Caston, Norfolk

Not a first, but unusual, Holy Cross, no idea but I think normally open, was under scaffolding with thatchers and other workers busy at work. A sign on the west door read "church closed for major repairs for whole of 2018" and this is a first, so some serious restoration work has been going on here. I'm unlikely to pass this way again so here's a link to Simon Knott's entry.

HOLY CROSS. Chancel of c.1300. The E window has intersected tracery, but a cinquefoiled circle at the top. Dec W tower, the doorway with a bold ogee head, the window above it with a small reticulation motif inside each unit of reticulated tracery (cf. Thompson nearby). Perp nave windows (but one blocked earlier N window) and modest Perp N porch of two storeys. Nave roof panelled, with bosses. - PULPIT. Jacobean, simple. - SCREEN. Only the base is preserved. - STALLS. Two with MISERICORDS; heads. - Some few BENCH ENDS with poppy-heads. - CHANDELIER. Large, of two tiers; from Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.*- STAINED GLASS. In a nave window many ancient fragments newly arranged. - In the chancel much of the time of the restoration (1853). - PLATE. Silver-gilt Paten of c.1520, with the head of Christ in a circle set in a lobed depression. - Chalice (London) 1795.

 

CASTON. It straggles along the highway, a fine old windmill greeting us as we come from Watton. The 14th-century tower of the church stands guard by the green, round which are gathered the school, the smithy, and an old farmhouse with remains of arcading in its walls. It was once a refectory for pilgrims on their way to the shrine at Walsingham, and the pilgrims would see the old cross, of which the great base is still on the green.

The tower is the best feature of this church which Sir John de Caston restored in the second half of the 14th century. The porch with its upper room and the windows of the nave come from the next century. The font is of Sir John’s day, as is the arched recess in the nave, which may have been built for his remains. The pulpit has Jacobean panels, and the base of the old screen is still here. Two old stalls have misereres carved with men’s heads. The roofs have panels painted with barber’s pole pattern and enriched with gilded bosses.

Among fragments of old glass is a medley arranged in formal design, three restored figures of Our Lord, and a wheel of St Catherine. A treasured possession is a fine candelabra for 18 lights, originally given by Charles Stuart to Cheshunt church in Herts. The most interesting relics here are some old poppyhead bench-ends, carved with tracery and quaint animals and birds.

Flickr.