Notices of the Church at Randworth, WALSHAM HUNDRED. COMMUNICATED BY MESSRS. A. W. MORANT, F.S.A., AND J. L'ESTRANGE. THE Church of Randworth, in the Archdeaconry of Norwich and Deanery of Blofield, is dedicated to St. Helen.1 It consists of a chancel, 32 feet by 21 feet 6 inches, with a north door; 2 a lofty nave, 63 feet 6 inches by 31 feet 3 inches, having a north porch, 12 feet by 10 feet 3 inches, with parvise over; a south porch, 13 feet 6 inches by 10 feet, and a western tower, 12 feet by 10 feet; the entire length from the western doors to the east wall being 116 feet. The present church appears to have been erected late in the decorated or early in the following period. A mixed style may be observed in the chancel, one of the windows on the north side having flowing tracery, whilst the two on the south side have four centred arches and perpendicular tracery. The six windows of the nave are four centred of three lights, each with cinquefoliated heads, but all the tracery is destroyed. The tower is square, of three stages, with angle buttresses, Brosyard, 25. Wyghte, 66, &c. 2 The priest's house was on the north side.-Lib. Inst. x. 107. and is finished with an embattled parapet, with flint and stone panels, having shields. Figures, now lost, appear to have terminated the summits of the four angles. The belfry windows were of two lights, but the mullions are gone, and the four square windows in the stage below are of two designs. The staircase turret at the north-east corner is carried no further than the bell-chamber. The west window is of three lights, but the tracery is destroyed. There is a good bold plinth and water table, and the perpendicular west doorway has an effective moulding continued round both jambs and arch. The hood moulding terminates with two spirited female heads wimpled, c. 1320, apparently old work reset. The perpendicular doors remain, but the tracery has been cut off. The windows of the south porch are decorated, of two lights, with cinquefoliated heads, and have been glazed, and the roof is open timbered. Over the doorway is a niche, with a canopy and pedestal in a very perfect state, without a figure. The north porch is used as a vestry, and the old entrance from the churchyard, a four-centred arch, is bricked up. At the left hand of the entrance to the church is a mutilated holy-water stoup. The windows of this porch are two-light perpendicular, the ceiling modern, and there is a chamber over it, of which the staircase and windows, the latter perpendicular, are blocked up. It is, however, contemporary with the south porch, for the base of one of the buttresses of each has a similar panel, containing a lion sejant, boldly sculptured. The doorways in both porches are perpendicular and closely resemble each other, having good bold hood mouldings with pateræ at intervals in the hollow, and well-cut corbel heads of a king and queen. Both retain their original doors, all the tracery however being lost. The gables of the nave, chancel, and south porch, retain the saddle stones and shafts of their crosses; and during the summer of 1866, in emptying an old dry well in this parish, a portion of a stone crucifix was found, which may have surmounted the gable of the north porch. All the gables moreover retain their coping, and have good springers. The interior state of the building is very deplorable. The chancel roof is entirely concealed by plaster; the original roof of the nave has been removed,3 and a common roughlyframed one, consisting of a collar-beam, two diagonal ties, a king-post, and strut substituted. This is covered with slates, which are not concealed from view inside, not being plastered between the spars, giving a remarkably bare and povertystricken appearance to the fabric. The east window of the chancel is partly bricked up, and a small window of wood inserted. There is a good decorated piscina with cinquefoliated head, sexfoiled bason with pierced boss, and the stout wooden shelf or credence remaining. It has an arched opening to the sedilia which are bricked up. There are no visible remains in the chancel of any aumbry, niches, &c. The altar-rails are of the last century, and, with the communion table, are of a mean description. The priest's doorway on the north side retains its original perpendicular door, the upper part tolerably perfect. About four feet from the floor, on the south wall, is a curious winch, probably used for 3 The old roof was taken down and the lead with which it was covered was sold by Faculty from the Bishop of Norwich, dated 25th March, 1311, which recites the receipt of a petition from the Vicar, Churchwardens, and Inhabitants, shewing, "That the roof of the Parish Church of Ranworth aforesaid is covered with lead which is very old and thin and the church is much out of repair, particularly the roof, which is in a very dilapidated state. That the said petitioners are desirous of stripping the lead from the roof of the said Church and of putting a new roof thereon, to be covered with the best Westmorland Slates instead of Lead, and also of completely repairing the said Church. That an estimate of the expence of such new roof to be covered with slates as aforesaid hath been made, which amounts to the sum of three hundred and seventynine pounds and eleven shillings. That the old lead and other materials of the present roof are estimated to be worth the sum of two hundred and forty-one pounds and eleven shillings."-Lib. Fac. 9, fo. 11. This old roof is described by those who remember it as exceedingly rich in carving and gilding. raising and lowering the light which always burned before the Blessed Sacrament. Against the back of the chancel screen are six perpendicular stalls: four only retain their subsellia. On the south side, No. 1 is lost; No. 2, a grotesque man with spade in hand-supporters, a rose and a circle containing three flowing cinquefoils; No. 3, a head— supporters, a true lover's knot and a circle containing two interlaced triangles. On the north side, No. 1, merely a bracket -supporters, a grotesque head and a rose; No. 2, a headsupporters, a leaf and a rose; No. 3, lost. The elbow-pieces have various devices of foliage, heads, and animals, carved upon them. There is also in the chancel a good perpendicular oak lectern of unusual construction, the desks placed dos à dos but at unequal heights. On one side above the desk is painted this verse Gloria tibi domine qui natus es de uirgine And between the lines are Gregorian notes on a musical stave of four lines. On the other side, beneath the desk, is painted the eagle of St. John the Evangelist, with a scroll inscribed + En principio erat uerbum. The shaft is octagonal and has a moulded base.4 4 There is a lithograph of this lectern in the privately printed "Catalogue of Engravings, Etchings, and Original Drawings, and Deeds, in the library of Dawson Turner, Esq., 1841." In Notes and Queries, second series, vi. 141, 193, 270, 332, some interesting correspondence relating to it will be found. With reference to the verse painted at the back of the lectern it is said, "that during the Octave of Christmas, and on some other festivals, all the hymns at the different canonical hours were ended with this same verse. So that possibly it may have been conspicuously painted there for the convenience of the choir, saving them the trouble of turning each time to the actual hymn, of which it forms the proper conclusion.” The chancel arch is decorated, lofty, and rather plain; it retains the mortices, probably of the framework of the rood. The screen is nearly perfect and is the principal object of interest in the church. Placed beneath the chancel arch, it is divided by mullions into six arched compartments, three on either side of a central doorway, the arch of which is richly cusped, recusped, and crocketted on each side. A handsomely moulded transom at four feet from the ground divides this screen; the upper portion being open, the lower panelled. Each of the three compartments on either side of the doorway is again divided vertically below the transom into two panels, alternately coloured green and red, with cinqefoiled heads; on each is painted the figure of an apostle, with his name beneath, and the lower part is occupied with two carved quatrefoils, which raise the figure a few inches above the floor level and give it a better effect. The following is the order in which the apostles are placed, commencing at the north side On either side of this central screen, and about a foot in advance of the cast wall of the nave, are two reredoses, about four feet from the floor, each divided into four panels, each panel containing a seated figure of a saint, and above it an angel, or other member of the heavenly hierarchy, holding a dossel cloth of diapered pattern. These figures have not their names inscribed beneath them, but have been appropriated as follows: |