Holy Trinity, Hempton
Of all Norfolk's parish churches, Holy Trinity must be among the least known, and the least visited. The church appears to be a 19th century church, although there is rather more to it than that. The high pitched western end is set perpendicular to it, as if another church had been built on to it sideways. The bell turret is unusually tall and slender. Curiously, the newer bit incorporates masonry which is far older.
Pevsner records that Hempton had two churches in medieval days, but Holy Trinity is neither of them. The Victorian bit is the work of JH Hakewill in the 1850s. More imaginative is JP Chaplin's westward extension of the early 1950s.
Holy Trinity is in the devotional, Anglo-catholic tradition. You enter through a side door on the south side, which takes you through the join between the two halves of the building. The 19th century nave and chancel are all in one; they are low key and relatively undistinguished, apart from the reredos, which is an ornate, tiled affair. Where the altar used to stand against it there is a curiosity, an inscription which originally would have been hidden. It remembers parishioners who fell asleep in the Faith and Love of the Holy Catholic Church, by which these 19th century Anglo-catholics meant the Church of England, of course - a fascinating historical survival. The reredos must have been installed a long time after Hakewill's building, perhaps in the early 20th century, and the memorial stone will be contemporary with it.
Even more fascinating is Chaplin's extension westwards. It is separated from the 19th century church by a tall, 14th century-style chancel arch. However, because the extension is sideways on, the arch is much closer to the back of the church than to the front. What makes it rather interesting is that the extension was built using masonry from the demolished church of St Michael at Thorn, in Norwich. The pinnacles of its tower are incorporated into the structure of a side altar here, along with tracery from the windows of the ruined church nearby at Pudding Norton.
For more information on the History of the Church: https://walsinghamparishes.org.uk/holy-trinity-hempton-with-pudding-norton/
Or: http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/hempton/hempton.htm
Now lets find the log:
A - Walk around the outside of the church, how many doors can you count on the church?
B - Above each of the windows there are what look like rays, but how many over each window?
C - Now go and find Maurice's bench and tell me how many lettersare in his surname?
Now I'm sure I don't need to tell you what to do next, so take a seat on Maurice's bench and plot away:
N052° (C)(B-C).(A+2)(C+1)(C)
E000° (A+2)(B-B).(C)(B-8)(C-A)
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