St Mary Magdalene Church | |
---|---|
52°49′42″N0°30′32″E / 52.828204°N 0.508924°E | |
Location | Sandringham Estate, Sandringham, Norfolk, PE35 6EH |
Country | England |
Denomination | Church of England |
Churchmanship | Traditional Anglican |
Website | Parish website |
History | |
Status | Active |
Dedication | St Mary Magdalene |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Parish church |
Heritage designation | Grade II* listed |
Administration | |
Diocese | Diocese of Norwich |
Archdeaconry | Archdeaconry of Lynn |
Deanery | Heacham and Rising |
Parish | Sandringham with West Newton and Appleton |
Clergy | |
Rector | The Revd Canon Dr Paul Williams |
St Mary Magdalene Church is a church in Sandringham, Norfolk, England, located just to the southwest of Sandringham House. Members of the British Royal Family attend services when in residence at Sandringham, which normally includes Christmas. [1] The church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene, a disciple of Jesus. The rector is the Reverend Canon Paul Williams. [2]
The Grade II* listed [3] church is dedicated to Mary Magdalene [4] and is described as a small building in the Perpendicular style, "nobly lying on raised ground". [5] [6] The current building dates to the 16th century and was restored by S. S. Teulon in 1855 and Arthur Blomfield in 1890. It is considered to be a noteworthy example of a carrstone building. [7] [8] It is located in the park and is approached from Sandringham House through the garden by "an avenue of fine old Scotch firs". [6]
Much of the decoration and the church's stained glass in the east window was created by Charles Eamer Kempe whom King Edward VII had also commissioned in 1903 to create a stained glass window for Buckingham Palace of his eldest son, Prince Albert, Duke of Clarence. [9] [10] The church's silver altar and reredos, created by the silversmiths Barkentin & Krall, were presented to Queen Alexandra by the American department store owner Rodman Wanamaker as a tribute to Edward VII. He also presented her with the silver pulpit and a silver 17th-century Spanish processional cross. Of note also is a Florentine marble font and a Greek font dating to the 9th-century. [7] [11]
There are memorials to many members and relations of the Royal Family in the church and churchyard. Prince John (12 July 1905 – 18 January 1919) is buried here. After his death in February 1952, the body of King George VI was placed in the church for two days prior to its lying in state in Westminster Hall. [12]
The church has been the site of many royal baptisms. These baptisms include: [13] [14]
Prince John was the fifth son and youngest of the six children of King George V and Queen Mary. At the time of his birth, his father was heir apparent to John's grandfather Edward VII. In 1910, John's father succeeded to the throne upon Edward VII's death, and John became fifth in the line of succession to the British throne.
Maud of Wales was Queen of Norway as the wife of King Haakon VII. The youngest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, she was known as Princess Maud of Wales before her marriage, as her father was the Prince of Wales at the time.
George Frederick Bodley was an English Gothic Revival architect. He was a pupil of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and worked in partnership with Thomas Garner for much of his career. He was one of the founders of Watts & Co.
Sandringham House is a country house in the parish of Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is one of the royal residences of Charles III, whose grandfather, George VI, and great-grandfather, George V, both died there. The house stands in a 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) estate in the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The house is listed as Grade II* and the landscaped gardens, park and woodlands are on the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Brundall is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located on the north bank of the River Yare opposite Surlingham Broad and about 7 miles (11 km) east of the city of Norwich.
Dersingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated some 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north of the town of King's Lynn and 70 km (43 mi) north-west of the city of Norwich, opening onto The Wash.
Ellingham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north-east of Bungay and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Norwich, along the River Waveney. The majority of the population lies in the east of the parish in Kirby Row.
Charles Eamer Kempe was a British Victorian era designer and manufacturer of stained glass. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and also designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lychgates and memorials that helped to define a later nineteenth-century Anglican style. The list of English cathedrals containing examples of his work includes: Chester, Gloucester, Hereford, Lichfield, Wells, Winchester and York. Kempe's networks of patrons and influence stretched from the Royal Family and the Church of England hierarchy to the literary and artistic beau monde.
Edmund Maurice Burke Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy was a British Conservative Party politician who held a title in the Peerage of Ireland. He was the maternal grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Elizabeth Charlotte Knollys was an English courtier and member of the Knollys family. She was Lady of the Bedchamber, and the first woman private secretary, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, later Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, consort of Edward VII.
St John the Divine, Kennington, is an Anglican church in London. The parish of Kennington is within the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. The church was designed by the architect George Edmund Street in the Decorated Gothic style, and was built between 1871 and 1874. Today it is a grade I listed building.
St Mary's Church is in the village of Eastham, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. It is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South.
Captain Frank Reginald Beck, was a land agent to the British royal family. He helped to form a volunteer company comprising members of the royal staff. Under his leadership this unit fought in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Following the landings at Suvla Bay, as part of the August Offensive, Beck and many of his men went missing, presumed killed.
Frederick Richard Leach (1837–1904) was an English master decorator, mural and stained glass painter based in Cambridge. He worked with the architects George Frederick Bodley and George Gilbert Scott Junior, the designer William Morris and the church craftsman Charles Eamer Kempe on many Victorian Gothic revival churches, Cambridge college interiors and church restorations.
Holy Trinity Church, Micklegate, York is a Grade I listed parish church in the Church of England in York.
The Lily Font is a silver-gilt baptismal font used at the baptismal services of members of the British royal family. It is part of the Royal Collection and is kept at the Jewel House at the Tower of London when not in use. The Lily Font has been used for the baptism of all the children and grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth II except Princess Eugenie of York.
St Ninian's Chapel in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is a Grade B listed Anglican chapel located in the grounds of the Mar Lodge Estate. Built from 1895 to 1898 for use as a private chapel by the family of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, owners of Mar Lodge, it has been the property of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church since 1899. St Ninian's Chapel is the most westerly church in the Diocese.
The Church of St Sabinus is the Church of England parish church for in Woolacombe, Devon. It is the only church in the United Kingdom that is dedicated to St Sabinus of Canosa and has been a Grade II* listed building since 1985. The church comes under the Diocese of Exeter.
Arthur Harry Cross was a chorister, organist, choirmaster and composer of sacred and secular music, who was appointed organist and choirmaster at St Mary Magdalene Church, Sandringham in 1878 at the age of 20. He continued in that position for 28 years until his death of heart disease in 1906.
The chancel of St Mary Magdelene, Sandringham, decoration and east window by C E Kempe and Co Ltd
Commissioned by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, c.1903. It was originally from the Ministers' Staircase at Buckingham Palace and thought to have been moved after air raids in the 1940s.