North Barsham – All Saints Church

This peaceful country church, not far from Walsingham, looks a bit odd with its lack of tower and porch. Unfortunately, the tower fell down and it took the end part of the nave and the porch with it. Certainly not ideal.

The church dates to the thirteenth century and it’s known that there was a chapel here in 1531, although the records don’t show whether it was inside or outside of the church. There was more to the village of North Barsham in the medieval period, but parts became deserted and the population decreased. There are remaining earthworks and ditches relating to this very close to the church, on the Walsingham Road as it goes towards the former railway bridge. This makes the survival of the church all the more meaningful, it must have survived on a relatively small congregation for some centuries. More recently, there has been a boost in visitor numbers due to the nearby Catholic shrine arrangement in Walsingham.

Following the collapse of the tower, this is now the main door into the church, although unfortunately it was locked. Apparently it is usually open, so its closure seems to just be a temporary situation during these hopefully final few weeks of partial lockdown. The stone used in constructing this wall came from the old collapsed tower and an interesting decorative pattern has been made which looks quite unusual.

These weren’t immediately obvious to me, but there are two stone gargoyles in the stonework. This is a nice reuse of the stone that was salvaged and they’re located just about the doorway.

Window in the chancel end of the church, which didn’t seem to quite fit in, not least as it’s from a later period. The pretty graveyard had several burials from the late eighteenth century and also some iron grave markers.