SATURDAY JANUARY 3RD
It was early January 2026 and it was a snowy start to the New Year. On the first Saturday and Monday of the year we headed in to Norfolk to try and find some snow. The inner child comes out when the snow arrives; with a childlike joy in photographing churches in the snow.
These days falls of snow are uncommon, so it is a case of making the most of the few chances that we get; but doing it as safely as possible. Memories of a day out in the Derbyshire Dales back in 2020 when we were caught in a blizzard and were fortunate not to have to spend the night in a hotel as road after road became impassable!
Here we had a plan. The North Norfolk coastal area was on a severe weather warning for snow on the Saturday with the snow due to start in the Sheringham area late morning. The plan was to start off the day at Little Snoring, which should have been without snow at that time; and revisit some of the churches on the minor roads heading towards Holt. We would them aim towards the gritted coast road by late morning; by which time the snow should have arrived.
That was the plan; which didn’t work! It was snowing as we crossed the Norfolk county line just after nine and by the time by reached Little Snoring there was already a light scattering of snow on the ground.
LITTLE SNORING : THE CHURCH OF ST ANDREW
Normally open to visitors. Closed on the day; unsurprisingly!
I work as a gardener; with part of my job during the winter months being to grit and snow clear on those rare occasions when needed. The cold is not an issue for me; my goodness though this was bitter. The wind was strong; unhindered over the flat Norfolk landscape and not for the first time over the years the thought occurred that my hobby had strayed in to madness. To be fair though, you get out what you put in and staying at home in the warm was not an option; as sensible as that may well have been. Little Snoring, which amusingly has a much larger population than neighbouring Great Snoring, can be found some four miles to the north east of Fakenham; with the church of St Andrew standing isolated at the extreme north west of the village.
Great Snoring is a mile and a half away to the north; fond memories of walking between the two in mud summer a few years previously; shirt sleeve weather, with the church of St Andrew appearing in the distance through a heat haze.
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The church here is best known for its free standing tower, which is suggested to date from late Saxon/early Norman times. The tower was once attached to the nave of a previous structure; with the tower arch at the east filled in; with lichen encrusted repositioned gargoyle looking out at those entering through the south porch.
Perhaps the ground couldn’t support the nave and it either collapsed or was taken down and rebuilt, either way what we see here is the only free standing round tower church in Norfolk. To the north of the church was RAF Little Snoring, which opened in 1943 with the church of St Andrew being used as the base chapel. Visitors to the church today will see award boards from the base at the west end of the nave. The village sign shows the church, a camouflaged plane and a tractor.
The church here is normally open to visitors and this was the first time that I had seen it closed. When arriving back at the car I said to Gary ‘It was closed and I am not bl**dy well surprised’.
It was completely silent except for the wind and the distant scraping of a car windshield. It was bleak with a real bite to the wind. But it was beautiful! We headed north east, in the direction of Holt.
SHARRINGTON : THE CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
Open to visitors
We headed along the A148 which leads towards Holt; stopping off at the church of All Saints at Sharrington. The wind had increased and the sky was an alarming colour off to the north, in the direction of the coast. Here though there hadn't been as much snow as there had been at Little Snoring. The church here was open to visitors; full credit for the person who came out to open up!
Approaching the church from the north there are the outlines of arches; so there had been a north arcade here in the past. Moving around to the south we have similar. A description of the church written in 1734 suggested that this would have been a substantial building with north and south aisles and transepts. It appears as if these were all removed in restorations of 1800 leaving the structure that we see today; with the tower subsequently appearing to be too big for the structure that accompanies it!
The visitor enters in through the west door of the tower; the original entrances from the north or south having been lost. There is a real sense of history inside with medieval sedilia and piscina in their usual positions against the south wall of the chancel. The sedilia; the seating for the priests during the Mass in pre reformation times, takes the form of window ledges, with the eastern most seat being raised. The piscina, in which the holy vessels used during the Mass, would be washed is under a beautifully carved ogee headed arch.
Mounted against the south wall of the chancel are memorial brasses; with some from the Daubeney family who were the Lords of the manor for more than 200 years. This includes a brass to John Daubeney who was killed defending Caister Castle in 1469.
Those people in the nave are under the scrutiny of a number of carved heads; an eclectic band which includes a sheep, a couple of green men, a frog like creature and one further who is either deep in contemplation, with hand on chin, or who has toothache.
A look to the west shows a filled in door high up to the north wall leading from the tower. Interesting to just stand here for a short while and imagine what this structure must have been like before it was reduced in size. This is a delightful church!
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LETHERINGSETT : CHURCH OF ST ANDREW
Open to visitors
We continued to head towards Holt, stopping of at the church of St Andrew at Letheringsett; which can be found on the outskirts of Holt. There was a scattering of snow on the ground; nothing much though but it looked threatening from where the weather was coming, and so it proved to be.
The church, with its elegant round tower, can be found alongside the main road and it had just been opened. I was the fourth visitor through the door within five minutes of it being opened; great to see the church being used and enjoyed even on a morning such as this; with the three people already inside taking a close look at the medieval glass.
This is another church of great age; with the structure that we see today dating back to the 11th century; the lower parts of the tower dating to this time. The upper parts of the tower were added during the 14th century, at which point the church was extended.
Moving inside nave flows seamlessly in to chancel; with no chancel arch with three bay arcades to north and south, with each dating from the 14th century rebuilding. There is plenty of stained glass here of high quality. The oldest can be found in two panels of 15th century re-set fragments in the south wall of the chancel.
There is plenty of stained glass here of high quality. The oldest can be found in two panels of 15th century re-set fragments in the south wall of the chancel. In one the head of Christ faces out from within a quatrefoil shape. Below this a hand holds a basket, in which there is a single apple. This is flanked by two angel musicians; one of whom plays a harp, the other playing a lute. At the bottom of this is the head and shoulders of a female figure; crowned with staff close by, which could well be St Margaret. Featured in the second panel is a golden haired angel with a woman low down who is wearing what could well be a horned headdress; the top being missing.
The east window is from Frederick Preedy and is partially hidden by the reredos. We have three scenes from Holy Week; with the ascension central. This is flanked with depictions of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of his arrest; drinking from the cup from which he is to drink, with disciples asleep in the foreground and an Angel of the Lord appearing to the three Mary’s on Easter morning; ‘He is not here he is risen’; the angel pointing upwards towards Heaven.
I was fairly certain that some of the windows here were from Charles Eamer Kempe and spent a fruitless few minutes trying to find his trademark Wheatsheaf signature. On checking the church guide when I got home the windows of St Cecelia and Gregory, the annunciation, St Peter and St Andrew and St John the Baptist and St Steven are all from Herbert Bryans who was a pupil of Kempe’s with Bryans trademark being a black running dog.
Other glass here includes a depiction of Jesus walking on water with Peter attempting to do likewise; which will end badly. Close by we see Jesus talking to some of the disciples, engaged in their trade as fishermen, ‘I will make you fishers of men’ reads the script below. On exiting the church the snow was heavier and it was really dark.
As I mentioned earlier, the plan didn’t work! There had been a little snow on the ground during the morning that wasn’t expected. We picked up the coast road, which would have been well used and gritted but when the expected storm finally hit the road soon became a little bit too difficult. We had reached Cromer and were following the coast road along to Mundesley but the road conditions were such that we had to turn back.
The revised plan was to head back the other way towards Burnham Market but then we ran out of snow! Before we had arrived at Sheringham there was hardly any snow on the ground at all. Plans scuppered! We did however pop in to the church of All Saints at Bodham on the way back. Things hadn't worked out as planned; but it had been good to get out.
BODHAM : CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
Open to visitors
The church of All Saints at Bodham is gloriously isolated, well away to the south of the village. This was a revisit with a previous visit back in 2015 seeing the church closed. I hadn’t expected to find it open but delighted that it was! Again, above and beyond the call of duty to whoever open up!
Bodham can be found some four miles to the south west of Sheringham. There is some age to the church here with a church being mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086. The church that we see today consists of west tower, nave with south porch and chancel. The church was pretty much rebuilt during two phases of Victorian restoration and rebuilding.
This is just a basic structure with no aisles and nothing to indicate that there ever has been. The impression is that there has never been a great deal of money here; with two bells being sold in 1828 to finance money for repairs.
I tried the door more in hope than expectation; it was open and we were good to go. Walls are whitewashed and fixtures and fittings look to come from the time of the Victorian restoration with the stalls and pulpit coming from nearby Beckham Workhouse.
The east window is of three lights with a stained glass depiction of the crucifixion central; flanked by the disciples and Mary outside the empty tomb on Easter morning and the ascension. The east end of the chancel here was rebuilt in 1893, and nothing remains of sedilia or piscina.
There is a piscina though at the east end of the nave, against the south wall, indicating that the Mass was given from here in pre reformation days.
It was the day before epiphany; the day that the church celebrates the arrival of the wise men to see the baby Jesus. The Christmas tree was still up and the nativity scene was on display on the small altar close to the chancel arch. The wise men had almost completed their journey, working their way through sprigs of holly on a window ledge close by; a single camel lagging behind. This is a small village church which claims to be nothing else; and it is beautiful.
Moving back outside there are several deaths head stones close to the south porch; these having symbols of the mortality of Man, a reminder to the onlooker that Man is mortal and will die so therefore live a good Christian life, trust in God and do not be caught short when your own time comes.
We see several carvings of human skulls with crossed bones; and an hour glass with the sands of time having run out for the deceased. One of the skulls wears a crown; this symbolising victory with the victory here being over death which can be seen as a testament as to the faith of the deceased. We see a trumpet; an often used symbol of the resurrection crossed with an eternal flame, a symbol of eternity, intertwined in a garland which again symbolises victory.
There had been some snow here earlier and it was interesting to see snow eerily covering the eye sockets of one of the human skulls on the gravestones.
MONDAY JANUARY 5TH
We were on our travels again two days later. There had been a fall of snow overnight and after Gary finished work we headed off again to find a decent fall of snow. There was no clear plan as we set out but I found a few websites which said that there had been a heavy fall in the Swaffham area.
A plan was set out to visit Swaffham; and spend a little time in a town that I have visited several times and like very much. It was then decided to move on to Necton, some five miles or so to the east; in order to test out the zoom on my new mobile phone, which disconcertingly appeared to be better than the expensive Nikon zoom which broke last year. The 15th century angel roof there was an ideal chance to test this out.
SWAFFHAM : CHURCH OF ST PETER & ST PAUL
Open to visitors
Swaffham is an attractive, bustling, market town of just over 8,400 people according to the 2021 census. It can be found 12 miles east of Kings Lynn and 31 miles west of Norwich. The church of St Peter and St Paul is centrally located, with the main roads through the town running close by. The church here is generally open to visitors; and was on this gloriously sunny late Monday morning. I didn’t go inside this time though as I was just concerned with shooting the exterior with a healthy accumulation of snow around it.
The current church here was built between 1454 and 1465, with the tower coming a little later, from 1507 until 1510. It was built over the site of an existing church which had partly collapsed. It is not known when that original church was founded but there was no mention of a rector here until the 12th century. It is suspected though, that the history of the church here could date back far earlier than that.
The church is made from Barnack stone and is based on a cruciform plan with west tower, nave, chancel, north and south aisles and north and south transepts. The tower is two stage and is buttressed, with crocketed pinnacles at each corner. gargoyles surround the tower and a grotesque, badly weathered, sticks its tongue out in medieval gesture of insult. A winged mythical beast sits at the centre of the southern edge of the tower and a similar creature sits on a plinth at the end of the nave roof, looking out towards the east. Elsewhere, a muzzled bear like creature looks upwards towards heaven. There are shields at the base of the tower featuring crossed keys, a symbol for St Peter, and crossed swords, a symbol for St Paul.
The tower once had a turret but this was replaced in 1778 after the turret was struck by lightning. This was a timber and lead spire, which in turn was replaced by the present structure in 1897. A close look up high shows that this again has the keys and swords symbolism.
