Reepham Benefice
Remembering Our Fallen
Rediscovering the past: through a mixture of luck, slow and paint staking research and lots of patience, we are beginning to piece together some of the names recorded on the WWI Memorial in St. Michael’s Church more>
The parish church of Reepham, St Mary’s Church, shares the same graveyard with two other churches. It is upon this site that the three medieval parish boundaries of Reepham, Whitwell (St Michael’s - now converted into a church hall, the chancel is still used for mid-week Holy Communion) and Hackford (All Saints’ Church, burnt down in 1543 - only a small portion of this church now stands in the church yard) met. Research conducted in 2008 has possibly provided the most reliable answer to date as to why three churches were built so close to each other: Reepham Church (St Mary’s) housed a pre-reformation shrine of ‘Our Lady of Reepham’ and was a site of pilgrimage for hundreds of years before the removal of the shrine during the reformation. It therefore stands to reason, as a place of great spiritual significance, that the two nearest parishes would wish to have their church as close to the shrine as possible.
The church, as it now stands, is difficult to date; the aisles were added in the
13th century (south side) and the 14th century (north side); you can see light differences
in the pillars if you look carefully.
The church has suffered much at the hands of 19th century ‘restorers’: the windows were renewed (possibly replacing the original medieval tracery with their favourite ‘Decorated’ style); the chancel arch was replaced; the chancel roof was raised; and the floor memorials were removed into the north aisle.
The Nave of Reepham Church holds a square font of Purbeck marble on five pillars, thought to be either Norman or 13th century in origin. The benches at the back of the nave have some medieval bench ends, with poppy-heads, and animals on the arms. On the north-west arcade pillar is the head of a churchyard cross, with figures of Ss Mary and John squeezed under the arms of the cross; the other side has St Michael between Ss Andrew and Christopher. This, when complete, would have stood at the point where the three parishes meet (Reepham, Hackford, Whitwell).
Rare Example of Medieval Brass
In the Chancel of Reepham Church, on a marble stone, adorned with a canopy work of
brass, are the effigies of a knight in complete armour, his hands erect and joined,
at his feet a lion, with that of his lady. On a rim of brass which runs round the
verge of this stone, was an epitaph in verse, now the greatest part of it broken
off and lost; this was: “In memory of Sir William Kerdiston and his lady, Cecelia,
daughter of Brewes of Salle, and the epitaph reads in Latin:
“Fatus militia quondum Will’mus honore
Nupsit Cecile Brewes virtutis amore,
De Kerdestone qui gaudebant
Hic in pace hona latitent precor absq; reatu.
His subijt fatum, post fidis festa, peracta,
Virgo parens, natum pete, ne retuant malefacta.”
Over his head was the shield of the Kerdiston family, and over hers that of the Brewes. Sadly, both have been lost.
Medieval Monument
The monument in the Sanctuary is of particular interest. Here lies a Knight of the
shire, reported by a notable historian to be “a Knight Templar of the Kerdiston family”
(taken from Francis Blomfield’s “An 
Essay Towards a Topographical History of the
County of Norfolk” published in 1808, p. 247). The evidence to support this being
a Knight Templar is circumstantial and Blomfield’s reference may have been due to
similar recumbent figures, those of recorded Knights Templar, being found in his
research at other churches in the South of England.
The monument shows a knight in armour, with his hands and legs crossed, in a recumbent position on top of large rounded stones. It is a noted fact that the position of a knight depicted in death reflects the position he held in life. In this instance, the fact that the figure is shown holding the hilt of his sword points to the individual being a fighting knight, perhaps even a Crusader knight. The link with the crusades, those knights of the crown who fought for the Holy Land in Jerusalem (what is now modern-day Israel) , comes in the form of cobbles - a possible representation of the ‘road to the Holy Land’, which the crusader knights would have been charged with protecting. Blomfield’s declaration that this is a Knight Templar could well come from his ‘reading into’ the symbolism surrounding the manner of the knight’s depiction on the tomb. The knight is “probably Sir Thomas Kerdiston, who died in 1270” according to Blomfield, however more recent research has leaned towards the tomb being that of Sir Roger Kerdiston who died in 1337.
Whoever this tomb was built for, it does not take away from the fact that this is a very fine and important piece of medieval sculpture, and it survives remarkably intact. The ten small figures carved into the base of the tomb are called ‘weepers’.
“In this church was a famous image of the Virgin Mary” (Francis Blomfield, ‘An Essay Towards a Topographical...’ page 248, 1808). Research conducted in the summer of 2008 has uncovered a rare insight into Reepham’s pre-reformation history, with a number of sources citing the existence of a shrine housed within Reepham Church, known locally as ‘Our Lady of Reepham’.
The east window (behind the altar) of Reepham Church was replaced during the 19th century. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, Professor Emeritus of History of Art the University of London, attributes Joseph Stannard as the architect who designed and installed the window, claiming the tiny slipper chapel at Walsingham as the source of its design. The fact that the pilgrimage chapel in Walsingham was used as the template for the new east window has led some historians to believe that this was done on purpose - giving the church that once housed a shrine of the Virgin Mary a window befitting a pilgrim church.
Explore Reepham Church via our interactive photo tour and see what the church is like during a service more>
We welcome visitors throughout the week. Click the following link to find directions more>