NHER 1119 (Building record) - St Mary's Church, North Elmham

Large and ornate church. The chancel is basically Norman, altered in 13th century; nave arcades of latter date. Arcades raised and aisles refenestrated in 14th century. Tower, south chapel, and new windows made in 15th and 16th centuries.
Magnificent and important set of carved bestiary benchends. Important rood screen.
See report (S1) and photographs (S2) and (S3) in file.
E. Rose (NLA), 24 November 2000.

Press cuttings (S4) to (S6) in file.

This is one of the sixty-five Norfolk churches selected for (S7).
Listed (S8).
D. Gurney (NLA), 17 February 2006.

The church stands on a hilltop immediately to the south of the Saxon cathedral (NHER 1014). Excavations have demonstrated that it stands on the southern edge of the cathedral graveyard and on the east side of the Middle to Late Saxon settlement. The tower is built of knapped flint, less well-constructed on the northern side where a lump of ironbound conglomerate is visible. On the west face of the tower a Galilee porch has been formed between buttresses. The interior of this porch is rib-vaulted, the central boss showing the Coronation of the Virgin.
The exterior of the church (with the exception of the tower and possibly the south porch) was re-faced in 1864 and is now composed of knapped black Brandon flints.
Information from (S1).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 4 January 2008.

March 2009.
Church awarded £87,000 for essential maintenance work.
See (S9) in file
H. White (NLA), 4 March 2009.

March 2017. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of removal of raised floor within the north chapel and the excavation of shallow trenches to accommodate sleeper walls for new, lowered joists.
The earliest deposit encountered was a dark orangey brown sandy clay interpreted as the remnants of the old topsoil. This was truncated by an remains of an east-to-west flint and mortar wall that had probably originally been a continuation of the north aisle wall. It was abutted to the south by a north-to-south aligned flint and mortar wall. The east-to-west aligned wall and the former topsoil to the north were both truncated by cuts thought to have been associated with the extant north and east walls of the North Chapel.
No finds were recovered.
See report (S10) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 July 2025.

August-September 2024. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of drainage works within churchyard to north of church.
One of the drainage trenches encountered a substantial flint and mortar wall immediately to the north of the church's north chapel. Further stripping exposed elements of the west, north and east walls of a structure interpreted an earlier, larger precursor of the extant north chapel. The exact age of this earlier chapel is uncertain, although it had diagonal buttresses, which were not used prior to the 14th century and wall plaster of probable 14th- or 15th-century date was recovered from associated demolition debris. This suggests it was probably built as part of a substantial remodelling of the church known to have taken place during the 14th century, which saw the construction of the west tower, alterations to the arcades and the re-modelling of the aisle walls. Two rectangular buttresses were later added to support the north wall of this earlier chapel, suggesting that structural problems were potentially the reason for its demolition and replacement with a much smaller structure during the 15th century. It is possible that some of the structural remains observed beneath the floor of the present north chapel in 2017 related to this 14th-century precursor.
See report (S11) and NHER 69210 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 July 2025.