St Peter Mancroft is dedicated to Saint Peter,[3] though it did have an unofficial dual dedication to Saint Paul. The earliest evidence of a dedication to a prince of the apostles comes from a charter issued by King Henry I (r. 1100–1119), describing it as "the church of St Peter which is in the market".[4]
References to "St Peter of Mancroft" do not appear until the early 13th century.[4] The toponym 'Mancroft' likely derives from the Old Englishgermane croft meaning 'common field',[3] 'common land', or 'common enclosure',[4] though it is also frequently said to have been derived from the Latinmagna crofta meaning 'great field'. Both of these names reference the field which lied to the south of the church; the college known as St Mary-in-the-Field, on which Assembly House now stands, was also named after this field.[3]
History
Between 1069 and 1075, the church was founded by Ralph de Gael, the powerful Earl of East Anglia,[5] in the first decade of England's Norman rule.[6] Its positioning was prominent in the marketplace of the French Borough, a new urban quarter built to accommodate the Bretons who came with de Gael to England in 1066. No foundation-era fabric of the building has yet been discovered, though it likely had a single-vessel nave, a similarly single-vessel chancel, and two transept arms. This was likely later expanded with one or two nave aisles and a north chancel chapel. Its chancel's exterior width was about equal to that of the interior width of the main vessels of the present church at about 23 feet (7.0m).[7]
In the late 11th century, the church changed hands twice; from Ralph de Gael to William the Conqueror following a failed rebellion by de Gael in 1075, and then from William to Gloucester Abbey in 1086 or 1087 as the abbey was a favoured institution of William. Its benefice remained under the Abbey until the 1380s when the College of St Mary in the Fields, in Norwich, appropriated it.[4]
Rebuilding
The present building results from a major rebuilding in 1430 on the site of an existing church, and the church was completed and consecrated in 1455.[3][2] This rebuilding took place when the church was in the wealthiest parish in the city.[8] The church is present on William Cuningham's 1558 map of Norwich, with what is now known as Bethel Street running up to its tower entrance.[9] In about 1568, a bell was gifted to the church by Sir Peter Reade, and this benefaction is noted in a memorial panel of about 1646 which includes a depiction of the bell.[10] John Whitefoot delivered a funeral sermon at the church in honour of Bishop of NorwichJoseph Hall on 30 September 1656, and this was later published in London as Death's Alarum in 1658.[11] In 1766, a survey of Norwich by Samuel King noted that White Swan Lane was the street that ran to the church's entrance, calling into question Cuningham's 1568 map.[9]
The 1851 religious census found that St Peter Mancroft was seeing adult morning congregations of 700 people.[12]George Edmund Street published an exhaustive study of the church in 1879,[13] and in 1896 a small lead-covered spire with flying buttresses was added, designed by his son A. E. Street.[2] It became a Grade I listed building in 1954.[14]
Architecture
The church is 180 feet (55m) long,[2] and is in the Perpendicular Gothic style.[8] Zachary Stewart has put forward that St Peter Mancroft is one of a handful of churches in this style that are "essentially cathedrals in miniature."[15] It features a nave and chancel, north and south aisles and chapels, north and south transepts, north and south porches, a three-storey east vestry, and a west tower.[3]
Exterior
The whole church is faced with freestoneashlar, indicating that the parish was wealthy enough to add this decorative cladding. On the west, north and south sides the ground stage of the church is open to accommodate a processional way, with the east processional way being blocked by the construction of a coffee bar in 1983. The north porch, which faces the market, is more complex than the south porch.[3]
The tower itself is elaborate and features panelling and image niches, though these niches have likely never been occupied. It has a parapet with pepperpot-shaped pinnacles and flèche, all from 1895.[3]
The church has medieval stained glass, which includes the 1450 Toppes Window, donated by Robert Toppes, a Mercer and mayor of the city.[16] These main-light and tracery panels were originally in the east window of the north chancel chapel, which is highly likely to have been painted by locally-trained glazier John Mundeford at the John Wighton Workshop. Some of the designs for this were also adapted for use at the church at East Harling.[17] 11 panels of that window survive in the reconfigured east window. These are the ones showing:[18]
It is noteworthy that none of the glass is in situ, having been relocated on a number of occasions. These movements include John Dixon’s "improvements" dating from 1847 to 1841, the work undertaken by Clayton and Bell in 1881, and the 1947 reinstallation by Messrs G King and Son which involved releading and rearranging the tracery lights after the window was removed for the duration of World War II.[20] This east window also shows St William (possibly the Norman London bishop, Bishop William) and St Erkenwald.[21]
Several other windows in the eastern arm of the church were also glazed by the John Wighton Workshop in the decade from 1445, and nearly all of the surviving panels from this workshop are now in the east chancel window, although none are originally from there. Mundeford's father William worked on some of the panels, and much of the stained glass work that is less linear, more painterly and with more expressive faces and gestures can be attributed to him. This includes a panel depicting the Passion of Christ and another showin the Crowning with Thorns and the First Mocking of Christ.[17]
Interior
Nave and chancel
There is a 1463 font and a 1573 Flemish tapestry.[16]
The north transept displays a collection of church silver, including the Gleane and Thistle cups, as well as memorabilia associated with the physician-philosopher Thomas Browne, author of Religio Medici (1642).[22] In 1850 two L-shaped trenches accommodating a number of acoustic jars were discovered beneath the wooden floor on which the choir stalls had previously stood. The earthenware jars were built into its walls at intervals of about three feet, with the mouths facing into the trenches.[23]
Monuments
Christopher Joby has described a "monument culture" in St Peter Mancroft, with a large number of monuments to notable individuals. Several of these monuments use multiple languages in their inscriptions. In the north aisle, there is a monument to Euphrosyne Gardner (d. February 1662), the wife of linen draper, sheriff, mayor, and Member of Parliament for Norwich Francis Gardiner. It includes an inscription which has a Greekapophthegm; "Ην γαρ φιλει Θεοσ αποθνησκει Νεος", meaning "If God loves someone, he dies young." Euphrosyne died aged 24. Above the north door is a small monument to Samuel Vout (d. 1666), which is in English despite Vout's heritage in Norwich's Dutch Stranger community. There is a monument in English to Lady Dorothy Browne (1621–1685), which faces that of her husband, the physician and author Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) across the chancel and in Latin. The former describes her remains that are entombed beneath. The latter mentions Sir Browne's most famous works, was placed there by Dorothy, and indicates that his body was buried near the monument. The couple worshipped in the church.[8]
There is another large monument to one of the Dutch Strangers, cloth merchant and alderman John Mackerell (d. 1722) high on the north wall. Mostly in Latin, it ends with the first two verses of Psalm 112 in Hebrew script, an unusual occurrence for the time. Robert Camell (d. 1728), assistant minister at the church who was then buried there, also has a monument that is in Latin, with one word in Greek, "θεAνθρωποΣ", meaning 'God-man'. Other monuments, to sheriff and mayor Edward Coleburne (d. 1730), sheriff of Norwich John Smith (d. 1753), the merchant Thomas Ives (d. 1781), and sheriff and mayor Thomas Starling (d. 1788), also reside in the church.[8]
Benjamin Mackerell, an antiquary, was the author of the first historical account of the St Peter Mancroft Parish in 1776; he wrote that the church "[r]anked among the Chiefest Parochial Churches in England."[43] Architect Thomas Rickman in 1817 said it was "particularly [...] deserv[ing] attention."[43] In 1962, architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner referred to St Peter Mancroft as "The Norfolk parish church par excellence."[43] In 2003, the church was included in the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition Gothic: Art for England 1400–1547.[44]
1234Wilson, Bill; Nikolaus, Pevsner (2007). Norfolk 1: Norwich and North- East. Buildings of England (seconded.). Yale University Press. pp.247–50. ISBN978-0-300-09607-1.
1234567Groves, Nicholas (2010). The Medieval churches of the city of Norwich. Norwich: Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust. ISBN978-0-9560385-2-4.
↑Morgan, Victor (1 June 2004). "A Ceremonious Society: an Aspect of Institutional Power in Early Modern Norwich". Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society. Cultures, Beliefs and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples. Brill Publishing. pp.148–9. doi:10.1163/9789047405443_009. ISBN9789047405443.
↑Richmond, C. (2008). "Sir John Fastolf, the Duke of Suffolk, and the Pastons". In Clark, L. (ed.). The Fifteenth Century VIII. Vol.Rule, Redemption and Representations in Late Medieval England and France. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. p.91 n.62.
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