St Peter & St Paul, Barnham Broom, Norfolk

Details

Accessibility

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/2638/facilities/

2025:

"Ramp

Parking available

Assistance dogs welcome

Large print

Toilets"

Brief description

http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/barnhambroom/barnhambroom.htm

2025:

"Here we are in the rolling landscape to the west of Norwich, the fields and copses around Dereham and Wymondham which form the heart of Norfolk. Occasionally there's a busy road, but mostly it's just little lanes winding and staggering around ancient field patterns or the forgotten boundaries of some long-dead squire's proud acres. Mostly quiet farming country, the occasional hotel or golf course reminds us that we are not far from Norwich, but nowhere, apart from Wymondham and Dereham, is of any size, and the only buildings of any consequence are the churches.

Barnham Broom is perhaps not a place that many will know, but it has a church of great interest. Although the western extension to the graveyard is flat and open, the trees encroach upon and enfold the church itself, and the eastern end of the graveyard falls away into thick woods that make a view of the church from this end impossible. The ground is lush with elder and ivy, and a poignant little child's grave floats like a buffeted boat among the trees. You seem to step over a boundary immediately to the east, and I wondered if this was into the edge of the park of some great Hall, now lost to us. The structure of St Peter and St Paul, as with so many big East Anglian churches, is almost entirely the work of the early 15th Century. Pevsner records bequests for the tower and bell in 1434 and 1440, so this may be a clue to the finishing date of the rebuild. Half a millennium later, the 19th Century restoration was considerable, but the Victorians weren't the first that century to try to put this building back into order, and you step into an interior that is clean, bright and has a feel of the early 1800s as much as anything later. This is accentuated by a deep, uncanted gallery with the arms of George III on the front, probably a clue to its date.

Barnham Broom's great surviving treasure is the roodscreen, probably contemporary with the rebuilding of the church in the 15th Century. A curiosity is that it appears to have been left unfinished, despite predating the Reformation by almost a century. There are several screens like this in Norfolk, and several theories. It may be that there was a nave altar in the north-west corner that covered part of the screen. Perhaps the way that the uprights have been cut into on this side, and the division bar in the first two boards removed, is a clue."

Address

The Church of Saint Peter & Saint Paul Barnham Broom

Honingham Rd

Barnham Broom

Norwich NR9 4DB

Email

2025:

Rev Tim Weatherstone - rector@groupof15.org.uk 

Phone

2025:

Rev Tim Weatherstone - 01362 858021

Website

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/2638/

Directions

Opening Times

Always check with the venue directly for up-to-date information including opening times and admission charges as they may be subject to change

Transport

Amenities

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/2638/facilities/

2025:

"Listed building

Music

Bell ringing"