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St Mary’s Church Burnham Deepdale

This little church in its coastal village deserves fame for its three outstanding features: – it’s Saxon round tower (pre-Conquest of 1066), its Norman font, and its collection of medieval glass.

Description
Description

The round tower dates approximately from 950 years ago. This simple construction, making intricate corners unnecessary, is a feature of many churches in Norfolk. This is one of a group in three neighbouring parishes; Titchwell, Burnham Deepdale and Burnham Norton. The tower houses a 15th century bell cast by Thomas Derby of King’s Lynn.

The Norman font of Barnack stone is square in shape and depicts a figure for each month of the year from a farming man’s point of view. For example February shows a person with his feet up before the fire, June, a person weeding, September, threshing and December, feasting together.

The collection of medieval glass is rich and varied and is described in the book ‘Stained Glass Tours around Norfolk Churches’ by David J King. Of particular charm is the window in the tower showing in the top half an angel pulling the chains of a censur and below Mary Magdalene holding a scroll. The windows in the porch contain delightful medieval faces of the sun and moon.