NHER 7468 (Building record) - St Agnes' Church, Cawston

May 1961. Listed, Grade I.
Listing Description excerpt:
"Parish Church, mainly 15th century, of Ashlar, flint with stone dressings, and render, with lead and slate roofs. Tower, two-storey south porch, north aisle, south aisle, nave, clerestorey, north transept, north chancel chapel, chancel and vestry. Early 15th-century tower, of four stages with two decorated base courses, continued inside the nave...Porch with stepped diagonal buttresses, base course and west stair turret with remains of flushwork panels...North aisle of five bays, with stepped buttresses and tall three-light Perpendicular windows...South aisle of rendered flint, with four tall three-light Perpendicular windows between stepped buttresses with flushwork...North transept with Curvilinear window to west and Perpendicular three-light windows to north and east. Clerestorey with five, three-light Perpendicular windows with four-centred arches and parapet gable with bellcote. South transept with blocked west window, 19th-century south window and two three-light windows with straight heads and reticulated tracery. North chancel chapel with brick buttress flanked by two, three-light Perpendicular windows with four-centred arches. Vestry with four-light Perpendicular window to north, and a re-set stone cross in its north-east corner. Chancel with angle stepped buttresses to north and south, that to the south with scratch dial...Original bell frame in tower. Early 16th-century timber ringing gallery in base of tower...South transept has south piscina with ogee arch and with a Wild Man and dragon in the spandrels. Wall painting on east wall…"
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current scheduling details.
P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

March 1977. Field Observation.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU).
Basically early Decorated (14th century) in style, majority of church is Perpendicular style dated to before 1414. Magnificent roof and important collection of Perpendicular-style woodwork.
See record cards (S2) for more detailed notes.
E. Rose (NAU) 5 February 1990. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

The tower of 1414, replacing one that fell in 1412, was repaired 1421 [1].
15th-century bellframe [2].
Tom Martin's Church Notes, c.1740 (S3) state that the church had been burnt by lightning about fifty years before, and been "much repaired" in 1731. Former point seems very odd in view of roofs. The vestry at the north-east corner stands on the site of an earlier one in ruins in Martin's time. On the south side of the churchyard stood two carved tombstones "…very ancient in relief and said to be of the people who built the south chapel".
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 5 August 1980. Information from record cards (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

Plate in (S4) shows one south chancel window blocked and a south nave window with its tracery blocked, showing there must have been later 19th-century restoration of its present form.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 26 January 1980. Information from record cards (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

There appears to be a bootscraper by the west gate into churchyard.
One of the stained glass figures is that of St Blida of Martham according to (S5).
Bequests for the screen begin at 1460 for the rood loft, 1490 for painting panels, 1492 for painting the loft, again 1494 and 1505 to paint "…a pane of the screen". Thus the requests span 40 years or more. Details from [3].
19th-century paintings of church interior by Hamlet Watling in V&A (1889 accession).
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from record cards (S1).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

The boundary wall between the churchyard of St Agnes' Church and the Old Rectory (NHER 13569) was separately listed Grade II in 1983. This is now recorded as NHER 67856.
P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

Local press articles (S6)-(S9) in file.

The organ contains 17th-century pipe work from the original cathedral organ and which came via St Stephen Norwich. Details from DAC [Diocesan Advisory Committee].
Compiled by E. Rose (NLA), June 2005. Information from file notes (S10).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

This is one of the sixty five Norfolk churches selected for (S11).
D. Gurney (NLA), 17 February 2006.

The feature mentioned above in the west wall of the churchyard by the gate, resembling a bootscraper in a recess, was removed at some date around 2000 and the recess filled up with recent bricks. This is greatly to be regretted as it was a most unusual if not unique feature.
Compiled by E. Rose (NLA), 22 May 2006. Information from file notes (S10).
P. Watkins (HES), 14 December 2023.

1930.
A leather box or case from this church was displayed in an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London in 1930. See (S12). Also see (S13) for a full description of the box.
A. Beckham (HES), 5 March 2020.

September 2013. Site Visit.
Spandrel decoration of south transept piscina of bird with a wolf's head to right and naked figure with a disproportionatly large bearded head in profile to left. Very unusual to have decoration of this sort to a piscina. See photos in image library.
S. Heywood (HES). 24 September 2013