The south porch is the main entrance. Like most of the church, it is 15th. Century, but why is it built of brick when all the other walls are of stone? It is unusual for the window tracery also to be of brick, as it is here. The sundial was added later.

All along the south side, the dripstones over the windows end in grotesque little heads, but the one over the window nearest the porch ends, on the right, with a carving of a spitting cat. If only it were less eroded! There are carvings on the windows of the clerestory too but they are hard to see from below.

The central buttress has a scratch dial”, a circle of little holes marked in the stone. They were rudimentary sundials to help the priest determine service times before clocks were common. It’s on the south side that the few 18th. Century gravestones are found.

The Sanctus bell cote on the gable end of the nave was replaced during the restoration using pieces of the original found blocking up the gable window.

At the east end of the chancel, a marble plaque in the grass commemorates the well-known local painter, Walter Dexter, 1876 – 1958. He lived for many years in the village and was buried here. Rumour has it that the redoubtable headmistress of the school, Miss Dagmar Smith, was so incensed that Dexter’s family would not pay for a monument, that she had the marble slab from her own washstand engraved instead.

On the north side of the church, the clerestory has carved dripstone ends, but not the lower windows, where they could have been seen! The money must have run out. The impressive graves of Alvis and his family are on the west side of the tower. The clock was made by Gillett and Johnson of Croydon and given by Sir William Lancaster in 1908.

Inside

The Nave. Over the nave is Sir Gilbert Scott’s roof, supported on 15th, century corbels. It may look ponderous compared with the graceful arches which support it, but it must have been a tremendous improvement to the roof of whitewashed pine that it replaced.

The octagonal font bears the Howard arms and those of Sir John II’s wife, Alice Bosco. It would have been given by them or their son, Robert, who died in 1388 before his father, and is older than the nave. The cover was designed by the great church architect Sir Ninian Comper in memory of Alvis, who had longed to see the lost medieval one replaced. Illustrations by Weever and Lily of the medieval cover show a shorter cone with straight sides, but Comper has set his imagination to work, as he did with the colouring of gilding, blue and white.

The royal coat of arms above the tower arch dates from 1774 (George III). On the north side of the church hangs a list of the vicars of East Winch going back to 1333.

A little iron bound chest in the vestry is thought to be a guild chest of the 13th. Century.

Opposite it stood the Howard mortuary chapel which was re-invented as the organ chamber designed by Sir Gilbert Scott, without his usual flair. Alvis erected a brass plaque on the east wall recording, rather too hopefully, the Howards whom he thought were buried there. But as the chapel was founded by Sir John II it seems unlikely that his father, grandfather and their wives would have been buried there. Margaret, Robert’s wife, had stipulated in her will that she should be buried in Norwich. Surely her wishes would have been respected!

Out of sight behind the organ is an intriguing monument to William Barnes, a staunch Royalist of the 17th century. (See a photograph and the text on the monument below)

The organ probably dates from the early 19th century. It was added to in 1856 and brought from Diss in 1878.

The roof of the chancel was rebuilt in the 1870s, but apart from the addition of carved bosses and corbels the design was unaltered. At the same time the sanctuary floor was raised.

The east window has been described as a “ghastly botched rebuilding of perpendicular style” and was probably put in after 1872. The unremarkable stained glass by Clayton and Bell was added in memory of Edmund Kent in 1877, and the reredos below in memory of his son’s wife in 1900. The walls are hung with memorials of the Kent family, while the hatchments are those of the Shere family, related to the Kents by marriage. Of interest is the older memorial to William Barnes’ son Owen, who died in 1670. The Latin can be translated:

Know who I am – putrid of flesh, nothing but worms.

Whoever you are, let this be enough for you to know.

The ornate lights in the sanctuary are yet another gift from Sir William Lancaster.

The South Aisle

The roof is original with delicate tracery on the arched braces. The pews, as in the north aisle, are 15th. century, and were for old or weak people to use.

There are two wicked little heads at the ends of the arch to the organ chamber – the ugliest things in the church! The Tower

The ringing floor of the tower is supported by wall posts springing from corbels carved into heavy heads in a different style from the other church carvings.

In the 16th century there were three bells, but since 1778 the church has had only one 2 hundredweight (cwt) bell inscribed with the words “John Draper made me 1624”. John Draper was the Thetford bell founder.

The west window, glazed in glowing colours and showing the infant Jesus being presented in the temple, was given by Miss Edith Childs in 1904. It was made by Hardman and Powell and is the best glass in the church.

Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths.

Now kept in Norfolk County records Office, the registers date from 1750, but are incomplete. The oldest burial entries record sworn statements (affidavits) confirming that the dead were buried in “sheep wool only”, a legal requirement designed to protect the wool trade.

Until about 1900, many of the young people getting married were illiterate and signed the register with a cross.

The Forsters and Curls whose names are commemorated around the church come to life as the churchwardens and overseers mentioned in the parish papers. Timid Rev. Mundford, antiquarian and botanist, contrasts with energetic and self-publicising Rev. Alvis. Miss Edith Childs was remembered as an ancient, ladylike personage formally greeting the children on her way to the shop.A former patron of the living, the cartoonist Sir Osbert Lancaster, came here as a child in the early 20th century and looked at the church with a jaundiced eye, repelled by its shiny new look. It doesn’t look like that anymore! Nell Steele – 2016. Glossary

Banneret: A title earned by bravery in the King’s presence on the field of battle.

Chancel: The Holiest part of the church near the altar – reserved for the clergy and choir. Separated from the nave by the Rood Screen.

Clerestory: The upper windows of the nave walls.

Consecration Cross: Cross usually in a circle, marking the points where the walls and altar slab were touched by the bishop at the consecration of the church.

Corbel: Block of stone projecting from the wall and supporting the wall post of a roof.

Dripstone: Arch over a window protecting it from rain.

Hammer Beam: Wooden beam projecting from wall to support a principal rafter.

Hatchments: Wooden boards painted with a cat of arms of a dead person, placed on the bier at the funeral and afterwards hung in the church.

Patron (of the living): The person with a right of choosing the vicar.

Paten: The plate to hold communion wafers.

Perpendicular: The English Gothic style of architecture used between approximately 1350 – 1530; characterised by broad arches and elaborate fan vaulting.

Piscina: Basin for washing communion chalices, with a drain hole.

Reredos: An ornamental screen behind the altar.

Rood Screen: Decorated wooden or stone screen separating the nave and chancel.

Sanctuary: That part of the chancel containing the high altar.

Vestry: A space in the church used as an office and changing room for the clergy.

Illustrations: D Steele

Photographs: B. Dungey; C Robins; N Warns - Architect.