tracery. The vaulting shafts are brought down to the bottom of the clerestory windows, and have niches under them. There is a chancel or small transept on each side of the nave. The font stands under a perpendicular canopy, supported by pillars, and forming a baptistry on a raised platform, with room to walk round the font. The east window is filled with beautiful stained glass, mostly ancient. There are some fine paintings in the vestry. The church was restored, the old pews were replaced by open oak benches, and a new pulpit, reading desk, and altar rail, handsomely carved, were purchased in 1851. During the alterations, a vault four or five feet deep was discovered under the stalls of the choir. The outer wall of this vault supported the screen dividing the choir from the nave and aisles, and contained a range of about a dozen earthen jars, placed on their sides with their mouths open to the vault. The use of these jars has never been ascertained. The benefice is a perpetual curacy certified at £10, and now valued at £87. It was augmented in 1746 with £200 given by the Rev. J. Francis, with £100 of royal bounty from 1742 to 1810, and with £400 subscribed by the minister and parishioners in 1818. The Rev. C. Turner, M.A., is incumbent.

St. Giles.

St. Giles’ Street, west of the Market Place, is one of the best built in the city, and leads to the small parish of St. Giles. The church, near the top of the street, was founded in the reign of William I. by Elwyn the priest, who gave it to the monks of Norwich. Consequently it is now in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter. It is frequently called “St. Giles on the Hill” in ancient records. It is a fine structure in the perpendicular style, and is one of the handsomest old churches in the city. It was wholly rebuilt in the reign of Richard I., but after 1581 the old chancel was demolished. A new chancel has been recently built, and the church completely restored. The nave is of five bays, and has a good open timber roof, supported by angels bearing shields, emblazoned with the arms of England, France, and Castile. The clerestory windows have been modernised. The south porch has a fine groined vault with fan tracery, and is surmounted by a parvise, and a rich parapet and cornice. The nave and aisles are 81 feet long, divided by slender pillars, and are lighted by large and elegant windows. The tower is 120 feet high, and contains a clock and eight bells. The church estate consists of small tenements given by Thomas Parker in 1534. The perpetual curacy, valued at £70, was augmented from 1744 to 1791 with £1000 of Queen Anne’s bounty. The Rev. W. Nottidge Ripley, M.A., is the incumbent.

Passing from the Market Place to Pottergate Street we come to the parish of

St. Gregory.

The church is a fine structure of great antiquity, in the perpendicular style. The chancel was rebuilt in 1325, and the whole pile has received many modern repairs. The nave and aisles, with the two chapels at the east end, were new leaded in 1537. In 1597, a timber spire covered with lead was erected on the tower, and was the only spire in Norwich, except that of the Cathedral, but being unsafe, it was taken down. The tower contains a clock and six bells, the latter given by the parishioners in 1818. The tower arch is very lofty, and across it is the original stone gallery for the singers, with groined vaults above and beneath, the lower part forming a western porch opening into the north and south porches, which are also groined. There are four well moulded arches on each side of the nave, with clustered shafts having embattled caps. The rood stair turret remains on the north side of the edifice. The clerestory windows have decorated tracery, and the windows of the aisles are of a mixed character under arches recessed in the walls. In 1861, Mr. Wm. Smith, and the incumbent collected £800 for the purpose of restoring the church and reseating it in oak. The perpetual curacy was certified at £3, and is now valued at £120. It was augmented from 1747 to 1812 with £1400 of royal bounty. The Dean and Chapter are patrons. The present incumbent is the Rev. J. Wortley.

St. John’s Maddermarket.

is a very populous parish near the Market Place, between Pottergate Street and Charing Cross. The church is a large handsome edifice in the perpendicular style, consisting of a nave, two aisles, two porches, and a fine tower, under which is an arched rood, and on the top are four figures at the angles. The fine decorated east window is of five lights with flowing tracery. The north porch has a richly-groined vault, and its outer doorway is deeply recessed. The roofs of the chapel of All Saints at the east end of the north aisle, and of St. Mary the Virgin in the south aisle, are boarded under and painted with angels holding books and scrolls, with sentences from the Te Deum, the Angelical Salutation, &c. The church has been completely restored recently at a cost of £1200. Lady Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk, (second wife of the Duke, who was beheaded in Elizabeth’s reign,) died at the Duke’s Palace, in this parish, in 1563, and was interred with great pomp on the north side of the choir, where a mural monument was erected to her memory in 1791 by Lord John Howard of Waldon. The benefice is a discharged rectory, valued in K. B. at £7 10s. 2d., and now at £110. It was augmented from 1714 to 1814 with £1800 of royal bounty. It is in the patronage of New College, Oxford, to which it was granted by Henry VI. The Rev. G. F. Price is the present incumbent.