Norton, Suffolk

St Andrew, open, really was pushing it as the light was going fast but was hugely rewarding - and actually the lowering sun flattered the exterior. After Stowlangtoft it provided a more intimate experience but also has fine bench ends, misericords, good glass and an outstanding font.

ST ANDREW. Chancel of c. 1300, see e.g. the lancet window above the priest’s doorway. The E window however looks transitional between Dec and Perp. The N aisle (see the doorway) must have been built in the early C14, and the tower at least begun. Money was left for its completion in 1442. Of that time or later most of the windows. The S aisle has at its base some flushwork chequerboard patterning. S porch with flushwork decoration and a niche above the entrance. The arcade of three bays has concave-sided octagonal piers, each side provided with a shallow blank ogee arch-head (cf. Lakenheath and other places). Double-hollow-chamfered arches. - FONT. Perp, octagonal, and richly carved. The stem is square and has panels and four figures carrying shields, one of them a Wild Man. On the bowl  the four Signs of the Evangelists, and in addition a double eagle, a unicorn, a pelican, and a griffin. - STALLS. Three sections are preserved. They have exceptionally good MISERICORDS, the Martyrdom of St Edmund, the Crucifixion of St Andrew, a Pelican, a Woman warming her feet (January?), a Monk writing, a man whipping a boy’s buttocks, a Lion devouring a Wild Man, etc. - BENCHES. In the aisles. The ends with poppy-heads and animals on the arms. - STAINED GLASS. In the chancel on the S side. Whole figures in the tracery. - PLATE. Paten 1722; Almsdish 1761.

NORTON. Most of its ancient treasures are in the church, standing aloof in a narrow lane with a tall avenue bordering the pathway to its porch. The tower is 14th century, but the church is mainly 15th. The chancel has kept its ancient roof with embattled beam and cornice, and the vestry door still has its old iron handle. A chancel window has delightful old glass with canopies and six saints, among them Andrew in a white robe and Christopher with the Child. An aisle window has more ancient glass with four saintly figures. The finely preserved medieval font is one of the best in Suffolk. The bowl has panels showing a pelican with her young, a unicorn, a double-headed eagle, and a curious figure half-bird and half-beast. Under the bowl are winged angel-heads, and at the corners of the shaft are a lion and a goat, a wild man with a club, and a demon with the world at his feet, which are 15th century.

There is a curious rough-hewn chest, and some old benches with poppyheads and figures on their arm-rests, among them a crowned cockerel, a priest at prayer, and creatures from a nightmare zoo. But the rarest wooden treasures here are eight beautiful stalls, their misereres showing the martyrdoms of St Andrew and St Edmund, a lion devouring a man, a pelican feeding her young, a woman with a book, and greyhounds. On the arms of the stalls are a kneeling priest, a man beating his son, and grotesque animals. Rare treasures indeed are these stalls, 600 years old, and fit for a cathedral.

Flickr.