St Mary the Virgin, Wiggenhall
St Mary the Virgin, Wiggenhall
St Mary the Virgin is a Grade I redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, standing at the end of Church Road north of Wiggenhall St Mary the Virgin, Norfolk, in a watery landscape near the River Ouse.
- Location
- Wiggenhall, Norfolk
- Country
- England
- County
- Norfolk
- City / town
- Wiggenhall
- Address
- Lynn Road, Wiggenhall, Norfolk, PE34 3EW
- Postcode
- PE34 3EW
- Built
- C13 doorways; remainder c.1400; restored 1862
- Architect
- G E Street (restoration 1862)
- Denomination
- Churches Conservation Trust
- Dedication
- Mary
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Perpendicular
- Materials
- Carstone, ashlar and brick; slate roofs to nave and chancel, lead aisles
- Grid reference
- TF 582 144
- Opening hours
- Open by arrangement.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
Historic England lists a parish church with thirteenth-century north and south doors, the remainder of about 1400, restored in 1862 by G. E. Street. The fabric is carstone, ashlar and brick, with slate-roofed nave and chancel and leaded aisles. The plan is west tower, nave, aisles and chancel. The three-stage tower has western angle buttresses containing stair turrets to full height, a restored Perpendicular west window, and a brick belfry stage with an embattled parapet bowed at the western corners. A brick south porch is tunnel-vaulted with moulded transverse ribs and a sundial dated 1742 over the exterior arch. The interior has a five-bay arcade of quatrefoil piers. The church is celebrated for its carved wooden fittings: early fifteenth- to early sixteenth-century bench ends, a chancel screen dado of about 1500–25, a Jacobean font cover, and an eagle lectern dated 1518.
Monuments include an alabaster monument to Sir Henry Kervile of 1624 and a heart-shaped brass to Sir Robert Kervile. The church is open by arrangement and at advertised volunteer hours.