Saint Mary The Virgin - Beachamwell - is a real surprise as you see it for the first time. The site resembles a Church and graveyard in the North of England as they sit in a small enclosure on a large village green. Almost like being in County Durham rather than in Norfolk.
The Church was firmly locked and tantalisingly there was a notice advising that the key was held nearby. Unlike other experiences of locked Churches, such as Sporle, I decided to look for the key from a local address. The map on the Church door seemed to be clear and I set off on an adventure. Regrettably, the map wasn't to scale and the Anglican Authorities have imagined that visitors know the village and understand where places are. If only locals wanted the key then they wouldn't need a map. I tried to ring the 'phone numbers from my mobile although as with remote areas of Norfolk there was no signal. Tension and frustration mounted until I finally gave up. I walked up and down the street a number of times without success or being able to find a mobile 'phone signal.
The graveyard is unremarkable and I didn't spend long there after fizzing with disappointment for a short while. The Anglican Authorities have cleared away anything that was interesting and left behind a melange of rather sad1930's memorials.
I returned once more to West Bradenham to have a long walk. The site is magnificent and the wind through the pines has a sort of musical quality. The Church is always locked and no sign of a key etc although my success with keys is limited. There are services being held here although the notice board didn't continue past June.
The Atthow family appears to have been a large collection of people in West Bradenham.
"The early church differed from the pagan and even from the Jewish notions by a cheerful and hopeful view of death, and by discarding lamentations, rending of clothes, and all signs of extravagant grief. The terrors of the grave were dispelled by the light of the resurrection, and the idea of death was transformed into the idea of a peaceful slumber. No one, says Cyprian, should be made sad by death, since in living is labor and peril, in dying peace and the certainty of resurrection; and he quotes the examples of Enoch who was translated, of Simeon who wished to depart in peace, several passages from Paul, and the assurance of the Lord that he went to the Father to prepare heavenly mansions for us.Testim. l. III.c. 5889 The day of a believer’s death, especially if he were a martyr, was called the day of his heavenly birth. His grave was surrounded with symbols of hope and of victory; anchors, harps, palms, crowns. The primitive Christians always showed a tender care for the dead; under a vivid impression of the unbroken communion of saints and the future resurrection of the body in glory. For Christianity redeems the body as well as the soul, and consecrates it a temple of the Holy Spirit. Hence the Greek and Roman custom of burning the corpse (crematio) was repugnant to Christian feeling and the sacredness of the body. Burial was the prevailing Oriental and even the earlier Roman custom before the empire, and was afterwards restored, no doubt under the influence of Christianity Minucius Felix says (Octav. c. 34): "Veterem et meliorem consuetudinem humandi frequentamus." Comp. Cicero, De Leg. II. 22; Pliny, Hist. Nat. VII. 54; Augustin, De Civ Dei I. 12, 13. Sometimes dead Christians were burned during the persecution by the heathen to ridicule their hope of a resurrection.Tertullian even declared it a symbol of the fire of hell, and Cyprian regarded it as equivalent to apostasy.
In its stead, the church adopted the primitive Jewish usage of burial (inhumatio),; Matt. 27:60; John 11:17; Acts 5:6; 8:2.91 practiced also by the Egyptians and Babylonians. The bodies of the dead were washed,Acts 9:37.92 wrapped in linen cloths,Matt. 27:59; Luke 23:53; John 11:44.93 sometimes embalmed,John 19:39 sq.; 12:7.94 and then, in the presence of ministers, relatives, and friends, with prayer and singing of psalms, committed as seeds of immortality to the bosom of the earth. Funeral discourses were very common as early as the Nicene period.We have the funeral orations of Eusebius at the death of Constantine, of Gregory of Nazianzum on his father, brother, and sister, of Ambrose on Theodosius. But in the times of persecution the interment was often necessarily performed as hastily and secretly as possible. The death-days of martyrs the church celebrated annually at their graves with oblations, love feasts, and the Lord’s Supper. Families likewise commemorated their departed members in the domestic circle. The current prayers for the dead were originally only thanksgiving for the grace of God manifested to them. But they afterwards passed into intercessions, without any warrant in the reaching of the apostles, and in connection with questionable views in regard to the intermediate state. Tertullian, for instance, in his argument against second marriage, says of the Christian widow, she prays for the soul of her departed husband,"Pro anima ejus orat!" Compare, however, the prevailing cheerful tone of the epigraphs in the catacombs and brings her annual offering on the day of his departure".
"The body of St. Peter then was buried in a small cemetery on the Vatican hill close to the place where he was crucified. Over this tomb Anencletus erected his memoria, and in the immediate vicinity the first twelve bishops of Rome, with the exception of Clement and Alexander, were according to the ‘Liber Pontificalis’ laid to rest—in each case the phrase recurs ‘sepultus est iuxta corpus beati Petri in Vaticanum.’ In time the entire space available was filled up. Zephyrinus was the first to be buried in 217 A.D. on the Appian Way, and his successor Calixtus created the crypt in the great subterranean cemetery called after his name, where he himself and a number of his successors were interred".
The ruined Church of All Saints - Beachamwell, is the sort of site that I really like. It is romantic, fragile and away from the crowds. The Church is also ruined and the sort of place that would be included in a 'lost graveyard' report.
The site is dramatic and out of the way down a footpath and on a slight rise in the land. All Saints is ruined, vulnerable and momentarily dramatic as it finally falls into the same ground from which it arose. The flints that forms the remaining walls are seperating from each other and on a hot day in June 2012 it was hard to see where the walls began and ended. The wind blew through the site and the wild grasses rustled in an evocative sort of way.
The outline of the Church was evident from walking the site and the lumps and bumps of the field were noticed underfoot. There were no burials evident amongst the grasses and I'm sure that even if there were stone memorials they have long gone as the locals robbed the site of building materials for the world of the living. The remaining walls have plants colonising the mortar and the the wild flowers help the final stages of dissolution.
All Saints - Beachamwell
Crumbling walls in a sea of grass
