Surlingham – St. Mary’s Church

This is St. Mary’s Church in Surlingham, located a short walk away from the River Yare. The church sits on slightly higher ground in a bid to protect it from the nearby marshes, something evident when we were walking through them to get here. George Plunkett has a photo of the church from 1978 which was taken in around the same place as above, although little has changed in that time.

There is a nearby ruined church, St. Saviour’s, which was constructed in the twelfth century but which became redundant in the early eighteenth century.

The round tower is Norman at the base, with the octagonal top dating from the fourteenth century. Much of the current nave is also fourteenth century, with the north aisle having been added in the fifteenth century.

There are numerous patches of repair on the tower, mostly using this tiled style to fill in the gaps. I’m unsure why such a different looking material was chosen in the repairs, although it gives the tower a rather memorable look. As is noticeable on photo further down this post, the tower was once covered in ivy and that might have meant repairs were less noticeable.

The stair turret on the tower.

The chancel dates from the eighteenth century and was made from brick, giving quite a contrasting look to the church. Although I’m not sure how comprehensive the repairs were, as there was an appeal made in 1831 to secure funds to pay for a new church roof and advertisements were placed in the Norwich Mercury to find carpenters and bricklayers.

This photo is from the beginning of the twentieth century, and both graves leaning against the end of the chancel wall are still there, although a few others seem to have disappeared. The church tower is fortunate not to have that much ivy still attached to it.

The other side of the chancel is built in old stone, seemingly solely with the intention of giving it an older appearance. I’m unsure where that stone has come from, but I suspect that its been taken from another old building at some point.

The end of the chancel, it’s all quite a clean design, but perhaps not breathtakingly beautiful.

A rather beautiful carved stone font inside the church and it probably dates to the fourteenth century.

Looking down the nave of the church into the chancel, where there’s evidence of where the rood screen stairs were located.

Looking back down the nave towards the organ loft, I thought that everything was nicely proportioned and all seemed calm. It was possible to peer inside the tower and I’m not normally that interested in church bells, but this church has two which were cast in 1381 and that’s a pretty impressive survival……

I liked that the church was open during this difficult times and although there are bits of Victorian repair which are readily visible, there’s lots of history to the building which hasn’t been swept away. It’s another of those churches where I suspect the parishioners from the late sixteenth century would have found relatively little had changed over the centuries, although they might have wondered where their box pews had disappeared to. These were removed in 1888 and the local press noted that there were now more open and airy pews, although I love the character that box pews have.