NHER 7313 (Building record) - St Mary's Church, North Tuddenham

May 1960. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description excerpt:
"Parish church. Medieval and later. Flint with ashlar and brick dressings. Slate and pantile roofs. Western tower, exceptionally wide aisleless nave with north porch and chancel. 14th-century west tower with chequer flushwork to the diagonal buttresses…Crenellated parapet with fine flushwork and crocketted corner pinnacles. Buttressed nave with six three-light panel traceried Perpendicular windows. Two-storey porch with diagonal buttresses…Moulded north and south nave doorways…Parapets to nave and chancel with a fleuron decorated cornice.
Interior: Tower and chancel arches with polygonal responds and plain chamfered arches, Nave piscina to south.The lower parts of nave and chancel walls are decorated with colourful Victorian encaustic tiles. Victorian wall paintings. Two monuments in chancel...Surviving 15th-century chancel screen dado with eight surviving paintings of saints. Four re-set late medieval painted dado panels in tower screen of unknown provenance. High quality medieval glass in nave windows, west window and lower side windows of porch. Decorative Victorian roofs".
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
P. Watkins (HES), 11 April 2022.

February 1978. Field Observation.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU).
Decorated tower; remainder remodelled and rebuilt in Perpendicular style in much inferior flintwork. East window transomed. Piscina in porch. Stained glass dated 1467 which came here in late 19th century removed for repair (it was gone when Pevsner was here in 1950!). Much 19th century stained glass also. Interior inaccessible at time of visit - Pevsner (S2) notes Perpendicular font; base of painted screen, and another in the tower, medieval tomb-chest; 17th century memorials; collecting-shoe; many tiles of 1880s; decorated paten of about 1520; chalice, Norwich 1567; chalice and paten London, 1682; these were presented in memory of Thomas Skip and were rediscovered in a Dereham bank!
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 1 February 1978. Information from record card (S3).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 11 April 2022.

There was obviously earlier much stained glass here, for Tom Martin in c.1740 (S4) wrote "The church is very lofty...All the chancel windows beautiful and have been finely painted, but now much defaced, and all the remaining glass is intended to be taken down, Mr Youngs the rector told me, because he pretends it hinders the light. Tho I never saw a more lightsome church in my life, especially as the whole screen is taken down as low as the pews". He noted five panes in the east window, and two windows each side of the chancel of three panes each. Inside were 'hollow singers seats'.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S3).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 11 April 2022.

1467 glass replaced 1983; it was bought in a Dereham scrap yard in 19th century.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S3).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 11 April 2022.

A figure in the glass of the chancel is St Blida of Martham according to (S5) but [1] says not.

See file for copies of notes and drawings in Alan Carter Archive (UEA) that relate to St Mary's Church.
T. E. Miller (NLA), 19 April 2006. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 11 April 2022.

Rev. Armstrong refers to a new east window and organ being inserted in his entry for the 25th July 1875. 10th January 1877, he mentions the old glass 'recently' put in. A footnote in the 1948 reprint by the editor says that it was found in a stonemason's yard in East Dereham and came from 'another church'. The enry for the 28th February 1883 records the restoration being complete.
Information from (S6).
E. Rose (NLA), 17 September 1997.

A faculty to reroof church with 'blue Holland tiles' (glazed pantiles) in 1779.
E. Rose (NLA), 5 May 1999.

Press cuttings (S7)-(S9) in file.

(S10) argues that a proportion of the fragmentary medieval stained glass in St Mary’s church originally depicted the legend of the Miraculous Cornfield (otherwise called the miracle of the instantaneous harvest).
A. Beckham (HES), 27 November 2012.

According to (S11) and (S12) the stained glass at St Mary’s church can be divided into two groups. Group 1 consists of main- and tracery-light panels of c. 1420-1430 date from the same workshop, likely Norwich. This includes parts of a series of the lives of St Margaret of Antioch and St George of Cappadocia. The remainder are tracery-light panels showing parts of a series of Episcopal saints. Group 2 consists of a collection of miscellaneous tracery-light panels in different styles and of later dates. Previously it has been suggested that the glass may have come from Lyng or Billingford church. However, (S11) and (S12) argues that the size and shape of the glass plus its iconography and how this relates to St Peter, the church’s patrons and nearby King’s Lynn suggest that the glass most likely came from Wiggenhall St Peter church.
(S12) refers to the glass being restored by G. King & Son in their workshop between 1965 and 1983 with further restoration taking place c. 2005 the Canterbury Cathedral Studio.
A. Beckham (HES), 27 November 2012.

September 2019. Watching Brief.
Maintained during excavation of two trial pits dug to investigate source of structural problems in west tower of church.
The one excavated adjacent to the tower and exposed the footing for a tower buttress. This was associated with a construction trench and comprised knapped flint nodules bonded with mortar. No finds were recovered.
Information from draft report. See also NHER 65548.
P. Watkins (HES), 11 April 2022.