32 C O N T E X T 1 4 1 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 William Caroe to build an entirely new church beside the old one between 1904 and 1906. Pevsner describes St Patrick’s as ‘art nouveau gothic’ and the nave of St Andrew’s forms the south aisle of the conjoined churches. The church has some wonderful 19th- and 20th-century stained glass, and a marvellous long cloister connecting a priest’s door in the old church to a newer bell tower. Next stop, Thetford Warren Lodge, where we met Anne Mason of the Breckland Society. The Lodge is a rectangular tower house, built of mortared flint rubble and reused stones in around 1400. Located on higher ground, it served as a lookout point and as a defensible building, protecting warreners and gamekeepers from gangs of armed poachers. It has thick walls with a few narrow loop windows and a single entrance door with what was thought to be a murder hole above its head, now believed to have been a way to brace the door with a large vertical timber against intruders. Warrens were numerous and profitable in the Brecks, being suitable to the free-draining, sandy soil. Thetford Warren covered 1,200 hectares and at its peak in the 1850s yielded almost 30,000 carcasses a year. Skins were used to produce felt, which supplied the hat-making industry in Brandon. Our lunch stop was in a small gothic church hidden in the forest. Built as a private chapel in finely squared knapped flint with Bath stone dressings and a high pitched slated roof above a pierced stone parapet in a 15th-century perpendicular style, the church is called Our Lady of Consolation and St Stephen in Lyndford. Designed by Henry Clutton, it is occasionally used for services. It was taken on by the Norfolk Churches Trust in 2009. The ecclesiastical theme continued with St Mary’s West Tofts. It was a rare chance to visit this gem, remodelled by Pugin (1812–1852), in the Stanford Battle Area. Six villages and surrounding farmland were evacuated in 1944 so that the forces could train for D Day.The original villages no longer exist, having been destroyed by live rounds in the army’s training manoeuvres, but the four churches in use in 1944 still remain. The rural medieval church was turned into a gothic fantasy under the patronage of the owners of nearby Lynford Hall, with Pugin rebuilding the chancel and adding a richly decorated south transept. Highlights are the Pugin roodscreen, parclose screen to the chapel in the northern aisle, south transept chapel and chancel. Our last stop was Grade I Wymondham Abbey, a large twin-towered church built on high ground, making it a dominant presence in the landscape. Here we met Henry Freeland of Freeland Rees Roberts Architects, which has designed the Abbey Experience Project. Nearing completion, this includes internal reordering, with the restoration of the south aisle, re-opening the grand west doors and creating new links between, so that a ruined monastic tower can be accessed from the church. A new meeting and storage space is being created within the ruins of St Margaret’s Chapel and an extension built to the south aisle to provide toilets, a kitchen, and an activity and display area. Boyd Nicholas The Merchants of Lynn and the Hanseatic League Our Merchants of Lynn group set off on a 45-mile trip north westwards to King’s Lynn, on the River Great Ouse, one of four major rivers feeding into the Wash, the great estuary separating Norfolk from Lincolnshire. This was all new territory to me. A slight detour as we neared King’s Lynn took us The three-storey gatehouse of Pentney Abbey dates from the 1300s. (Photo: Adam Swann)
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