St Mary, Bridgham, Norfolk

I Location

Site Location
Bridgham
National Grid Reference
TL 95 58 59
County
Norfolk
Diocese
medieval: East Anglia
now: Norwich
Dedication
medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St Mary
Type of building/monument
Parish church

II General Description

General view.

General view.

General view.

General view.

Now comprising a nave and chancel, St Mary’s also appears to have had a W tower of which no fabric now survives. The church, which has a fine 15thc. font and double piscina, also houses the reset remains of a pillar piscina, which constitutes the only Romanesque feature at the site.

V Furnishings

3. Piscinae/Pillar Piscinae

(i) Pillar piscina

Piscina.

Piscina.

Piscina.

Piscina.

Piscina.

Piscina.

Set into a niche in the S wall of the nave, at the eastern end, is the bowl of a pillar piscina, but without a columnar support. It has a fluted basin with a central drainage hole, within a squat, square flat-leaf capital, with necking. The pointed tip of each leaf curves outward, supporting a roll which forms the rim of the basin. On the N face of the capital the surface is cut back, leaving a relief patera with a pierced central ball. The E face is uncarved. The S face is embedded in the nave wall. The missing support, assuming this to have existed, would have been cylindrical.

Dimensions
h. 0.13 m
w. 0.28 m
l. 0.30 m (N to S)

VII History

Bridgham, in the hundred of Shropham, was held by the Abbot of Ely both before and after the Conquest. DS states that the manor of Bridgham had one priest and held thirty acres in nearby Roudham. According to DS, Roger Bigod (d. 1107), sheriff of Norfolk, once held a Freeman in Bridgham but Bigod’s claim was successfully challenged by the Abbot of Ely. The inquiry into the holdings of Ely Abbey (IE), conducted very soon after the DS of 1086, recorded that these included 12 acres of free land and one church in Bridgham, not mentioned in DS. Prior Solomon and the convent of Ely, which became a cathedral in 1109, instituted John the doctor as persona (parson) of the church of Bridgham, with the consent of Bishop Nigel, c. 1158-1169.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Pevsner does not record the pillar piscina.

IX Bibliography

  • P. Brown ( ed.) Domesday Book. Norfolk, 2 vols, London and Chichester 1984.
  • C. Harper-Bill ( ed.) English Episcopal Acta VI. Norwich 1070-1214, Oxford 1990, 74-5, no. 87.
  • T. Williamson, The Origins of Norfolk, Manchester 1993, 154.
  • S. Margeson, F. Seillier and A. Rogerson, The Normans in Norfolk, Norwich 1994, 94.
  • N. Pevsner and B. Wilson, The Buildings of England: Norfolk: North-West and South, Harmondsworth, 1962, revised 1999, 2: 63, 218.