God's Acre

Sunday, 5 August 2012

Saint Peter Parmentergate - Norwich

Saint Peter Parmentergate is a Church that I have not been in and I don't know how to gain entry. This is a massive pile of a building with a graveyard that has been scraped in favour of a municipal City park. The population of this City centre area has grown back with the redevelopment of King Street although the parish has gone with the present parish being found centred on Saint John the Baptist nearby. The parkland around the Church is maintained and available and I imagine that the Church is similarly maintained unlike the poor remains of Saint Etheldreda so badly treated by the artistic community of Norwich.

A crescent inside a star - King Street, Norwich

The scraped graveyard becomes the park
Saint Peter parmentergate - King Street, Norwich

Ann Norris - Buried Saint Peter Parmentergate, King Street, Norwich

Saturday, 4 August 2012

Saint Julian - Norwich

The Church of Saint Julian in Norwich is a real jewel of the Anglican denomination. An Anglo-Catholic shrine to a 14th Century mystic in the heart of Norwich. Even so, the Anglicans strive to diminish what they have and to take away the gloss of the ancient and antique. When I visited the Anglicans had managed to clear away the few monuments left in this small oasis and had put in place a rather sad lawn area in the cemetery that is hidden to the rear of the small building. The lawn is a nod in the direction of the quiet City space and in some ways we should be grateful that they have this in the middle of a new and rather expensive housing development. I'm not sure that the locals take up the offer of a service at Saint Julian's although I'm sure that the local indigents do take up the offer of privacy from the prying eyes of Norwich. Saint Julian as a hospitaler saint would doubtless approve.