Church Micro 9256...Griston
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is a Simple two part Multi.
The Co-ords will take you to a Memorial in the churchyard to the 3RD Stratigic Air Depot that was originally on what is now the prison grounds.
St Peter and St Paul, Griston
From the map, you might think that Griston was almost a suburb of Watton. But it is separated from that pretty little town by the former RAF airbase, and to reach Griston you must travel out into the countryside. The airbase is now home to one of Her Majesty's Prisons, and Griston is curtailed beyond, along a road that leads to nowhere else. This makes it a particularly quiet spot, and it was a delight to stand in the graveyard listening to spring birdsong.
St Peter and St Paul has a magnificent tower of the 14th century, and the church beside it, which was rebuilt a hundred years later, appears rather austere and bleak beside it, as if professing Perpendicular rationalism against the mystery of its Decorated tower.
After a walking along a long avenue of limes this leads to the north doorway. Inside the church you will find some stone angels, from the 15th century hammer beam roof which was dismantled and replaced by the Victorians. They retained some of the smaller figures, but the larger ones were consigned to the floor of the belfry, where they were left to rot for more than a century. Recently (2007), they had been rediscovered, and brought down to the church. They have been examined by experts, and are to be restored at fabulous cost.
They are stunning, these ghosts of medieval Norfolk. The curly hair is familiar from contemporary stained glass. Two of them hold symbols, one a bag and the other a chalice and host. The restoration adviser had suggested that the figure holding a bag might be St Matthew, which might mean the chalice actually had a disc with a painting of a dragon on it, making that figure St John. But looking at the photographs since, I think they must all be angels. It is planned to reset them at angles where the hammer beam ends would have been.
Inside the church, even without the angels there are some excellent medieval survivals here. Most significant is a group of four Old Testament Patriarchs and Prophets in stained glass, a very rare thing to find. They are David, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Noah. In medieval times, each of them would have been paired with a Disciple.
The narrow lights beside them contain censing angels and a bishop, but one of the larger lights contains a 15th century figure of St Catherine with her wheel and sword. Mortlock says that this was reset here at the time of the 1885 restoration, suggesting that the Victorians thought it a more valuable piece than the angels.
Mortlock also encourages us to look at the 17th century communion rail, with its unusual indent. As he points out, it is identical to that at Thompson, across the fields, and must be the work of the same hand. This reminds us that such furnishings were usually the work of a local man. Above hangs the Stars and Stripes, a reminder of the wartime uses of the local base. Churches have become a powerful symbol in the memory of those who flew from the East Anglian bases. As one old man told me a few years back: "the church tower was the last thing we saw after we'd left the ground, and when we saw it again we knew we'd made it home".
As well as rebuilding the roof, the 19th century restoration gave the church a new floor, a sprawl of vitreous tiles, and most of the furnishings. This creates a rather gloomy interior, especially as the windows are not clear, but this creates a good foil for the view east, through a delicate 14th century screen and the contemporary reticulated tracery in the window. On this sunny morning it was a joyful sight.
Back at the west end, on the front of the ringing gallery is a royal arms dated 1902. I was excited to think that this must be a set for Edward VII, making them unique in East Anglia. It appears to be cast iron, although it was rather high up to be sure.
Beneath, the font is a fairly perfunctory late medieval octagonal one, except that to it has been added a most unusual inscription referring to the restoration of the tower in 1568:at that date was tys Steeple tope newe set up to the great cost of landed men. This must refer to the battlements, and the phrase great cost means that they bore the larger part of it rather than that it was fabulously expensive. Even so, they've made sure that we don't forget.
Information Taken from the Norfolk churches website.
From the memorial please work out the following details from the units that were based here.
N52 AB.CDE E000 FG.HIJ
1- The Ard Strategic Air Depot was in Griston.
2-The B1St HQ and HQ SQN.
3-The C46th QM PLT.
4- 3Dst MED SUP PLT
5- 16E4th ORD MM Co.
6- F2nd STA COMP SQN
7- WHAT TYPE OF AIRCRAFT DID THE 3RD STRATIC AIR DEPOT MAINTAIN? THE BG4
8- 3H5th REPAIR Sq.
9- 9I3th SIGNAL CO.
10- Det A J14Kth MP (J+K=)
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Oruvaq Gerr, Zvpeb Puhepu.