St Andrew, Quidenham, Norfolk

I Location

Site Location: Quidenham
National Grid Reference: TM 028 876
County: traditional: Norfolk
now: Norfolk
Diocese: medieval: East Anglia
now: Norwich
Dedication: medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): St Andrew
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

: General view.

: General view.

The church consists of an early 14thc. chancel, a nave with just a S aisle and, at the western end, a Romanesque round tower which rises to terminate in a late 14thc. octagon. The S aisle was added in the 13thc. The Romanesque N doorway is simple and elegant, almost without ornament and relatively tall and narrow. The ironwork of the present wooden door dates from the 12thc. Three Romanesque colonnette fragments are reset in the N wall of the 14thc. chancel.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) Nave N doorway

: N doorway.

: N doorway.

: N doorway, arch, detail.

: N doorway, L side, capital.

: N doorway, R side, capital.

Round-headed, of two orders. Of yellowish limestone.

First order

Plain jambs and arch and plain, chamfered imposts.

Second order

Bulbous bases (very weathered) support coursed nook shafts . Above are flat-leaf voluted capitals with necking and integral abaci. The arch has a shallow, grooved or quirked angle roll followed by a hollow, then a half-roll between grooves or quirks followed by a narrow fillet.

Dimensions

h. of opening	2.43 m
w. of opening	0.89 m
max. h.	2.95 m

IV Interior Features

5. Interior Decoration

c. Miscellaneous

(i) Reset colonnettes

: re-set colonnettes.

: re-set colonnettes.

Three colonnettes with integral bases and capitals are sunk into the masonry of the N wall of the chancel. It is not possible to tell how much survives beneath the visible surface. The westernmost of the three colonnettes has a bulbous base, cut back at either side. Each colonnette has a flat-leaf voluted capital with necking. All have been cut back, the R capital most severely. The central capital has a central projecting angle volute, the L and R capitals each have two volutes in profile.

Dimensions

0.99 m

VII History

Quidenham, in the hundred of Guiltcross, was the land of the king, held by the Abbot of Bury St Edmunds and farmed by Godric before and after the Norman Conquest. Godwin, Earl Ralph's uncle, took this away from him unjustly. The jurisdiction before 1066 was in the king's manor of Kenninghall which was thus entitled to financial dues.

VIII Comments/Opinions

The shafts of the doorway are rather weathered, but the arch is (1984) in better condition. Small 'delicately carved motifs' on the roll-moulded arch are referred to in Pevsner, but none were visible when the site visit to this church was made. The reset colonnette fragments presumably came from a piece of liturgical furniture but in their current arrangement, coated in creamy whitewash, it is hard to tell whether or not they were free-standing elements.

IX Bibliography

N. Pevsner and B. Wilson, The Buildings of England: Norfolk, Harmondsworth 1962, Revised 1999, 2:596-7.
M. Thurlby, ‘The influence of the Cathedral on Romanesque Architecture,’ in Norwich Cathedral: Church, City & Diocese, 1096-1996, I. Atherton et al (eds), London and Rio Grande, Ohio, 1996, 136-57, 156.
J. Geddes, ’The medieval decorative ironwork,’ in Norwich Cathedral: Church, City and Diocese, 1096-1996, I. Atherton et al (eds), London and Rio Grande, Ohio 1996, 431-442.
Domesday Book: Norfolk, P. Brown (ed.), London and Chichester, 2 vols, 1984.
H. J. Dukinfield Astley, Memorials of Old Norfolk, London 1908, 194.