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| Set in Breckland this church has a fascinating history including the founding of a college of priests to say prayers for departed souls after the horrors of the Black Death in the 14th century. It also has a collection of benches from the Civil War period, which are very unusual. This Church was one that has connections with the Walsingham family, the other is that of St Peter Merton, actually an estate Church. |
 In 1349, coincident with, and possibly in response to, the Black Death, a college of Priests was founded at Thompson by the Shardlows to pray for their souls. Much of the rebuilding and refurbishing of the church from then until the Reformation of the 1530's was a response to that foundation. That this is a collegiate church is revealed by the fittings in the chancel, but one of the later Shardlows thought himself needy enough of prayer to build a separate chantry chapel at the east end of the south aisle in the mid-15th century. But even this is understated, and barely extends two metres southwards of the aisle wall. The woodwork is silvery and ancient, having escaped the varnishing the 19th century lavished elsewhere. |
| Special Features of St. Martin |
 Uneven floors balance the gorgeous screen, and the nave is full of quirky little details: the benches, installed on the eve of the Civil War and dated as such, perhaps by puritans to increase the capacity of the building for long sermons, and an intriguing structure for those sermons to be delivered from. This is a three decker pulpit of sorts, but cobbled together from bits and pieces found elsewhere in the church. The pulpit itself is a wineglass shape, possibly pre-Reformation; the adjoining minister's stall and lectern is a modified panelled pew. The clerk's desk appears to be part of a stall, and was possibly added later. For several centuries, it was this structure, and not the altar, that provided the focus for the worshippers of Thompson. |
| St. Martin's Architecture |
 These 17th century fittings are exciting, but it is the medieval survivals that inspire awe. The screen is a rustic delight, stencilled with flowers, and its shafts, as Mortlock observes, turned like barbers' poles. Behind it in the chancel are the college stalls with some of their misericord seats carved underneath, including one of a rather serious Bishop. Less serious, more mysterious, are the green men who peer out from the spandrels of the wonderful sedilia. Wall paintings survive, though so fragmentary that it is hard to make anything out - apart from a couple of post-Reformation texts, installed there by the Elizabethan church in its attempts to turn us all into serious-minded protestants. What a battleground this church has been! |
| More Churches |
| To explore some of the other fascinating Churches and Cathedrals in Norfolk, please choose from any of the links below. St. John's Roman Catholic Cathedral Norwich Cathedral St. Margaret's, Kings Lynn St. Mary, Brancaster St. Helen, Ranworth St. George, South Acre St. Martin, Thompson Round Towered Churches |
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