The spireless parish church of Trimingham is called St John the Baptist’s Head. This strange dedication to John the Baptist’s head dates from the medieval period. During this time a life size alabaster head of the saint was kept at the church and pilgrims in this country came to the church to the shrine altar, rather than make the journey to Amiens Cathedral where a relic said to be the real head of John the Baptist was kept.
The alabaster head did not survive and although it is unknown exactly what happened to it, it has been suggested that it was probably destroyed by Anglican reformers as a result of the 1538 Injunction against images during the reign of Henry VIII. Another theory is that the head was destroyed as a result of a further injunction which was rigorously imposed in 1547, during the early weeks of the reign of Edward VI. Today an Alabaster head survives in the Victoria and Albert Museum and it is thought that the head at Trimingham was exactly like the head in the museum collection. To this day, the nearby village hall is called the Pilgrim Shelter as a reminder of Trimingham’s past as a site of pilgrimage.
The church has a short tower which is thought to be unfinished. It has heavy buttresses on the west elevation which suggest that a fault in the construction of the church may well have been the reasoning for the unfinished tower. The nave to the east cuts around the buttress to embrace it. This peculiarity may be partly the result of a restoration by Thomas Jekyll in the 1850s. Pevsner states in his survey book that Thomas Jekyll completely rebuilt the nave of which the most notable feature is the way that the tower buttresses on the east side project into the nave.
The church’s rood screen is very small with four figures on either side of the entrance to the chancel. The figures are St Edmund with his arrow, St Clare with her book and monstrance, St Clement with his anchor and crozier, and St James in his pilgrim’s robes. On the south side are St Petronella with her book and keys, St Cecilia with her garland of flowers, St Barbara with her tower, and St Jeron with his hawk. The east window of the church is credited to H Wilkinson and dates from 1925. The window depicts Christ in Majesty flanked by St Michael and St Gabriel, with the symbols of the four Evangelists surrounding them.
Tags: Norfolk, The church of St John the Baptist's Head, Trimingham, Trimingham Church, Vacation
Change yourself and you have done your part in changing the world.
Paramahansa Yogananda
Tags: Kings Lynne, Norfolk, Portrait, Self Portrait, Vacation
The town has given its name to the Cromerian Stage or Cromerian Complex, also called the Cromerian, a stage in the Pleistocene glacial history of north-western Europe.
Cromer is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The place-name ‘Cromer’ is first found in a will of 1262[7] and could mean ‘Crows’ mere or lake’.[8] There are other contenders for the derivation, a north-country word ‘cromer’ meaning ‘a gap in the cliffs’ or less likely a direct transfer from a Danish placename.
Tags: Cromer, Norfolk, Vacation
The name [Horning] means “the folk who live on the high ground between the rivers”.
In 1020 A.D. the manor was given by King Canute to the Abbey of St. Benet at Hulme, and the Bishop of Norwich as Abbot of St. Benets is still Lord of the Manor.
The Parish extends along the north bank of the river Bure to the Thurne Mouth and includes the ruins of the abbey and St. James hospital also the 13th. century church of St. Benedict.
Tags: Horning, Norfolk, Vacation
When your mind is empty of prejudices you can see the Tao. When your hearth is empty of desires you can follow the Tao.
Robet M Pirsing
Tags: Cherie's Place Thought, Norfolk, Sandringham, Sandringham Estate, Vacation
Castle Rising Castle is one of the most famous 12th Century castles in England. The stone keep, built in around 1140ad, is amongst the finest surviving examples of its kind anywhere in the country and, together with the massive surrounding earthworks, ensures that Rising is a castle of national importance.
In its time Rising has served as a hunting lodge, royal residence, and for a brief time in the 18th century even housed a mental patient. The most famous period in its history was when it came to the mother of Edward III, Queen Isabella, following her part in the murder of her husband Edward II. The castle passed to the Howard family in 1544 and it remains in their hands today, the current owner being a descendant of William D’Albini II, the Norman baron who raised the castle.
The great earthworks which form the whole site and extent of the castle cover an area of between 12 and 13 acres, and comprise a main central enclose, or inner bailey, and two lesser outworks respectively to east and west. The central enclosure, in shape something between a circle and an oval about 73m north to south and 64m east to west, has a circumference around its crest of about 320m, and is far and away the strongest, with it banks, even now after the cumulative and combined effects of erosion and in-filling, rising to a height of some 18m.
Within the inner bailey can be found the remains of an early Norman Church. Discovered in the early nineteenth century when the bailey was cleared of accumulated sand and soil, it is the earliest building within the site, pre-dating even the castle itself. Dating from around the late eleventh century it is thought to be the first parish church of Rising (no earlier church has been discovered) and was probably replaced by the current twelfth-century church when the castle was founded.
Tags: Castle Rising, Kings Lynne, Norfolk, Vacation
Taking advantage of a Christmas gift voucher we had Afternoon Tea at David Austin Roses. The weather was perfect, after several rainy days the sun came out allowing us to enjoy the gardens before indulging in tasty treats in the tea room.
Tags: Afternoon tea, David Austin Roses, Me by another, National Trust, Portrait, Shropshire, There's Always One
