St
Margaret's Church - King's Lynn, Norfolk
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Architecturally a fascinating
building with parts from every century between the 12th (Norman, above) and 19th (except
possibly 17th), including a Georgian attempt at the
Perpendicular. |
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Click on
photos below to enlarge
Notes in italics from North-West and South Norfolk by Nikolaus Pevsner
(1962) Penguin Books, now published by Yale University Press
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The earliest parts are the beginning of the two W towers ... The
towers were begun about the middle of the C12. They have broad buttresses
shafted all over ... In addition the SW tower has
intersected blank arcading on the lowest level. ... The Norman
intersected arcading is followed by a small Transitional one, with
waterleaf capitals and pointed trefoil arches, and then proper E.E. plate
tracery appears, and above that the C13 bell-openings with bar tracery. In
both cases the motif is an unfoiled circle. So the tower was complete by
c.1260-70. Then, in the C14, a new bell-stage was added. There was a tall
lead spire as well, but this fell in 1741. The other tower is externally
Perp throughout, with much more bare wall. Only one small window below the
clock, with two continuous chamfers, indicates an earlier date. The tower
was built from 1453 onwards. ... A spectacular W window of seven lights between the towers, a statue in
a niche above, and a doorway below which is thinly shafted and
stands in a shallow porch. ... Panelled battlements on the porch.
Three-light aisle windows and three-light clerestory windows. Attached to
the NW tower on the N side is a tall chapel with entrance from the E side.
This is what remains of an outer N aisle. ... |
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Perpendicular nave (first
picture). ... The crossing tower (second
picture) is
short and featureless. In the Middle Ages it carried a lead-covered
octagonal wooden lantern, modelled probably on that of Ely. ...The
transept exteriors are again Perp, with much plain wall and big end
windows of five lights. ... The chancel
aisles have Perp windows. The S chapel is five bays long, the N chapel
only three. The S chapel was building in 1433, when money was left for the
job. The chancel E window is a remarkable rose under a pointed arch with
quatrefoiled circles in the lower spandrels. It is largely reconstruction,
after fragments had been discovered in 1872. ... Below the rose
window, are three tall Perp niches. The clerestory of the chancel is Perp
too, with three-light windows. |
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(The tower)
buttresses also show inside the church. ... The arch towards
the nave shows in both towers; that towards the aisle is in its Norman
state only in the SW tower (third picture). The arches have shafts with decorated scallop
capitals. The line of the Norman aisle roof is still visible above the SE
arch on its E side. |
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In addition, the SW tower has a very impressive wall
passage on the first floor. This has stepped tripartite inner arcading
familiar from the clerestories of Norman cathedrals and abbeys. The short
columns are Norman, the tall ones E.E., ... |
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Nave. The Perp interior of St
Margaret is, alas, disappointing. It is of 1745-6, an attempt by Matthew
Brettingham .. to be Gothic, an attempt inadequately rectified by (Sir
George Gilbert) Scott in 1875. Five bays, piers with four shafts
and four hollows, 'basket arches'. ... The reason for the rebuilding was a
storm which blew the spire of the church down. The king as well as Sir
Robert Walpole gave £1000 for rebuilding. The nave originally had a flat
stucco ceiling. |
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Chancel. The Norman church was
completely rebuilt in the C13. Chancel, crossing, and transepts are
internally in the state then given them. ... Today's length of the church is that of the C13.
... The crossing has tall arches in all four directions, those to E and
W being the more ornate ones. They have stiff-leaf capitals, simpler than
those of the chancel, and finely moulded arches. ...
Reredos. By Bodley, 1899, with many figures
and foliage. |
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The
chancel has vigorous composite piers based on the motif of four attached
shafts. In one pier there are thin diagonal shafts as well, in another
these are keeled, in yet another there are slender hollows instead, and in
the fourth the round core appears behind the sturdy shafts. All piers have
beautiful, ample stiff-leaf capitals. The abaci vary without system
between a form adapted to the piers and an octagonal form.
Screens. Behind the stalls and
otherwise between chancel and aisles a number of C14 screens, that is of
dates earlier than most surviving screens. ... all have ogee forms and
crocketed gables. One has two-light divisions, the other three-light. The
latter has reticulated tracery with small motifs in the reticulation
units. ... |
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The clerestory of the chancel has a wall passage with
detached arcading, and the remarkable thing is that this motif must be
taken over from the E.E. clerestory; for the clerestory shafts have have
E.E. leaf capitals and were only lengthened and provided with new Perp
bases. |
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In the crossing to the N a
screen of 1584, but in its inscription also referring to King James. Dado
with blank arches, above two tiers of open arcading. ...
Organ case.
Rococo. By Snetzler, 1754. |
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Along the south side of the
church precinct, in Priory Lane, a range, 180 ft long, which is all
that remains of the small Benedictine Priory of Norwich Cathedral
established at Lynn about 1100. Of the remains the only externally
prominent piece is a broad archway with four-centred head. (Inside,
however there are several windows and arches which point to the C14 ...) |
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Map |
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More
of Norfolk on Astoft |
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