ST JAMES. Essentially an early C14 church. W tower with characteristic doorway and bell-openings. Battlements with chequer flushwork. Recessed lead spire. Nave and chancel in one, also with much chequer flushwork. Dec aisle windows and doorways. The S doorway is shafted inside; in front of the N doorway a porch, again with chequer brickwork. The chancel has tall three-light windows to the S, two-light windows to the N, and a five-light E window with details just going Dec. Here the wall is again chequered. An odd feature is the W window of the clerestory, which is cut in half by the tower. Yet the clerestory can hardly be earlier than the tower. It may be either a calculated oddity or a miscalculation. The clerestory windows are above the spandrels of the arcade arches, not the apexes. The arcades are Dec too, earlier on the S than the N side. On the S quatrefoil with very deep continuous hollows in the diagonals and double-chamfered arches, more C13 than C14, on the N side with four shafts and four separate hollows and arch mouldings with sunk shallow hollows. In the S aisle a large and wide niche with a little vault inside. Remains of painting survive, including little angels. In the chancel the sedilia have been destroyed, apart from the two end shafts. Nave roof with tie-beams on arched braces and tracery above the braces. - FONT. Octagonal, with shields in barbed quatrefoils. - SCREENS. Bases only of rood screen and S parclose screen. The base of the rood screen has fields traceried all over. A fragment of the N parclose screen has the tracery only painted on. - WEST GALLERY. C18, quite a nice composition. - WALL PAINTINGS. In the S aisle scene with a pilgrim by a cross. Also an angel in the jamb of a S window. - PLATE. Pre-Reformation Paten, altered and inscribed 1572; Chalice (Norwich) 1567-8. - MONUMENTS. Brass to a Lady, c.1500, 27 in. figure (N of the altar). - Fysher Colman d. 1758. By T. Stafford of Norwich. Tablet with Rococo cartouche against an obelisk.
GREAT ELLINGHAM. Houses with roofs of thatch and tile are dotted in the lanes and on the highway, where stands the old windmill that has lost its sails. The church, which saw the passing years of the 14th century, has a tower with chequered battlements and a short leaded spire, and is notable inside for its space and light. The windows have leaf tracery, and there are old glass fragments in the chancel, which is ablaze with great windows, the east one of five lights. St James, the patron saint, wearing a tunic and blue cloak and with his staff, stands out in an aisle, below him a tiny ship blown along by cherubs, and these words from the Epistle of St. James:
Behold also the ship which yet they be so large yet they are turned about with a very small helm; even so the tongue is a little member which boasteth great things.
Arches on clustered columns divide the nave and aisles, and stone heads support the restored old roof. The old font is adorned with shields, there is a piscina at the end of the window-seat sedilia, the altar table is Jacobean, and the battered old screen has still some of its traceried panels. Among the medieval relics that came to light in 20th-century restoration is a painted niche in the wall, the rood stairway, two consecration crosses, and a rough patch showing a pilgrim in turban-like cap with his staff, passing a preaching cross. In front of him is what is left of an animal in harness.
The church treasures the fine brass portrait of a lady unknown, her kennel headdress falling over her shoulders, and a long girdle trailing below her dress.
Behold also the ship which yet they be so large yet they are turned about with a very small helm; even so the tongue is a little member which boasteth great things.
Arches on clustered columns divide the nave and aisles, and stone heads support the restored old roof. The old font is adorned with shields, there is a piscina at the end of the window-seat sedilia, the altar table is Jacobean, and the battered old screen has still some of its traceried panels. Among the medieval relics that came to light in 20th-century restoration is a painted niche in the wall, the rood stairway, two consecration crosses, and a rough patch showing a pilgrim in turban-like cap with his staff, passing a preaching cross. In front of him is what is left of an animal in harness.
The church treasures the fine brass portrait of a lady unknown, her kennel headdress falling over her shoulders, and a long girdle trailing below her dress.
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