St Gregory's Church, Heckingham

St Gregory's Church, Heckingham
St Gregory's Church, Heckingham
	St Gregory's Church, Heckingham, from the southeast
	St Gregory's Church, Heckingham Location in Norfolk
	Coordinates: 52°32′07″N1°30′52″E / 52.5352°N 1.5144°E
OS grid reference	TM 385 988
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Website	Churches Conservation Trust
History
Dedication	Saint Gregory
Architecture
Functional status	Redundant
Heritage designation	Grade I
Designated	5 September 1960
Architectural type	Church
Style	Norman
Specifications
Materials	Flint with limestone dressings, some red brick; Thatched roofs

Last updated February 23, 2019

St Gregory's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Heckingham, Norfolk, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building,^[1] and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.^[2] It stands on a small hill overlooking the River Chet.^[2]

Redundant church is a phrase particularly used to refer to former Anglican church buildings no longer required for regular public worship in the United Kingdom, but may refer to any disused church building around the world.

Heckingham village in the United Kingdom

Heckingham is a small village and parish in the county of Norfolk, England, about a mile east of Loddon. It covers an area of 4.46 km² (1.72 sq mi) and had a population of 143 in 53 households at the 2001 census, increasing to 179 at the 2011 census.

Norfolk is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the northwest, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. The county town is Norwich. With an area of 2,074 square miles (5,370 km²) and a population of 859,400, Norfolk is a largely rural county with a population density of 401 per square mile. Of the county's population, 40% live in four major built up areas: Norwich (213,000), Great Yarmouth (63,000), King's Lynn (46,000) and Thetford (25,000).

History

St Gregory's originated in the 12th century, and most of its fabric dates from that and the next century. The south porch was added in the 15th century.^[1]

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in flint with limestone dressings, and some red brick. The roofs are thatched. Its plan consists of a nave with a north aisle and a south porch, a chancel with an apse at the east end, and a west tower. The lower third of the tower, dating from the 12th century, is round, and the upper two-thirds, added at a later date, is octagonal with brick quoins. The bell openings are lancets, and there are two lancet windows lower down on the west side, one above the other. The gabled porch is decorated with shields over the doorway. There are blocked windows in its east and west sides. In the south wall of the nave are a three-light window, dating from the 15th century, and a lancet window. The apsidal chancel is divided into five bays by pilasters acting as buttresses. In the south bay is a two-light window with Y-tracery. The southeast bay contains a lancet window and a memorial tablet. The east window has two lights containing Decorated tracery. The northeast bay contains a small lancet window, and in the north bay is a two-light window with ogee heads. There are windows with Y-tracery dating from about 1300 in the east and west windows of the north aisle. In its north wall are a two-light window with Y-tracery, two lancet windows, and a blocked round-headed doorway dating from the 12th century.^[1]

Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white or brown in colour, and often has a glassy or waxy appearance. A thin layer on the outside of the nodules is usually different in colour, typically white and rough in texture. From a petrological point of view, "flint" refers specifically to the form of chert which occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Similarly, "common chert" occurs in limestone.

Limestone Sedimentary rocks made of calcium carbonate

Limestone is a sedimentary rock which is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃).

Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed—trapping air—thatching also functions as insulation. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries, usually with low-cost local vegetation. By contrast, in some developed countries it is the choice of some affluent people who desire a rustic look for their home, would like a more ecologically friendly roof, or who have purchased an originally thatched abode.

The Norman south doorway also dates from the 12th century, and is described as being "very fine".^[1] It has four orders of shafts, cushion capitals, and arches decorated with a variety of motifs, including zigzags, reels, bobbins, stars and wheels.^[1] The church is located close to St Margaret's Church, Hales, which also has a very fine Norman doorway, and there is speculation that both doorways were the work of the same mason.^[2]^[3]

The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture. The Normans introduced large numbers of castles and fortifications including Norman keeps, and at the same time monasteries, abbeys, churches and cathedrals, in a style characterised by the usual Romanesque rounded arches and especially massive proportions compared to other regional variations of the style.

Capital (architecture) part of a column (architecture)

In architecture the capital or chapiter forms the topmost member of a column. It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface. The capital, projecting on each side as it rises to support the abacus, joins the usually square abacus and the usually circular shaft of the column. The capital may be convex, as in the Doric order; concave, as in the inverted bell of the Corinthian order; or scrolling out, as in the Ionic order. These form the three principal types on which all capitals in the classical tradition are based. The Composite order, established in the 16th century on a hint from the Arch of Titus, adds Ionic volutes to Corinthian acanthus leaves.

St Margaret's Church is a redundant Anglican church in the village of Hales, Norfolk, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands in open fields to the south of the village and to the east of the A146 road.

Interior

The arcade is in three bays with pointed arches, carried on square piers without capitals. The chancel ceiling is plastered and coved; the nave ceiling is boarded. In the southeast corner of the nave is a recess for the former stairway to the rood loft. At the east end of the aisle is a raised area which contains some medieval tiles and a memorial slab. The rest of the aisle is partly paved with stone coffin slabs and more memorials. The font probably dates from the 12th century. It consists of a square bowl supported by an octagonal stem and four columns, on a square base.^[1] In the nave is a small memorial brass dated 1407.^[3]^[4] The stained glass in the east window dates from 1910 and depicts the Annunciation.^[4]

An arcade is a succession of contiguous arches, with each arch supported by columns, piers. Exterior arcades are designed to provide a sheltered walkway for pedestrians. The walkway may be lined with retail stores. An arcade may feature arches on both sides of the walkway. Alternatively, a blind arcade superimposes arcading against a solid wall. Blind arcades are a feature of Romanesque architecture that influenced Gothic architecture. In the Gothic architectural tradition, the arcade can be located in the interior, in the lowest part of the wall of the nave, supporting the triforium and the clerestory in a cathedral, or on the exterior, in which they are usually part of the walkways that surround the courtyard and cloisters.

In architecture, a bay is the space between architectural elements, or a recess or compartment. Bay comes from Old French baee, meaning an opening or hole.

A pier, in architecture, is an upright support for a structure or superstructure such as an arch or bridge. Sections of structural walls between openings (bays) can function as piers.

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References

1 2 3 4 5 6 Historic England, "Church of St Gregory, Heckingham (1169302)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 19 November 2013
1 2 3 St Gregory's Church, Heckingham, Norfolk, Churches Conservation Trust , retrieved 1 December 2016
1 2 Heckingham, St Gregory's Church, Britain Express, retrieved 7 January 2011
1 2 Knott, Simon (2004), St Gregory, Heckingham, Norfolk Churches, retrieved 8 January 2011

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[hg-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Historic England, "Church of St Gregory, Heckingham (1169302)", National Heritage List for England , retrieved 19 November 2013

[cct-2] 1 2 3 St Gregory's Church, Heckingham, Norfolk, Churches Conservation Trust , retrieved 1 December 2016

[bex-3] 1 2 Heckingham, St Gregory's Church, Britain Express, retrieved 7 January 2011

[norch-4] 1 2 Knott, Simon (2004), St Gregory, Heckingham, Norfolk Churches, retrieved 8 January 2011