Architectural Features
Remainder of late C14 comprising nave, aisles and chancel.
2-light arched west window of early C14.
Crenellated parapet with gargoyles.
Crenellated parapets to aisles and clerestory, all with panelling and corbel tables, the latter studded at intervals with animal head gargoyles.
Elaborate 2 storey early C15 south porch with stepped side buttresses and angle buttresses to south face.
Vault of porch in 2 bays with moulded tierceron ribs, the bosses carved with religious scenes and animal and figurative motifs.
Original double timber doors with tiers of carved arcading.
2 bay tierceron vault with bosses of foliage and some figurative carving.
Internal corbels carved with grotesque figures.
C17 timber screen extends across nave and aisles at west end.
Early C17 tower gallery with turned balusters.
Dado of C15 rood screen survives in 6 bays right and left of central opening, each bay with painted figures of saints and apostles.
Several chancel stalls survive with poppyhead ends, animal arm rests and misericords.
One particularly fine misericord with pelican pecking its own breast.
Beneath a canopied niche on south chancel wall a monument to Robert Butler 1632.
Memorial to Robert Butler, a 17th century benefactor of the church. St Peter's church > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825116 is often called the Cathedral of the Fens and many experts describe it as one of the finest churches in England. A smaller church stood here in around 1360, to which a chancel was added in 1425 - making the building 50 metres long. The east wall extended right up to the boundary of the consecrated ground, resulting in the construction of a passageway > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825144 that leads from the north to the south side, below the high altar, so that church processions were able to pass without leaving the consecrated area. The passage has a vaulted ceiling adorned with carved roof bosses. In the 18th and 19th centuries it served as stabling for horses during services. The latest addition to the church - the south porch > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825172 - was added in 1450. This porch is reputed to be one of the largest and finest in Norfolk. Inside the church a Jacobean screen, with doors that can be locked, separates the west end of the church from the nave > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825178. The octagonal font > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825238 was installed in 1532 and the font cover was added around 1600. Pews > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825207 and wineglass pulpit > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825211 date from approximately the same time. A window in the north wall contains fragments of medieval glass. Only the painted panels depicting saints remain of the rood screen > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825202 which was installed around 1450. The stalls in the chancel contain much of the original 15th century work such as the carvings, one of which depicting St Edmund's head guarded by a wolf > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825214.
Pair of Composite columns support carved entablature.
Nave with fine set of C18 box pews and C17 benches.
Fielded diamond panels below upper arched panels, the arches enriched by foliage carving.
Curving stairs bend round nave pier against which pulpit is erected.
Octagonal font dated 1532 with stem and bowl carved with ogee headed panels.
St Peter's church > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825116 is often called the Cathedral of the Fens and many experts describe it as one of the finest churches in England. A smaller church stood here in around 1360, to which a chancel was added in 1425 - making the building 50 metres long. The east wall extended right up to the boundary of the consecrated ground, resulting in the construction of a passageway > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825144 that leads from the north to the south side, below the high altar, so that church processions were able to pass without leaving the consecrated area. The passage has a vaulted ceiling adorned with carved roof bosses. In the 18th and 19th centuries it served as stabling for horses during services. The latest addition to the church - the south porch > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825172 - was added in 1450. This porch is reputed to be one of the largest and finest in Norfolk. Inside the church a Jacobean screen, with doors that can be locked, separates the west end of the church from the nave > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825178. The octagonal font > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825238 was installed in 1532 and the font cover was added around 1600. Pews > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825207 and wineglass pulpit > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825211 date from approximately the same time. A window in the north wall contains fragments of medieval glass. Only the painted panels depicting saints remain of the rood screen > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825202 which was installed around 1450. The stalls in the chancel contain much of the original 15th century work such as the carvings, one of which depicting St Edmund's head guarded by a wolf > http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1825214.
Centre stage of paired carved pilasters framing arcaded panels.
C15 parclose screen between south aisle and south nave chapel.
Brass.
Poor box stands on turned baluster, the box inscribed on 3 sides : Remember the Poore 1639.