Churches

All Saints, Morston

First appeared in Let's Talk! Norfolk, June 2005

IF you have ever driven along the north Norfolk coast, you cannot fail to have noticed All Saints standing on its own rise as you enter the little village of Morston from the east.

It's not beautiful or grand, like nearby Cley, Blakeney or Salthouse, but there is something impressive and attractive in the uncompromising, foresquare quality of its 13th-century nave and tower, and the unpretentious brick patching where it was hit by lightning in 1743.

The Early English window tracery is particularly fascinating, especially the small quatrefoils in the clerestory. It is quite rare in East Anglia for the windows not to have been replaced in the 14th or 15th centuries by larger ones of a later design.

You might come to Morston for a boat trip to see the seals off Blakeney Point (I can recommend it highly). If you do, you should also take the time to step inside All Saints, where you will find much of interest.

The first thing you may notice is the 15th-century font, which stands high on a stepped platform. Its eight sides bear alternate figures of the evangelistic symbols (the lion, bull, eagle and winged man of saints Mark, Luke, John and Matthew) and seated figures said in the guide leaflet to be the evangelists themselves.

As is usual, the figures were defaced during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, but two have at some time had new "faces" very clumsily recarved in them, making them appear disturbingly alien.

There is good reason for supposing the seated figures might originally have been intended as the Four Latin Doctors - saints Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, all learned characters of the early Christian church who were highly thought of in 15th-century Norfolk .

It is certainly the doctors who occupy the southern half of the painted 15th-century roodscreen, balancing the four evangelists on the north.

The guide, bizarrely, claims, "Because of their biblical importance they have not been defaced". This begs several questions, not least what could be the biblical importance of scholars who lived after biblical times.

In fact, what is most interesting is how the paintings were in fact attacked by the reformers. The papal tiara of St Gregory and the cardinal's hat of St Jerome have been deeply and determinedly scoured away, no doubt because of their Catholic significance.