St Mary - The Nave

Written by Administrator.

The nave is short and unaisled, with windows in the perpendicular style, the great English style dominant in the late 1300s and all through the 1400s, These windows are now in a sad state of repair.

One of the nave windows

One of the nave windows, though attractive, it is in a sad state of repair.

The Nave viewed from the west
Below are the floor tiles, trying hard to make themselves seen through several decades of bird droppings. On each side of the nave aisle are what appear to be raised platforms. These are wooden floors above the heating system and boiler, presumably also installed in 1869. As you can see from the 1930 photograph, the seats were conveniently place on these floors which were heated from below.
StM---floor-tiles

This ledger stone lies at the end of the nave aisle, just before the chancel arch. The memorial reads: Sacred to the memory of Mrs Mary Dix who departed this live May the 18th 1808 in the Ninety First year of her Age.

In her will dated 17 October 1804 she names herself as Mary Dix of Forncett St Mary in the County of Norfolk, Spinster and she mentions legacies to her sister, Sarah Dix, and to Maria Barret daughter of her late sister Prisca Gay and to Mary Gay the daughter of John Gay of Rainthorpe Hall in Norfolk. After the payment of those legacies, the residue to go Charlotte Smyth the wife of George Smyth of Mellis in Suffolk, being her freehold and copyhold property in Forncett St Mary or elsewhere, the copyhold part wherof she had surrendered to the use of her will.

The will was witnessed by William Cookson, Dorothy Cookson and William Braidforth and proved on the 17th September 1808 at Stuston.

St-Mary---Mary-Dix-memorial