Church of St Mary Magdalene is a Grade I listed building in the Breckland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 30 May 1960. A Medieval Church.

Church of St Mary Magdalene

WRENN ID
sacred-ember-juniper
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
Breckland
Constituency
Mid Norfolk MP: George Freeman (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
30 May 1960
Type
Church
Period
Medieval
Address
Church of St Mary Magdalene, Church Road, Beetley
OS grid reference
TF 973 185
Coordinates
52.72845, 0.92186
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Mary Magdalene is a parish church that dates from the medieval period and later. It is constructed of flint with ashlar and some brick dressings, topped with corrugated tile roofs. The church features a west tower, an aisleless nave with a south porch, and a former north aisle, along with a chancel. The west tower, built in the 14th century, has diagonal buttresses. The west door, inserted in the 15th or 16th century, has two deep orders with a four-centred arch and colonnettes with facetted capitals. There is a fine three-light west window in the Decorated style, featuring three mouchette and dagger soufflets, along with two-light cusped Y-traceried bell openings and a crenellated parapet.

The south wall of the nave has three Decorated two-light windows with mouchettes and daggers, while the north wall, largely from the 18th century, contains three three-light wooden Y-traceried windows that fill former arcade openings. The chancel includes a moulded priest's doorway and two two-light Decorated windows with mouchettes and daggers on the south side, one identical window on the north side, and a dripstone above a former vestry. The east window is a fine three-light design with four radiating daggers.

Inside, there is a 14th-century three-bay north arcade with internal shafts, and the quatrefoil piers are visible. The contemporary chancel arch features two wave-moulded orders on three-shaft responds with facetted capitals and intermediate filletted rolls. The tower arch is also wave-moulded and supported on half-shafts. A rood stair doorway is located to the north. Notable interior features include a 14th-century chancel piscina with a cusped ogee arch and a crocketted hood mould, a truncated horizontal cornice, and moulded responds of a former sedilia. The church has a 14th-century octagonal font with cusped panels and shields, a Jacobean font cover with a turned central baluster shaft and four cupola struts, and a 17th-century western screen with baluster shafts and carved arches.

Local climate

Church of St Mary Magdalene receives an average of 740 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 73% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 90% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 30 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 63% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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