In Domesday Book, the estate of Forncett was the land of Roger Bigod and is said to have had two churches – identified as the present-day St Peter’s and St Mary’s , which are recorded as separate parish churches. Parts of St Peter’s Church Forncett remarkably now look exactly the same as the Domesday Book recorder would have seen in 1086! These include a significant amount of fabric at the west end, including the tower, and in the chancel. Look out for what is called the ‘herringbone pattern’ in the flintwork – flints laid in rows slightly at an angle to make a pattern – particularly evident in the outside of the south wall of the chancel. 

Photo: A Moskvina

Photo: A Moskvina

 The same wall also bears traces of an intriguing opening above the 13th-century priest’s door, Anglo-Saxon in character, but of unknown function: it is too big to be a window and too high above the ground to be a door!  The Anglo-Saxon church was simple in plan and only consisted of the tower, nave and chancel. The church’s present-day tower is outstanding, although its date has been debated: it could be either late Saxon or early Norman. However, from a stylistic point of view, the tower, with its characteristic double bell openings divided in the middle by stone shafts crowned with capitals, is undeniably Anglo-Saxon. Unusually, the capital in the east opening, although weathered, bears traces of intricate carving, which is very difficult to see from the ground level.

Photo: A Rae

 The west door is designed to look Norman, but is infact Victorian.  The parapet and the stringcourse decorated with gargoyles date to 14th century. Internally, there is a rare timber staircase, dating, most likely, to the 15th-16th centuries.

Photo: A Moskvina

 In the 15th century, in common with many churches, there was significant rebuilding, and the aisles were added. The entrance into the church is through the beautiful 15th-century north porch, which, when it was built, would have played a much more significant role than it does today - marriages, contracts, and business deals took place here. The porch at St Peter’s is decorated with the emblems of St Peter and St Paul: the shields with crossed keys for Peter and crossed swords for Paul. There is also an inscription above, which is almost impossible to decipher, but it reads: ‘Saints Petur and Pawle patronnys of yis place Praye to Ihu i(n) heven yt I may see his face’ [Saints Peter and Paul patrons of this place Pray to Jesus in heaven that I may see His face]. It is common for a church dedicated to both Peter and Paul to lose the Paul along the way, which is what happened here. Further above you can see the letters ‘HIS’ made in typical East Anglian flushwork – they symbolise Jesus Christ.

Photo: A Moskvina

Inside the church, the arch-braced roof, rood stair, piscina, simple font and a number of pew ends are medieval.The latter are of exceptional quality and depict a range of figures: Apostles, personifications of seasons and occupations and symbols of vices. Various suggestions as to the specific identities of these figures have been made and some are still debated. For example, who is the lady in a small house on the north side of the church? The pew ends were severely damaged by iconoclasts in the Reformation and what we see now are a mixture of restored medieval carvings and replacements carved in Victorian times.

Photo: A Moskvina

The alabaster tomb to Elizabeth and Thomas Drake, who died in 1485, is another exceptional feature of the church, showing the couple in their carefully depicted medieval dress. The tomb incorporates unusual niello work – a type of engraving that uses a black mixture to fill out the engraved lines, which may be unique in Norfolk.

Photo: A Rae

 The church was restored and re-seated by Thomas Jekyll in 1857, and, as a result, the interior is largely a mixture of 15th-century and 19th-century fabric, perhaps with the exception of the Jacobean pulpit. The stained glass, the reredos, the organ and the seating are Victorian.

Other important features of the church include a stone mensa slab at the entrance into the tower (it used to be a part of one of the altars in the church and is now set at an angle under the tower arch), two early brass inscriptions and two ledger stones, as well as the remnants of a Victorian heating system at the west end of the nave.

Photo: A Moskvina

The church also celebrates a connection with William and Dorothy Wordsworth, although there are no tangible reminders of their stays in Forncett in the church, beyond modern displays.

Ana Moskvina
Historic Church Building Support Officer, Diocese of Norwich

Bibliography:
Blomefield, F., 'Hundred of Depwade: Forncet', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 5 (London, 1806), pp. 223-262.
Bryant, T.H., Norfolk Churches (Norwich, 1900).
Burcher, D., Norfolk and Suffolk Churches – the Domesday Record (Lowestoft, 2019).
Heywood, S., The Round Tower of the Church of St Peter, Forncett (Norwich 2006)
Izat, R., and Webster, J., The Parish Church of Forncett St Peter. An Historical Guide (Forncett, 2009)
Pevsner, N. and Wilson, B., The Buildings of England. Norfolk 2: North-West and South (London, 1999).
Mortlock, D.P. and Roberts, C.V., The Guide to Norfolk Churches (Cambridge, 2017).
Unpublished Document: Heywood, S., Report, Supplement to Principal Report of November 2006, The Church of St Peter, Forncett. Detail of Eastern Bell Opening.

Details

Written by: Ana Moskvina

Published: 13 April 2020

With the wonderful Anglo-Saxon tower being so prominent at Forncett St Peter, we sometimes forget to see what other stories the fabric of the church can tell. And yet, there are some curious things we can see in the chancel walls – we only have to look a bit more attentively!

On both north and south sides of the chancel, the typical late Anglo-Saxon ‘herringbone’ flintwork pattern stops just west of the easternmost window and short of the eaves at the top. This, most likely, indicates the possible extent of the original chancel – it was definitely lower and shorter than the present one. It is difficult to tell what shape the east end of the chancel would have looked like. It probably would have been either square or apsed; these types in the earlier Anglo-Saxon period were distributed regionally, with a preference for square chancels in the northern regions and for apses in Kent and Essex. Unfortunately, we don’t know enough of the shape of late Anglo-Saxon chancels in East Anglia to even make a guess!

Herringbone flintwork, North wall of the chancel. Photo: A Rae

The original Anglo-Saxon chancel was evidently extended up and eastwards, possibly in the 13^th-century when the priest’s door on the south side was created, although the 15^th-century windows, contemporary with the extension of the main body of the church, which included new aisles and the clerestory, may indicate that the chancel was enlarged at the same time.

The blocked opening. Photo: A Moskvina

 On the south side of the chancel, the Anglo-Saxon flintwork is interrupted by a curious blocked opening, just above the priest’s door. The opening is most likely a window and is likely to have been blocked when the priest’s door was installed. It is quite difficult to find a comparison for it, because preserved Anglo-Saxon windows tend to be in towers (for example at Earls Barton or Barton-on-Humber) or, if they are in the side walls, in much earlier churches not really suitable for comparison (for example, Jarrow or Escomb). A comparable example is found in Bradford-on-Avon, where the double-splayed windows of similar shape and size are a late Anglo-Saxon alteration of the earlier, most likely 8^th-century, work.^[1] It is interesting that parallels between this church and two other late Anglo-Saxon churches in Norfolk – at Dunham Magna and Tasburgh - have been suggested, so there are reasons to think that there could be similar stylistic connections with Forncett too.^[2]

References

^[1] Taylor, H.M., and J. Taylor. 1965. Anglo-Saxon Architecture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 87.

^[2] Ibid., pp. 88-89.

Details

Written by: Ana Moskvina

Published: 23 May 2022

Forncett is justifiably proud of its link to William Wordsworth, the radical poet acknowledged as the poet of nature, who awakened consciousness within his readers of the beauties and harmonies of the natural world. He will be forever associated with The Lake District, where, living with his sister Dorothy and close to Coleridge, he changed the course of poetry, introducing and refining what is now called 'Romantic poetry' as part of the movement of Romanticism in literature and art.

William, his sister Dorothy and 3 brothers were born in Cockermouth, (William in 1770 and Dorothy a year later on Christmas Day), into an impressive spacious house with a garden bordering the river Derwent.   They were baptised together and went to school together as young children. Their garden seems to have allowed early lessons in nature study. Dorothy's name for the tiger moth caterpillar was "woolly boy." We have an early clue to Dorothy's tender sensibility; we are told that on her first sight of the sea as a small child, she burst into tears. William makes references to these happy early years together in several poems:

'The blessing of my later years
Was with me when a boy:
She gave me eyes, she gave me ears
...................
And love and thought and joy.'

When Dorothy was 6, their mother died. Three months later she was sent to Halifax to live with a second cousin of her mother, Elizabeth Threlkeld, and was not to see her beloved brother again for 9 years. (It is possible that a psychologist would be able to comment on this separation in the light of the pair's later intense and dependent relationship). Indeed, Dorothy was not again to return home; her father failed to send for her, although her 4 brothers returned home regularly from their boarding school. Her foster-mother, (always called aunt), was loving and warm however, and Dorothy spent happy years in the heart of this family, making too, a deep friendship with Jane Pollard, a girl of her own age with whom she later became a prolific correspondent. Her brothers though, were not forgotten, especially William. She told Jane, "We have been endeared to each other by early misfortune." Her upbringing in Halifax was grounded in the values of honesty, kindness, optimism, thrift and hard work and shaped her life-long dedication to family and service. She continued to write to Jane for many years.

 Dorothy Wordsworth Photo Copyrighted free use, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=717043

The connection with Forncett was to begin in 1788.   By the age of 17, Dorothy, had been removed from the home she had shared so happily with her aunt, to live with her Grandparents. Here, she was not happy, but the intervention of a kindly uncle, The Reverend William Cookson altered the course of her life. He took an interest in Dorothy, (she was of course living with his parents), tutored her and then invited this 17 year old niece to live with him and his new wife at the living in Forncett he had been offered. Dorothy's reaction is recorded in a letter to Jane, "To live in the country and with such kind friends!..I was almost mad with joy..."   She was not disappointed..."That Uncle whom I so much love...every day gives me new proofs of his affection and every day I like him better than I did before."

Her first impression of the handsome Georgian rectory was of "grace and beauty" and "the little church called the heart to meditation and peace." She wrote to Jane: "We are now happily settled at Forncett - my room is one of the pleasantest in the house. I intend to be a great gardener and promise myself great pleasure in taking care of the poultry which we are to have in abundance."

The Rectory and Church in the early 1900s (?). Postcard from Jarrolds Forncett Archive, Thanks to Forncett Archive.

 Forncett is proud of course of its connection with William Wordsworth but we have to admit the time he spent here was brief, often little more than a footnote in biographies of the great man. His younger sister though spent formative years here, five of them. These were happy times for Dorothy, (setting aside her perpetual longing to be close to William); we know this from letters written by her and accounts of her busy practical life. Here she learnt many useful domestic skills and opened a little school, undertaken with the greatest dedication, taking pride in her pupils' achievements. We can imagine how the pupils would have loved this kind, sensitive, lively teacher. It is possible too, to picture her from written descriptions, a slight lithe figure, dark hair flying, full of joy and enthusiasm, loving her surrounds, and her duties. John Thelwall described her as "...the maid of ardent eye." She quickly became imbued with the evangelical philosophy of her uncle and his friend William Wilberforce, who was "struck by the vitality of this young girl, her words tumbling from her mouth with an almost stammering intensity." He gave Dorothy 10 guineas a year to distribute to the poor of Forncett.

These Forncett years seem to have passed in deep contentment and letters from Dorothy at the time confirm how agreeable she found her home. We are told that: She looked on "meadows scarlet with poppies, most beautiful to see". Every morning she "heard the singing of a great choir of birds, thrush and bullfinch and blackbird and yellowhammer. The larks soared singing from among the graves." The woods, hedgerows and meadows would have been dense and rich with wildflowers, and alongside the footpaths and river at the bottom of the garden, butterflies and dragonflies would have abounded.

Her domestic duties increased as the family increased. Dorothy adored her young charges and she worked alongside her aunt as helpmeet and aunt, with unflagging energy and tenderness. Her love of William though is unwavering and the bond is deeply mutal. He wrote to her:

"I have thought of you perpetually: and never have my eyes burst upon a scene of particular loveliness but I have almost instantly wished that you could for a moment be transported to the place where I stood, to enjoy it"

The closing months of the year of 1790 brought immense joy to Dorothy; William, returned from a walking holiday, made his second and longer six week stay at Forncett Rectory. "Every morning they walked in the country. Every evening they paced the avenue of limes or up and down the long gravel walk of the garden from four to six, heedless of the whistle of the North wind amongst the trees over their heads, heedless of the cold." The young poet and eager sister, although deep in conversation, would have been very alive to the beauty of their surroundings. Norfolk skies would have shown sunsets of every hue. Perhaps they heard the rooks cry in unison as the wind rose and the treetops shuttled to and fro. We know that here William wrote one short sonnet, untitled, but known as 'Sweet was the Walk'.

'Sweet was the walk along the narrow lane
At noon, the bank and hedge-rows all the way
Shagged with wild pale green tufts of fragrant hay,
Caught by the hawthorns from the loaded wain,
Which Age with many a slow stoop strove to gain;
And childhood, seeming still most busy, took
His little rake; with cunning side-long look,
Sauntering to pluck the strawberries wild, unseen.
Now, too, on melancholy's idle dreams
Musing, the lone spot with my soul agrees,
Quiet and dark; for through the thick wove trees
Scarce peeps the curious star till solemn gleams
The clouded moon, and calls me forth to stray
Thro' tall, green, silent woods and ruins gray.'

From windows in the Rectory they would have seen the timeless grey tower, encircled by rooks and the peaceful graveyard. It is tempting to imagine that on Sundays, William and Dorothy, (Dorothy in bonnet and William probably wearing the forerunner of the 'top hat'), would have made the short journey to join the farming families and gentry of Forncett, sitting quietly on a wooden pew, light slanting through high clerestory windows, to hear their uncle's sermons.

Wordsworth's visit to France fostered early revolutionary and radical ideas, although these were to alter over later decades. He also fell in love. Marie Annette Vallon bore him a child in 1793. She was the daughter of his host, a surgeon in Blois. Poverty though, drove William home leaving his daughter and her unmarried mother. This was a terrible blow to Dorothy who had cherished the idea of making a home with William, possibly in Forncett. Hoping that Annette might yet be brought to Forncett, the task fell upon her to tell her uncle. Dr. Cookson was shocked; he considered William selfish and imprudent and barred him from Forncett. This almost certainly marks the point at which Dorothy no longer saw her future in Forncett. Although devoted to her Aunt and Uncle, her most earnest desire was that she should live with William. She finally left in February 1794 for Halifax and was reunited with William shortly after arriving. They would rarely be separated again.

Dorothy is not revered merely for being her brother's sister. We have interesting testimony about her character; Wilberforce considered her to be a woman of "excessive organic sensibility" in whom burned "the secret fire of a temperament too fervid." De Quincey considered her to have a "constitutionally deep sensibility" and "some subtle fire of impassioned intellect which apparently burned within her." Her fame today, growing since the last century, rests on the journals she wrote later in life, when at last living with William at Grasmere. In them she reveals herself as a poet naturalist. Dorothy had wide and deep knowledge of the natural world; her observations were close, her descriptions had clarity. Her journals are full of tender observations of landscape, flora and fauna.

"The young Bullfinches in their party coloured Rainment bustle about among the Blossoms and poize themselves like Wire dancers or tumblers, shaking the twigs and dashing off the Blossoms. There is yet one primrose in the orchard - the stitchwort is fading - the wild columbines are coming into beauty - some of the gowans fading...The scarlet Beans are up in crowds...The heckberry blossoms are dropping off fast, almost gone - barberries are in beauty- snowballs coming forward- May Roses blossoming.”

Her affectionate observations are intensely alive, made with humour and throughout her journals her descriptions are poetic in the power they own to bring images and associations to the reader's mind's eye. It is believed that William made use of her written observations, among them this:

"I never saw daffodils so beautiful, they grew among the mossy stones about and about them, some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if they verily laughed into the wind..."

Full due is paid by Wordsworth to the debt he owed to his sister, making use in his poetry of their intense discussions and the notes in which she recorded all they saw, in their long explorations and walks. That William valued her immense talent and loved her almost reverentially is shown in his poetry:

'...thy breath,
Dear Sister! was a kind of gentler spring,
That went before my steps.'

It tempting to speculate that had Dorothy not turned almost her entire energy to the domestic life of those she loved, and the necessary drudgery and long hours that accompany this, plus her additional work as William's amanuensis, that she too could have become a brilliant poet. This was the eighteenth century and early nineteenth however, the same time in which Mozart's sister Maria Anna Mozart, (Nannerl), was playing with prodigious talent alongside her brother in the great houses of Europe and composing. Society then, decreed that women should marry, or lead the life of the industrious spinster, helping the family. Had Dorothy and William been born today, who knows? Maybe Dorothy would have been anxious to write more and publish. The Brontes were determined to do so but were born a critical 46 years later; Jane Austen, born just a few years after Dorothy, succeeded. Dorothy though, had another preoccupation. Much of her life had been spent in a nurturing role and it was William, beloved chosen brother and genius, who satisfied her passionate need to devote herself entirely to the welfare of another. William himself, recognised Dorothy's literary skill. It is believed by many today, that Dorothy, through her poetic contributions to his work, her care and constant companionship, helped ensure her brother's achievements and lasting reputation as one of the world's greatest poets.

Sources:

Maclean, Catherine MacDonald. 1932. 'Dorothy Wordsworth: the Early Years', Viking Press.

Gittings, Robert., and Manton, Jo. 1985. 'Dorothy Wordsworth', Open University Press.

Wilson, Frances. 2008. ‘The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth', Faber and Faber.

Times Literary Supplement Biography and Letters

Details

Written by: Claire Jordan

Published: 11 May 2022

Did you know that St Peter’s has two war graves and that someone looks after them every six months?  Elaine Tibbit tells us about her role.

"Hi, my name is Elaine and I am a volunteer with the CWGC (Commonwealth War Graves Commission).  The Commission was established by Royal Charter in 1917 as the sole organisation charged with the commemoration of Commonwealth service men and women who died in the First World War (this remit was later extended to cover the Second World War).  Today, the Commission maintains the graves or commemorations of over 1.7 million of such fallen service personnel worldwide, including more than 165,000 war graves at over 12,000 locations in the UK.  I have been a volunteer since the beginning of 2021 and work for a project that has been funded by Annington Homes, called Eyes On, Hands On (EOHO).  The project is very new and was set up to assist the Commission in inspecting and reporting on the condition of scattered war graves.  There are thousands of CWGC graves scattered throughout the UK, primarily in local churchyards.  Many of these sites have a single or small cluster of graves, these are called 'scattered graves'.  Until the project was started these scattered graves were only inspected on a rolling basis every 2 - 5 years, the EOHO project helps ensure the graves are inspected more frequently and where needed, receive attention.  

George Henry Thompson  Photo: Elaine Tibbit

Approximately every 6 months I will inspect your two CWGC graves, Flight Sergeant Roy Arthur Tann (1943) and Driver George Henry Thomson (1918).  I take a photograph and write a report on the condition of the headstone and the surrounding vegetation as some may need to be trimmed in order to see the casualty’s headstone clearly.  I look after 23 casualties across 10 churchyards.  We must always remember that a lot of the headstones are over 100 years old and they will not and should not look new.  However, we do check whether the headstone needs cleaning – we have to be careful we do not over clean the headstones and damage them but if they do need a clean, I have been trained how to do it. Also, if the area around the grave needs tidying, I can trim light vegetation. Sometimes an inspection can reveal damage to the headstone, my report is used to assess that damage and helps the CWGC Operations team decide what to do next. This will most likely include a second inspection by the Operations team. Where possible they try and repair the headstone – our aim is to keep as many of the original headstones as possible. However, if the damage is too great, sadly sometimes a new headstone is required.

Sergeant Roy Arthur Tann, a family memorial. Photo Elaine Tibbit

There are different types of memorials, so not every headstone is maintained by the Commission.  If the family of the casualty chose to mark their loved ones final resting place with a private memorial, all I and the commission can do is inspect to ensure that the casualty’s name is legible.  If, however, the name is not legible, the Commission will try to get authority there is a process to gain permission from cemetery authorities, the family and other interested parties to add an additional marker. This can be either a full-sized Commission headstone or a Gallipoli Marker at the grave. Every service man or woman must be remembered.

I have done a little research into the 2 casualties in your churchyard.  Unfortunately, a lot of World War 1 service records were destroyed when the record office was hit by a bomb and ensuing fire, however, I did discover that George Henry Thomson was from Kirkcudbright in Ayr. Looking in the National Archives (with help, I am still learning) we found George’s medal card. He was an early joiner – he enlisted in November 1914. We also found his service record which wasn’t destroyed by the fire. He was born in 1889 and was a farm servant. He died 4 years and 1 week after he enlisted. George was a driver with the Army Service Corps.  He passed on 10.11.18 after contracting influenza.

Flight Sergeant Roy Arthur Tann was just 23 when he died.  He was based in Melbourne, Yorkshire with 10 Squadron Bomber Command as a Navigator.  He was killed on 3.11.43 when his Halifax aircraft hit telephone lines and crashed during an emergency landing at Shipdam Airfield.  They were returning to Norfolk from an early raid on Dusseldorf.

I hope this has given you a little insight into some of the work of the CWGC.  Please take a look on their website for lots more information  CWGC"

We are tremendously grateful to CWGC and to Elaine for their work in commemorating those who gave so much.

Details

Written by: Elaine Tibbit

Published: 12 February 2022

After 18 long months St Peter's bells were heard again with a toll to celebrate the life of the Duke of Edinburgh.

St Peter's has one of the best rings of bells in Norfolk, thought to be second only to St Peter Mancroft - they have been silent for so long due to the restriction imposed by Covid meaning that ringers could not gather in the narrow confines of the tower chamber.  On 17th April they joined in a nationwide tribute to Prince Philip.  A toll of 99 rings from a single bell rang out across Forncett.  Trevor Smith, a very experienced ringer who has rung at St Peter's many times, did the honours.  You can read more about Trevor here

About the Bells

There were four large bells at St. Peter’s in 1552 and the Church was one of the first in the vicinity to have as many as five bells. Clearly, change ringing was flourishing here from 1602 when the ring of five was completed by Norwich bell-founder William Brend. When the bells were rehung in 1778 the landlord of The Tuns advertised that “all gentlemen ringers that will please to make Trial of the said Bells shall meet with the kind reception by their humble servant”.

In 1875 the cracked tenor bell was recast by John Warner of Crippleton, London. By the 1930s the bells had become un-ringable. In 1938 John Taylor of Loughborough carried out a complete restoration, recasting the cracked tenor bell and rehanging the bells in a new two-tier bell frame. Between 1939 and 1988 twenty-six peals were rung – more than any other five-bell tower in the country.

A new treble bell was cast in 1982 from the cracked number two bell at Forncett St. Mary Church and hung at St. Peter’s to complete a ring of six. The work was done in memory of Mary Armstrong, a former churchwarden and headteacher of the School. The treble is inscribed as follows: “To the glory of God and in thanksgiving for the life and work of Mary Armstrong BEM 1907-1980”. The Peal Board commemorating the new ring of six by a special peal of doubles, 5040 changes, on December 17^th 1983, may be seen to the left of the tower door.

Although the ring of six contains bells of five different dates (1980, 1938, 1602, 1737 and 1875), it is considered to be one of the finest in the county. The tenor bell weighs 13cwt 12lbs in the key of F. During restoration work in 1986 painted numbers were uncovered on the wall of the ringing chamber. These were probably used by eighteenth century Forncett ringers to ring Call Changes (1).

Looking down on to the bell frames. Photo: A Moskvina

When you first walk into a bell tower the bells will usually be in the down position for safety reasons. This way the bells will only swing from side to side and if someone happens to pull on one of the Sallys (the rope) there is no danger. This is also the position the bell would be in for Tolling.

When the bells are in the up position, the bell is set just over vertical and resting on what is called the Stay. When the Sally is pulled the bell will be pulled off the Stay and will swing down and round, under its own weight, virtually 360 degrees back to its original position. (What then has to be done is to not allow the bell to swing too far back the other way and hit the Stay!!).

The lightest bell in any tower is referred to as the Treble, followed by Number 2, Number 3, etc. up to the heaviest bell being referred to as the Tenor. Bell weights are given in hundredweights (cwts) and pounds (lbs).

The basics of learning to bell ring include following another bell leaving the right space. Your ears will tell you what is correct, but as a guide the person you are following must have pulled about half the length of the Sally when you begin your pull. It is important to develop a smooth regular pull so you can feel the rhythm.

There are many different methods of bell ringing. Methods are generally referred to by an official name assigned to them by The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers. Such names have three different parts – the method’s name proper, its class and its stage. The name proper is the method’s personal name, e.g. Plain Bob.

As a learner you will start ringing Rounds (controlling the bell) and then move onto ringing Call Changes (each call swaps over an adjacent pair of bells). As you advance there are other basic methods the most recognised including Plain Hunt, Grandsire, Plain Bob as well as ringing Peals. A Full Peal can consist of up to 5,040 changes and can include various methods and lasts approximately 3 hours. Any bell can also be Tolled for funerals, memorial services, etc. For example, I tolled the bell for the passing and funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh at St. Peter’s in 2021.

Bell ringing is also known as Campanology and a bell ringer is called a Campanologist.

Trevor Smith – Bell Ringer (Campanologist)

References

1. Izat, Rosemary and Webster, John; The Parish Church of Forncett St. Peter, Norfolk: an Historical Guide, Forncett Parish Council, 2010, page 11 (all the text in italics).

Details

Written by: Trevor Smith & Ally Rae

Published: 08 August 2021

Nearly every historical monument in England is a testament to the great skill of the stonemason.  You can see it at St Peter’s, in the stonework tracery forming the windows and look up at our gargoyles!  In 2006-8 stonemasons replaced some of the badly eroded stone on the tower, following in the footsteps of the numberless men who plied their skills through centuries of time that stretches back before the dark ages.  Relatively little is known of their lives, or how they achieved the skills that left an indelible mark upon Europe.

Stonemason at work at St Peter's in 2007. Photo: John Webster, Forncett Archive

Many learnt to handle and hew stone in quarries.  Other apprentices would have worked in 'The Lodge', which was a shelter open on one side and sometimes built against the wall of the building (often a church) being worked on.  This is where they would have learnt fine carving work, studied the master stonemason's plans and eaten.  A master stonemason was a man of status;  he would need a great array of skills. He might have belonged to a Stone Masons' Guild.  Then there were everyday masons and these fell into distinct groups.  There were 'hewers' who shaped the stone and 'layers' who set it into place.  Hewers were paid around 20% more than layers.  A humbler kind of hewer was called a 'scappler'.  He would use an axe and hammer and work in quarries.  Not all stone was found in quarries though.  Roman sites were often raided and the bricks and stone was incorporated into buildings, including, it is thought,  Roman bricks in Forncett St. Peter's Church.

Roman bricks forming the head of a lancet window. Photo: A Rae

The contracts of stonemasons could be harsh.  At Fotheringay in 1434, if the work was not finished on time, the mason could be committed to prison.  Sometimes the contracts were for summer only and always limited by day length.  So although these craftsmen earned more than agricultural labourers, they had to rely on small-holdings or other work.

 There were inherent dangers.  Many were blinded by flying chips, or slipped on a barrow-run, or fell from towers.  Plague ravaged the population during the fourteenth century and life expectancy was short.  The richest master masons if they reached old age could have enjoyed some comfort but that was not the case  for all who worked in this profession. 

After the plague, when serfdom gave way and men could own land or become tradesmen, parishioners took on the task of church upkeep and improvement.  This resulted in a flowering in every village of artisan skills, evident in every parish church.

Details

Written by: Claire Jordan

Published: 02 August 2021

Work on St. Peter's in the Victorian Age  

                 (Fictional Forncett characters and St. Peter's through the Ages)

Francis carefully laid his pin-awl on the scored wooden workbench, next to the leather case which shielded the rest of his tools, and made his way out of the dim church into the bright noon sunlight, swigging water from a bottle that he had stored in the cool darkness of the chancel. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the glare, but as they did so he could see the dark smudge of what must be the down-train as it steamed towards London on the other side of the meadows. "Bang on time," he thought, as he sat down with his back against the stone of the church and felt the stored warmth of the morning beginning to seep through the cloth, easing the stiffness of his back. He'd been bent over a pew-end carving for the past two hours, trying to repair the wanton damage done to the finely carved medieval figurines, inflicted by Cromwell's men.   Re-etching 'Lust', restoring 'Avarice'. "Perhaps," he thought, "if the weather holds fine and light stays good, I might finish the Seven Deadly Sins by the week's end. If I'm lucky , that is"

Pew carving - Avarice. Photo: A Rae

The restorer had a curious sense of his own dislocation; out here, he lived in the modern world of the nineteenth century; in there, beneath the tower, as he hunched over a carving, scraping deep new lines into ancient timbers, retouching allegorical figures long lost to memory, half-obliterated by the religious wars of England's past, he knew it could be any time at all. He had been warned against taking up the slow methodical trade. "Why look to the past?" his father had asked when he announced his plan to take it up. "You've had a good education. You could teach. Why dirty your hands with church-dust?" But if he didn't take care of the past, who would?

The last puffball of steam melted into the air as the train vanished behind the trees. He stood up and stretched his back. It felt better. He felt better: restored by the break, refreshed by the water he'd drunk. He felt the stiffened timber dust in the lines of his knuckles crack as he gripped hold of his awl, and began, once again, to retrace the dim lines of Forncett's history.

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Written by: Dr David McAllister, Birkbeck University

Published: 22 May 2021

A staircase is not usually a particularly interesting element of a church building. Church staircases are indeed rarely exciting, but even if they are this is simply not a feature we would notice. This is exactly what has happened to the extraordinary and incredibly rare staircase in the late 11^th-century round tower at Forncett St Peter (Figure 1).

The church is considered outstanding for a number of reasons, but the staircase is not one of them. For example, Pevsner, Mortlock and Bryant – three of the most authoritative authors who have written about Norfolk churches – do not mention the staircase in the tower at all.^[1] Ironically, Bryant’s account goes into great detail describing the bells, their weight and even the value of clappers, but does not mention how one gets to those bells.^[2]

This staircase has been almost completely overlooked, and yet, its presence and construction are intriguing. According to the Round Tower Churches Society, there are 131 round tower churches in Norfolk.^[3] Each of these towers needs to be accessible for the purposes of maintenance and servicing of the bells, but only in one – at Forncett – is the means of access so notable. The staircase goes all the way up the height of the first stage of the tower, is wooden and consists of a solid balustrade (Figure 2) and solid baulk treads (Figure 3) supported on two pairs of strings, which follow the curve of the wall.^[4]

3. The treads. Photo: S Heywood

There is a doorway (with a later graffiti on it!) at the foot, probably for security (Figure 4). Considering how little room there is in the tower, the designers and builders of this staircase have demonstrated great care for convenience of access and have used the space wisely.

4. The staircase door. Photo: A Moskvina

 By comparison, other round tower churches have either conventional external stair turrets, such as the one at St Edmund Acle (Figure 5), or slightly awkward vertical ladders fixed to the walls internally, which is the arrangement at, for example, St Peter and Paul Tuttington (Figure 6) and All Saints Poringland. A particularly interesting case is found at All Saints Kettlestone where, following the stair turret being blocked in the 19^th century, there is no access to the upper levels of the tower at all!^[5]

	5  St Edmunds Acle: external stair turret Photo A Moskvina		6 St Peter & Paul Tuttington: vertical ladder Photo A Moskvina
	7 St Mary's Brabourne: straight stair Photo A Moskvina		8 St Michael & All Angels Bishops Cleeve. Photo A Moskvina

The arrangement at Forncett is later than the tower itself, and it is likely that the staircase dates to the late medieval period. The rare timber staircases found at St Mary’s Brabourne in Kent (Figures 7) and St Michael and All Angels in Bishop’s Cleeve in Gloucestershire  (Figure 8) are the only known close comparisons in Britain. These were equally unnoticed: Simon Jenkins has included both churches in his ‘Thousand Best Churches’ but has not mentioned the staircases. Both are thought to be medieval.^[6] Unfortunately, an attempt at dendrochronological dating of the Forncett example has been inconclusive, so we don’t know the accurate age of this staircase. Stephen Heywood, who has researched the tower, thinks this staircase is likely to date to the end of the Middle Ages or possibly a little later, to the 16^th century. The staircase leads up to the doorway in the first floor, which was originally used to gain access to the nave roof before the aisles were added.^[7] Considering the fact that the stair does not quite match the level of this doorway and meets the blocked opening half-way up, this may mean that the staircase was constructed after the doorway fell out of use. Interestingly, the two top steps are fixed into the mortar in the area of the blocked doorway, unlike all other steps that barely touch the wall (Figure 10), which suggests that construction of these steps happened at the same time as the doorway being blocked. If we were to (reasonably) assume that this happened when the aisles were added, we can conclude that the staircase dates to a period after 1459 – the date by which the aisles are said to have been in existence.^[8] This is of course hypothetical, and there is another possibility that the top portion of the staircase was just altered when the aisles were constructed, in which case the rest of the structure may have been in existence before 1459.

Only a little light can be shed on this amazing staircase and its possible equivalents in this very brief article. Furthermore, due to the shortage of records and sources it is likely to remain under-researched. However, one of the most fascinating things anyone can do is to make arrangements to see it in real life. The tower is usually locked for security reasons, but we are planning a series of open days, so watch this space!

 Ana Moskvina

Diocese of Norwich Historic Building Support Worker

^[1] Pevsner, N., and B. Wilson. 1999. Norfolk 2: North-West and South. London: Penguin Books, pp. 342-343; Mortlock, D.P., and C.V. Roberts. 2007. The Guide to Norfolk Churches. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, pp. 104-105; Bryant, T.H. 1906. The Churches of Norfolk, Hundred of Depwade, pp. 63-65 [http://www.norfolksources.norfolk.gov.uk/DserveNS/dserve.exe?dsqServer=NCC3CL01&dsqIni=dserveBooksBryantsChurches.ini&dsqApp=ArchiveNS&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=((text)=%27forncett%27)&dsqPos=18], accessed 23^rd March 2021.

^[2] Bryant 1906, p. 64.

^[3] Anonymous. The Round Tower Churches Society [https://www.roundtowers.org.uk/], accessed 23^rd March 2021.

^[4] These observations have been recorded by Stephen Heywood. – Heywood, S. 2006. The Round Tower of the Church of Forncett St Peter. Heritage and Landscape Section, Norfolk County Council, p. 10.

^[5] Accounts of Revd James Cory for Kettlestone and Shereford, continued by Revd Edgar Montagu with note re dilapidations 1864, held at Norfolk Record Office, PD 610/22.

^[6] The BBC article says the staircase at Bishop’s Cleeve dates to the 15^th century. Anonymous. 2014. ‘“Extremely Rare” Staircase in Gloucestershire Church to be Made Safe’, BBC News [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-28540153], accessed 23^rd March 2021;

For entries on Bishop’s Cleeve and Brabourne, see Jenkins, S. 2000. England’s Thousand Best Churches. London: Penguin Books, pp. 205-206, 305-306.

^[7] Heywood 2006, p. 11.

^[8] For the dating of the aisles, see Bryant. – Bryant 1906, p. 64.

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Written by: Ana Moskvina

Published: 21 April 2021

There is a very unusual treasure hidden out of sight at the very top of the tower at Forncett St Peter. And no, it is not the Anglo-Saxon stonework! On the tower roof, there are the outlines of men’s feet scratched onto the surface and inscribed with initials (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Footprints on top of the tower at Forncett St Peter (Photo: Stephen Heywood)

Three of them are grouped and framed. These are the ‘footprints’ of the men who worked on this roof in the 19^th century. Why would one choose to deface a new smooth sheet with the pictures of their feet?  Today, we rarely think of scratching anything onto any surface in the church, because this would probably be called vandalism, but this wasn’t the case in the past. Leaving ‘signatures’ in churches was a very popular activity. In the middle ages, it was common to scratch symbols, pictures of ships, birds and other things, geometric designs, or sometimes even music or curses on the church walls and pillars (Figure 2). Many such marks still survive and are commonly referred to as graffiti. After the Reformation, the style of graffiti changed: the iconic house-shaped symbol emerged, and it became common for graffiti to feature dates and names (or initials).^[1]

Figure 2. Medieval portrait on a pillar at St Mary’s Westwell, Kent (Photo: Ana Moskvina)

This trend to use initials and dates continued as graffiti started to appear in other forms and on different materials. Names, often beautifully written, can be seen even on glass; lots of them are visible in virtually every window at St Andrew’s church at Covehithe (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Graffiti on glass at St Andrew’s Covehithe, Suffolk (Photo: Ana Moskvina)

The ‘footprint’ fashion in graffiti gained popularity in the 19^th century and is still found on some roofs or, as, for example, at St Peter and Paul’s in Honing, on benches (Figure 4). This seems to have been a way for the workmen, many of them nameless, to leave their mark on the building they had repaired.

Figure 4: Carvings on the bench in the porch at St Peter and Paul’s Honing, Norfolk (Photo: Ana Moskvina)

Interestingly, roofs had been used to record people’s roles in repairing their churches before, although in a much more formal fashion. A good example of this is found at St Nicholas’ church in North Lopham, where a section of material, now attached to the south door, features the names of the churchwardens and the year – 1795 – when the roof must have been repaired (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Plaque on the south door at St Nicholas’ North Lopham, Norfolk (Photo: Diocese of Norwich)

A later instance is the late 19^th-century fleche on the top of the tower at St Peter Mancroft in Norwich, which is covered in 20^th-century graffiti. Perhaps the most fascinating case, where the dates of graffiti range from at least 1724 to the Second World War, is the (sadly inaccessible) roof of Deal Castle in Kent. Here the array of graffiti includes footprints, similar to ones found at Forncett, and the house-shaped signatures mentioned above.^[2]

The images at St Peter’s are likely to date to the 19^th century. A permission was given to the church in 1851 to carry out the works that included repairs and changes to the roofs, and it is likely that these footprints date from the time of these works.^[3] The documents that record repairs to churches always mention the architect and sometimes the contractor, but never the individual workmen who took on all of the hard labour. They virtually disappear in history and now their footprints on the tower roof are the only evidence of them ever having - quite literally – set foot on the church roof and played such an important part in keeping the church standing today.

^[1] Champion, M. 2015. Medieval Graffiti. London: Ebury Press, pp. 201-204.

^[2] Anonymous. ‘Graffiti at deal Castle’, in: English Heritage [https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/deal-castle/history-stories/deal-graffiti/], accessed 28^th April 2021.

^[3] NRO PD 421/18.

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Written by: Ana Moskvina

Published: 26 April 2021

The Tomb in the North Aisle of St Peter's Church - to Thomas and Elizabeth Drake, 1485

Rosemary Izat, in her Historical Outline of the Church of St Peter and St Paul, Forncett St Peter, states that the inscription on the tomb once read 'All Christian people that walk by this tomb early or late, of your charity say a pater noster for the soul of Thomas Drake' (Weever's Funeral Monuments).

The portraits on the top of the tomb:

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Published: 09 December 2008