In inappropriate foot wear and ignoring the lure of the Roughton Fish Shop, I ventured past the end of the playfield and found the beginnings of a footpath over a small bridge leading to a small patch of trees and what could be the last uncut field of corn in these parts. This small pathway was also green - unusual in the North of Norfolk with the ongoing warmer weather.
As I walked the hidden path to Church number Seven, I did wonder - partially as I had also been listening to Manda Scott's 'Boudica' series - how much our local landscape would have changed in the last millennium. Would the copse of trees be morec copious than the surrounding of the of Roughton's Church now? Whilst the area likely had farms (the name meaning rough farm or rye farm) are the extensive as the fields today - clearly not as agricultural practices have certainly changed. Further to that as I took the road less travelled - well footpath - this church is upon the main thoroughfare to Cromer, Felbrigg and many other areas off the Norfolk Coast, almost at the end of the A140 - with its 56 mile span that the other side of Norwich site on the Roman Pye Road. It is set back a few car lengths from this major route and it almost feels like a mile away from the traffic that passes by. Could the distance from the main area of Roughton lived in now be due to the black death?
It appears even more distant from people when you have popped up through the small gate in the hedge like a hobbit in to the wonderfully wilded graveyard of this church. Whilst this might not have been to usual entrance to such a Church it fits with the historic Landscape of Rougton that during the prehistoric time where it 'lay within a large funerary and ceremonial landscape'.
As you walk around the church you can see the remenants of a previous chantry chapel that is now exterior and then you come round to the amazing round tower which has (according to the Church leaflet) Norfolk Brown Stone in a Herringbone Pattern. There is further evidence of this being a Saxon building with the Small Circular windows with the tower being built in stages. This could have been as the tower was used as a watchtower historically.
The Church leaflet tells of aan interior church built during two time periods - some of it in the middle elenth century and then in the middle to late fourteenth Century. It is likely the latter which unsuprisingly stands before the Village of Roughton today.
The quiet internal space - even for those in a rush to get back home for a specific time - is unhurried and filled with light. I missed the carved heads around the place so I will hav to head back and take a further look. The light shine magnificently through the stain glass in this pace. The east end of the South Aisle has a stain glass window depicting the Works of Mercy from Matthew 25:35 - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and welcoming the stranger.
Before the chancel is a coat of arms upon a a Ledger Stone. This stone marked the internal resting place within a church, and this one is for James Tennent - with the famly Coat of Arms. TSuch symbolic meaning in images with the heraldry displaying purity, dignity, authority, wisdom and Fortitude in a manner we have long since forgotten how to read.
How much of our church history have we forgotten to read? The carvings, the heraldry, wthe windows? How much is lost in the passage of time? How many other people have stared out of the windows of such a building and wondered on their journey with gGod but hey to have been forgotten to time?
As ever my musing are toughts of my own with help from webistes listed and Church information.
Thank you Lord that nothing is forgotten or lost with your. Thank you that you know every human who has walked the grounds of this Church, there hopes, fears, joys and sadness and you will know all who continue to walk through the doors. Thank you for the work of this church and the landscape it sits in as it reminds of that we are but dust and to dust we shall return, and for those of the Chirstian Faith the next life puts us in a place with you. May all come to know the Lord's love and eternity as they enter this space.
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