Visiting Churches

Visiting Churches is one area that I love because you never know what you'll find. The Church is often the only communal property in the village and its the place where the unusual and the noteworthy is placed in the same way that we place unusual things on the mantelpiece.

The stone coffin from the 13th Century is this sort of unusual. The hole in the centre is the drain hole for the juices formed by decomposition and the floor of the Church would have formed the lid of the coffin. How insanitary is that? Whilst the parish Churches preserve the old coffins the Anglican Cathedral at Norwich turns one coffin into a flower planter.

13th Century coffin against the wall

© Godric Godricson



The  Anglican Authorities at Norwich Cathedral
turn an ancient coffin into a flower planter

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Jack Bibby Died 11th June 1917



© Godric Godricson



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

© Godric Godricson

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

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

© Godric Godricson

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.

The beauty of Traditional Anglican worship - King Street, Norwich

© Godric Godricson

The one (rather sad) monument on the edge of the convent
Saint Julian -  King Street, Norwich

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The convent intrudes into the graveyard
Saint Julian -  King Street, Norwich

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Saint Etheldreda - Norwich



The country moves into the City- King Street, Norwich [Link]

© Godric Godricson



The country moves into the City- King Street, Norwich [Link]

© Godric Godricson

The country moves into the City- King Street, Norwich [Link]

© Godric Godricson



The Anglicans turn monuments into path edging [Link]

© Godric Godricson