Taking advantage of the recent unseasonably warm weather, spent the weekend catching up on a few more historic churches. On Saturday brother Bryan – veteran of the memorable ‘Four Countries End to End’ ride in 2012 and I did a nice circular route, starting and finishing at Morston. We cycled just over 60 km and took in 22 parish churches plus a host of other ‘religious establishments’ which cluster around the Walsinghams.

The Route

The Churches

All Saints Morston, St Andrew & St Mary Langham, St Margaret Saxlingham, St Andrew Field Dalling, All Saints Bale, St Martin Hindringham, St Andrew Thursford, All Saints Kettlestone, St Andrew Little Snoring, St Mary Great Snoring, All Saints East Barsham, Assumption West Barsham, All Saints North Barsham, St Giles Houghton St Giles, St Mary Little Walsingham, St Peter Great Walsingham, All Saints Wighton, All Saints & St Mary Magdalene Warham, St Mary Binham, All Saints Cockthorpe and St John the Baptist Stiffkey. In addition we visited the ‘Slipper Chapel’ & Chapel of the Holy Spirit Houghton St Giles, the old Friary, Anglican Shrine, Chapel of the Annunciation, Holy Souls, St Seraphim (orthodox) Little Walsingham and Holy Annunciation (orthodox) Great Walsingham – quite a day!

The Photos

All Saints, Morston – early morning

St Andrew & St Mary, Langham

St Margaret, Saxlingham

St Andrew, Field Dalling

Interior window detail

All Saints, Bale

St Martin, Hindringham

Interior, showing the off-set ‘weeping’ chancel

Window detail

All Saints, Thursford – more an estate than parish church, with Victorian ‘gothic’ much in evidence

All Saints, Kettlestone (Ketestuna in the Doomsday book) – with a fine octagonal tower

An interesting plaque

St Andrew, Little Snoring – with unusual detached round tower with tiled roof

Royal Arms of James II

St Mary, Great Snoring

Inside – detail of the ornate but slightly dilapidated sedilia

Lovely stained glass

A cluster of three small churches in the Barshams

St Giles, Houghton St Giles

Superb 15th century rood screen

St Mary, Little Walsham – almost completely rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1961

The light & airy interior

St Peter, Great Walsingham

The lovely interior with a feast of 15th century pews – complete with tracery, poppy heads and carved figures

and some interesting stained glass

All Saints, Wighton – the tower collapsed in a winter storm in 1965 and was rebuilt with the help of a Canadian benefactor

Another light, bright interior with an unusual high-level east window

Detail of a Victorian stained glass window – one in a series depicting various saints

The two parish churches of Warham – All Saints and St Mary Magdalene, just half a mile apart

More exquisite medieval glass

The priory church of St Mary, Binham

All Saints, Cockthorpe – unfortunately undergoing major repairs and covered, in parts, with scaffolding

Last church of a long but fascinating day in the company of some fine historic architecture – oh and my brother of course!

St John the Baptist, Stiffkey

Details of the rood screen

Last word, on our final church, must go to Simon Knott whose commentary on Stiffkey contains the following:

‘Stiffkey is most famous, of course, for Harold Davidson, the Rector of Stiffkey from 1906 to 1932, who was defrocked by the Bishop of Norwich on account of the rather glamorous low-life company he kept. Nicknamed ‘Little Jimmy’ as he was only five feet tall, he became a national celebrity. He moved on from wandering in ‘a confused state’ around the back streets of Soho, and exhibited himself in a barrel in Blackpool, before an ill-judged career move into lion-taming resulted in him having his head bitten off. In Skegness, of all places’.