Churches

St Catherine, Ludham

Alternate images: The painted rood - a rare survival from the brief reign of Mary Tudor; and the Elizabethan arms. The Latin motto proclaims the Protestant triumph: I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

First appeared in Let's Talk! Norfolk, December 2004

A funny thing happened in 1553. Twenty years after Henry VIII split with Rome, his daughter Mary came to the throne and set about reversing the Reformation. England was to be a Catholic country once more.

History is written by the winners, so most books will tell you the Reformation was necessary and popular - but at Ludham is startling evidence of the public hedging their bets.

Under the boy king Edward VI, Mary's half-brother, the Protestants had carried out a radical sweep of every church in the land, aiming to wipe away all trace of the old religion.

Before then, the focal point of every church was the rood - a massive wooden representation of the Crucifixion, with Christ flanked by the Virgin and Saint John , filling the archway between the nave and chancel. Under Edward, every rood in the land was destroyed.

And then came Mary. The old religion, and the old roods, were back in favour.

A detail from the painted rood screen, showing St Lawrence and St Apollonia

At Ludham, a vivid rood group was painted on boards and erected in the chancel arch. Flanking the crucified Christ are two Romans, one with a spear, the other with a vinegar-soaked sponge; outside them are Mary and John, and beyond them a pair of angels.

Perhaps such images were thrown up all over the country, but few remain. Mary's reign lasted just five years before her death - and with the accession of her half-sister Elizabeth to the throne, the Protestants had their final victory.

Once again, the roods were ordered to be destroyed. In their place were to be painted the Royal arms.

At Ludham, the arms were painted on canvas and stretched over the rood painting. Perhaps they thought Catholicism would soon be back in favour again. Whether that was hope or fear, we will never know.

Both paintings are extremely rare and important - and today you can see both. The rood, its faces and details faded but the impression still quite clear, faces the congregation in the nave. The Elizabethan arms face east, into the chancel.

Beneath this astounding dual relic of history stands one of the finest among Norfolk 's many surviving medieval rood screens. Its painted saints alone would make Ludham well worth a visit.

But it is the back-to-back pictorial statements of old Marian Catholicism and new Elizabethan Anglicanism that make it unique among English churches.