NHER 1026 (Building record) - St Margaret's Church and Benedictine Priory

Benedictine Priory established on edge of Late Saxon town.
Includes St Margaret's Church.
Some Norman work, 14th and 15th century rebuildings, much 18th-19th century alteration.
E. Rose (NAU), 24 March 1981.

The charnel house is recorded separately under NHER 60527.

See newspaper cuttings (S1) in file.
A. Cattermole (NLA), 27 January 2005.

1951. Listed Grade I.

1984.
A rare 15th century, cylindrical, leather chalice case was sold at auction to a 'small American museum'. Decoration on the case included an image of St Margaret and this, along with the fact that the case was previously bought from Wymondham, led to speculation that the case had originally belonged to St Margaret's church, King's Lynn.
See (S8), newspaper article (S9) and Photograph (S10). See [1].
A. Beckham (HES), 6 May 2020.

April 1991.
Removal of roof of north aisle of priory church, Carpenters' marks revealed and photographed. Unusual, not Latin numerals but hourglass shapes, squares, and triangles and in one place an ornate 'G'. However, the rafters do not appear to be of any great age and therefore perhaps belong to the 19th century restoration.
E.M. James (KLM) reports that this roof cannot be older than the mid-18th century because the spire fell onto this side of the church.
E. Rose (NLA), 26 April 1991.

August 1991. Found while renewing the blocking of the transept window behind the organ.
A painted medieval 'statue' and castellated transoms were found. Identification of the 'statue' at Norwich Castle Museum revealed it to be a corbel.
E. Rose (NLA), 9 August and 10 October 1991.

According to (S2) the Trinity Chapel, east of the north transept, was demolished and rebuilt to a narrower line in 1808 for road widening. The new chapel was designed by Francis Goodwin and built by William Newham.
E. Rose (NLA), 14 January 1997.

This is one of the sixty five Norfolk churches selected for (S3).
D. Gurney (NLA), 17 February 2006.

14 March 2014.
Human skeletal remains, of a child with wood and leather, found in trenching for a gas main replacement by National grid adjacent to St Margaret's and in proximity to Pizza Express.
See newspaper article (S4).
D. Gurney (HES), 21 March 2014.

November-December 2018. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of various works, including the installation of new foul drainage to the exterior of the north-west porch, the connection of this external service trench to the interior foul drainage through the north wall of the porch and the installation of a wheelchair lift in the north tower and aisle. An initial photographic survey was also undertaken to record structural elements that would be affected by these works, including the north porch floor (prior to the removal of the encaustic tiles), the screen between the north-west tower and north porch (prior to its dismantling), a slate column recording priors and incumbents (prior to its relocation) and dado panelling that would be removed to allow the creation of a new emergency exit in the north wall of the north choir aisle.
See report (S11) and photographs (S12).

April 2025. Watching Brief.
Examination of brick-built chamber exposed during investigation of the drainage system to the west of the church. No burials were encountered – the brick structure having clearly been part of the drainage system installed during the later 19th century. The chamber was sealed with large slate slabs and there was evidence of 20th-century repair work. A small amount of disarticulated human bone was noted in the spoil.
See report (S13) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 28 September 2025.