ST STEPHEN, Rampant Horse Street. N tower with porch, the ground floor (see the entrance) C14 - as is also the S doorway. The ground floor is vaulted in two bays with a big circle in the middle and two figured bosses of which one represents the Stoning of St Stephen. Above this ground floor the tower is the result of a remodelling dated in large figures 1601.* Knapped flint friezes. Two-light bell-openings flanked by large blank two-light flushwork windows. Above on each side a circle, a lozenge, and another circle. In spite of this the tower appears still essentially Perp, and this is also true of the rest of the church, of which the chancel was indeed built in 1501-22, but the rest after the Reformation. Above the W doorway runs a frieze of small lozenges with, in the middle, the date 1550. Yet the W window of six lights under a four-centred arch is as convincingly Perp as the E window of five lights under its two-centred arch. The clerestory, with its splendid sixteen windows on each side, is internally as convincing, though externally the little buttresses between the windows have a post-Reformation touch. W and E walls are ashlar-faced.
The interior of the church is impressive. There is no chancel arch, so that the arcades run without any break for eight bays. The piers are octagonal, and their details are clearly no longer Perp. They have sunk concave panels in each side. Many moulded four-centred arches. Panelling above the arches in the East Anglian way. Hammerbeam roof with tracery in the spandrels and no motif betraying the real date of the work. - STALLS. Just four are left, one with a minor MISERICORD. - STAINED GLASS. In the E window a jumble of old glass culminating in five large figures and groups of 1511 from the monastery of Mariawald near Heimbach in the Ruhr valley. Also English C15 fragments and others. - In the head of the W window many small figures in clear colours, according to the Ecclesiologist 1865 by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. - In a S aisle window glass by Kempe, 1905. - PLATE. Chalice and Paten (Norwich) 1567-8 ; two Flagons (London) 1626-7; Chalice and Cover (London) 1631-2; Almsbasin (Norwich) given in 1694; Paten or Dish (London) 1718-I9; Spoon dated 1753. - MONUMENTS. Brass to a Lady, early C15. - Brass to Thomas Bokenham d. 1460. - Brass to Thomas Cappe d. 1545 (2 ft figure). - Brasses to Richard Brasyer and his son, who was Mayor in 1510. Also to Robert Brasyer and wife (28 in. figures) made c.151-15 (all chancel). - John Mingay, 1617, tablet with kneeling figures facing each other across a prayer-desk. - Charles and Mary Mackerell. By John Ivory. She died in 1747. A very fine architectural tablet. - Elizabeth Coppin d. 1812. Of Coade stone, signed Coade & Sealy. Gothic below, but with a normal Georgian chubby putto by an urn above.
* The figures were unfortunately removed in 1960.
St Stephen’s church, with fine flint facing, built between 1350 and 1550, attracts us down an alley leading from St Peter Mancroft. The tower (its unfortunate date 1601 referring to restoration) stands on the north side of the church and forms a porch with a low vaulted roof, its bosses carved with such scenes as the stoning of Stephen, an owl, and a grotesque head. There is fan-vaulting in the north chapel, and the lovely old hammerbeam roof above the long clerestory of 32 windows has carved wallplates and traceried spandrels. The font has a cover with a big golden pelican, a fine chest is covered with heavily studded bands of iron, and in the sculpture of an old alabaster panel are nine saints. The modern benches have fleur-de-lys poppyheads, and six old stalls have carved arm-rests. Glowing with colour, the east window has old glass of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, much of it a jumble with figures and faces, and Christopher as one of five figures. Three of five portrait brasses are of the Brasyer family, showing Robert (mayor in 1410), Richard who was mayor twice in the 15th century, and Richard mayor in 1510, all wearing fur-trimmed gowns. With Robert is his wife Christiana in kennel headdress, a rose clasp to her girdle. Dr Thomas Cappe, in his robes as vicar, rebuilt the chancel and began the splendid roof; he died in 1545. The brass of a lady in a graceful flowing gown, her mittened hands at prayer, and two quaint little bedesmen sitting among the flowers at her feet, is probably over 500 years old, though some believe her to be 400 only, supposing that she is the last prioress of Campsey. In the monument to John Mingay, mayor in 1617, two figures kneel at a desk.
No comments:
Post a Comment