Norwich Cathedral

While this particular building is not a forgotten history, it is one of my favourite buildings. The sheer size of it makes me stand in awe. I am always amazed at how such a building was built almost a thousand years ago on very little in the way of foundations, on low lying and partially marshy land is still standing today. This magnificent building has withstood attack in the form of revolts, fire, bombings during the second world war and general wear and tear.

Cathedral rising up behind the new hostry building

This particular photo I took one evening as I was walking through the cathedral close, it was an autumn/ winter evening and I was mesmorised by the lights shining up the exterior surface of the bulding casting amazing shadows. The first image below is of the south transept and the second image is of the new hostry building with the cathedral rising up behind in the background.

As I said before, not a forgotten history as it dominates the skyline of the city however I wanted to share the photos I took. This post has however given me an idea of future posts, maybe to explore the cathedral and share facts and findings about the place, some of the lesser known facts about the cathedral, its former life as a priory and the land around it.

I hope you enjoy.

South transept, tower and spire

 

St Mary in the Marsh

So this church has illuded me for some time. I think half of the problem was the fact that the church no longer existed having been demolished in the 1500s, as I expected to see some trace of it in the form of ruins or small flint wall sections however there was no trace of this church. 

Some information about this church had come to my attention and so I discussed it with a couple of my friends and on many occassions we looked over the information about the church and its location to see if we could determine the location with respect to the current buildings.

The information I had come across narrowed down our search to the cathedral close as we had found out that the Church of St Mary in the Marsh had been the parish church for the cathedral close or precinct as it would have been known. The church was used constantly and had been extended and rebuilt over the years until in 1564 it was closed and demolished at which point the materials were sold off. However on the plaque in the cathedral close it says that the church was not demolished until 1775. I ponder that this may have been when the final traces of the building were removed.

However the story does not end there and the parish of St Mary in the Marsh continued after this time and still continues to this day. Rather than redrawing parish boundaries after the church was closed, the bishop of Norwich gave permission for one of the side chapels of the cathedral could be used as the parish church instead. The other interesting point about this is that the font from the church was brought over to the new location and still sits in St Luke's chapel at Norwich cathedral.

Well to finish this post off I can say that during a stroll about looking for more forgotten histories, I came across a plaque within the upper close of the Cathedral displaying the location of the church. This I have to say made me very happy. I had finally found the location of the church I had been searching for, for several months. To my annoyance though, I suddenly realised I had strolled past this plaque several time in search of the site. As they say you find things when you are not looking for them!

Wymondham Abbey

Having lived in Norfolk my whole life and having driven past the abbey and Wymondham several times I had never actually visited the Abbey before. So back in 2013 I finally made it to the Abbey and had a wander around both inside and outside the building. It is hard to believe that Norfolk would have such a large Benedictine Abbey just under 10 miles from the Benedictine Monastary, now Norwich Anglian Cathedral, in Norwich. This can be answered fairly easily. Firstly Wymondham was both an Abbey plus a parish church and secondly it started life as a priory.

Wymondham Abbey as a priory

Wymondham Abbey started its spiritual journey as a priory, a dependant upon the Benedictine Abbey of St Albans. The Abbot at St Albans, Richard d'Aubigny, was uncle to William D'Aubigny the founder of the priory at Wymondham. It was founded in 1107 and originally dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and St. Alban the Martyr. It was not until 1448 that Wymondham priory became an Abbey as the complex grew and became more important.

When first built the priory was built on a large and very grand scale with the nave being 12 bays long. It is commented that the original nave was a scaled down version of the nave at Norwich Cathedral. Like Norwich Cathedral, the Abbey at Wymondham was faced with Limestone from Caen, Normandy, France. The stone was shipped from Caen to Wymondham.

The Abbey remained in use until the dissolutions of the monasteries in 1538 at which point it was closed and parts of it demolished and the stone sold for re-use elsewhere leaving the present day church building.

Wymondham Abbey as a parish church - Then and Now

There is evidence to show us that when originally built the abbey was cruciform in shape with a central tower and twin towers at the west end.The central tower however was rebuilt in 1376 and was replaced by the now ruined octagonal tower. This tower held the monk's bells.

In 1447 the twin west towers were replaced by a taller single tower which would contain the bells of the townspeople. As mentioned at the start of this entry the abbey began life as not only a priory but also a parish church which means the building was divided and shared between the monks and the townspeople. The north aisle and the nave as they still do today served the townspeople as the parish church, however during its time as a priory and abbey it caused many dissputes between both parties.

For more information about Wymondham Abbey head over to www.wymondhamabbey.org.uk/

I enjoyed my first visit to Wymondham abbey. As I strolled around the buildings and the grounds I felt at ease and very peaceful there. It has a great feeling of religion there similar to the feeling you get when you enter Norwich Cathedral or the Shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk. The building is highly impressive especially the alter screen and the stone carvings throughout the building. I would recommend a visit and will not doubt take myslelf there again for another visit or some peaceful contemplation.