Reepham Benefice
For hundreds of years the final burial place of Anne Boleyn has been in question - based primarily on rumours, conjecture and a small amount of evidence which we have gathered here for your review more>
Why So Big?
There was a great deal of money about when it was built. At least four Lords of Manors,
with newly acquired wealth from wool, had 
land within the parish. They wanted a big
church to accommodate at least six Gild Chapels and also to rival the church at Cawston
that was being built by gentlemen with “old” money. The Gilds were a combination
of trades union, employment agency, standards board and access to divine protection.
Supporting a Gild, especially by paying for the Clerks (two or three for each Chapel),
was necessary for success in business. Without membership of the Holy Trinity Gild
at Coventry, for example, wool could not be sold to the European mainland.
What’s Special?
Apart from Early English tracery in two north windows, the building is uniquely all of one style – Perpendicular. It was all built in a very short time with no changes of design during the building and no later additions. Building began in 1400 and was largely completed in 1430. The nave and aisles were built together in the first phase and the two transepts and the south porch in the second phase.
Restoration or Renovation
At the end of the 19th century the church was in a terrible state of disrepair especially the windows and roof. Sir Woolmer White, owner of the Salle Estate, and Sir Alfred Jodrell joined forces with others to fund repair. Thanks to the intervention of Duleep Singh, the Sikh owner of the Elveden Estate and an enthusiast for medieval buildings, this was done as a restoration according to the philosophy of William Morris rather than a Gothic Renovation. The most possible original material was retained and the new material did not imitate the old but was left clearly distinct from it. This is most obvious in the roof beams where 15th century paint can still be seen – binoculars will let you see the colour. Pews have similarly been fashioned from new wood and the ends of old backless benches.
The Font
The cover retains traces of original paint, but has lost all the carved work that slid into the grooves that can still be seen in the fretwork. The subjects of the carved panels of the seven sacrament font, beginning at the south west corner are:- Communion, Ordination, Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Matrimony, Final Unction. The eighth panel, facing the west door, is of the crucifixion. Original paint remains on the crane for lifting the font cover and on most of the ringing gallery rail.
Brasses
The brass of John Brigge in the south aisle is unique because other 
“shroud brasses”
are either skeletal or the flesh is fully shrouded. The inscription reads
Here lyeth lohn Brigge undir this marbil ston
Whos sowle our Lord Ihu have mercy upon
For in this world worthyly he lived many a day
And here his body is berried and cowched undir clay
So frendis fre whatever ye be pray for me I you pray
As ye me see in soche degre so schall ye be a nothir day
Thomas Roos and his “identikit” children are in the north transept. The son of Geoffrey Boleyn (in the centre of the nave with his wife Alice) became Lord Mayor of London, purchased the Blickling Estate and was the great grandfather of Anne Boleyn.
The Pulpit
The fifteenth century "wine glass" pulpit retains much of its original colouring. In 1611 it was adapted as a "three decker" with reading desk and clerk's seat, and the sounding board above the pulpit.
The Screen
Not much remains of the original screen but what is left carries the 
original paint
including primer on the blank panels. They may remain uncoloured because money ran
out or because they were hidden by altars placed in front of them. The four Latin
Doctors, Gregory, Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose are on the screen doors. Left of
the doors are the Apostles Thomas and James; Philip and Bartholomew to the right.
Saw cuts on the screen and no sign of a rood loft staircase in the masonry, combine
to suggest that there was a return screen on each side, containing the other eight
Apostles with Creed, and one or two wooden staircases.
Wood Carving
The misericords and armrests of the chancel stalls can be seen 
close up as can the
screen including George and the Dragon on one of the doors. There are photos on the
chancel wall of the chancel roof bosses. Binoculars are needed to see the transept
roofs. Both have emblems of their donors where the ribs cross – T and a rose for
Thomas Roos in the north and a T and a B for Thomas Brigge in the south. The wood
panelling in the north transept was part of the restoration between 1910 and 1912.
The carved angels and other decoration of the nave roof can also be better appreciated
with binoculars.
Glass
Only fragments of medieval glass remain, scattered around the windows. In the east
window are a few of the nine orders of angels. 
The next chancel window to the south
has three cardinals – of interest because they never were made cardinals though those
who ordered the glazing thought they should be.
When Sir Alfred Jodrell restored the north transept in 1910-12 he gave three stained glass windows, by Mr. H. Bryans, of London. The tracery of the two east windows contain pieces of original glass. The west window gives a pictorial representation of the history of the church, with some of the early Rectors and benefactors. Can you read the local message in the four top lights of the window nearest the organ?
Over the Porches
The rooms over the open porches, known as parvises, can be reached via stairs in the west corners of the aisles. The south parvise was a Lady Chapel with a piscina and aumbry shelf. The bosses in the groined ceiling were repainted in the 1950s. As in many churches, the room was at one time a school room. The south parvise was probably a treasury and sacristy as the timbers of the roof had iron bands on them as a protection against thieves.
The Tower
The tower, which is 111 ft. high, was built during the period 1422-1461, with the
exception of the top storey which was added at the end of the fifteenth century by
Evorard Brigg. Notice the magnificent tracery of the "sound holes" in the centre
of the tower.
In the tower are eight bells. Two were the gift of Sir Woolmer White, in 1910, three are nineteenth century, one was made in 1698 by the itinerant bellfounder Charles Newman, who worked from Norwich and from Haddenham, Cambs., and the remaining two are pre-Reformation.
The misericords and armrests of the chancel stalls can be seen close up as can the screen including George and the Dragon on one of the doors. There are photos on the chancel wall of the chancel roof bosses. Binoculars are needed to see the transept roofs. Both have emblems of their donors where the ribs cross – T and a rose for Thomas Roos in the north and a T and a B for Thomas Brigge in the south. The wood panelling in the north transept was part of the restoration between 1910 and 1912. The carved angels and other decoration of the nave roof can also be better appreciated with binoculars.
Salle Church boasts a magnificent painted medieval roof and wonderfully preserved misericordes more>
We welcome visitors throughout the week. Click the following link to find directions more>