To the north of the church is an obviously ancient barn.
ST MARY. Norman round tower of carstone with single round headed bell-openings, a plain arch towards the nave, and a Perp octagonal top. In the nave one Norman N window with double splay, one blocked Norman S window. Also, facing one another, two very long lancets. Are they original C13 features? Pretty niche above the S doorway. - PULPIT. High Victorian, of stone, by W. Lawne of Downham Market. - STAINED GLASS. In the Norman N window one small Perp head of Christ. - MONUMENT. Francis Bachcroft d. 1658. Tablet of black and white marble, definitely post-Jacobean in style.
BEXWELL HALL. A stone barn to the N of the church seems to be a C15 gatehouse. Gateway between two polygonal turrets To its r. two traceried straight-headed windows and traces of more.
BEXWELL. By the main road from Downham Market a few cottages and a farmhouse cluster shyly about a handsome old rectory and an old church big enough for all the village folk.
The round base of the tower, which some believe to be Saxon, has an arch opening to the nave, and a ring of Norman windows below the octagonal belfry. There is also a Norman window in the church, and another blocked. The west window is as old as the belfry, 15th century. The porch is Tudor, and in one of the battered niches over the south doorway is a modern Madonna. There are roundels of dull old glass, and a head which may be of Our Lord. The font and a big chest are both old, an old coffin stone is carved with a simple cross, and part of another has the head of a Maltese cross. The elaborately carved pulpit of Caen stone has an alabaster figure of Our Lord on the Road to Calvary.
On an old road from Bexwell to Downham Market stood a wayside shrine; now there is only an overgrown footpath, but where bygone generations paused to pray is something else holy, a memorial raised by by two fathers to their sons. In September 1915 the son of the squire of Ryston Hall (close by) gave his life for his country, and exactly a year later the eldest son of the rector of Bexwell fell while leading his men. A white cross, resting on the old lichen-covered stone remaining from the ancient shrine, is their memorial, and the wooden cross of one of them is in the church.
* Having done a Flickr search I don't think I missed much.
The round base of the tower, which some believe to be Saxon, has an arch opening to the nave, and a ring of Norman windows below the octagonal belfry. There is also a Norman window in the church, and another blocked. The west window is as old as the belfry, 15th century. The porch is Tudor, and in one of the battered niches over the south doorway is a modern Madonna. There are roundels of dull old glass, and a head which may be of Our Lord. The font and a big chest are both old, an old coffin stone is carved with a simple cross, and part of another has the head of a Maltese cross. The elaborately carved pulpit of Caen stone has an alabaster figure of Our Lord on the Road to Calvary.
On an old road from Bexwell to Downham Market stood a wayside shrine; now there is only an overgrown footpath, but where bygone generations paused to pray is something else holy, a memorial raised by by two fathers to their sons. In September 1915 the son of the squire of Ryston Hall (close by) gave his life for his country, and exactly a year later the eldest son of the rector of Bexwell fell while leading his men. A white cross, resting on the old lichen-covered stone remaining from the ancient shrine, is their memorial, and the wooden cross of one of them is in the church.
* Having done a Flickr search I don't think I missed much.
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