You could never have any doubt about the dedication of this church, because all around the base course of the tower are scallop shells, the pilgrim symbol of St James. The tower dates from the middle years of the fifteenth century, slightly earlier than its neighbour at Northrepps, and is replete with flushwork and carving. The west door is a grand entrance, the bell windows tall and elegant. It rises almost fifty metres, a beacon over Poppyland. For Frank Allen, writing the definitive account of English church towers in the 1930s, Southrepps served as an exemplar for anyone wanting to understand the church towers of East Anglia. Mortlock thought it one of the best in Norfolk.
The first impression of St James is of quite how well looked after it is, a church which is obviously and vibrantly in regular use. The new screen to the tower arch, and the renewed roof above, create a warmth, the organic feeling of wood on stone. The arcades in the nave walls race eastwards, and you yearn to see daylight through them, but the aisles were demolished in 1791.The chancel was substantially restored in the 19th century, the tracery of the great east window renewed and everything made neat and seemly. I think that the south wall, with its sedilia and piscina and intricately carved figures, is pretty well complete, the work of the early 14th century as Decorated architecture reaches its peak. Incidentally, the way the east and west windows echo each other, the one Decorated and the other Perpendicular, is tremendous. This building must often feel full of light.
The late 19th and early 20th century glass is of a high quality. A fine medieval angel in a south chancel window is un-East Anglian in style, and may have come from elsewhere. There are otherwise few medieval survivals, but there is a sense of every age, a touchstone down the generations. At the west window, and at the roof, and the curiously primitive early 18th century memorial to the Barton family, with an inquisitive skull and the inscription squeezed in. The church is an aesthetic delight.
Limited parking is available at the front of the church. When retrieving the cache, you only need to remove the bottom part of the cache, you will see why!
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