Church Of St Remigius

Church of St. Remigius

A parish church dating to the 14th century, restored in 1874, built of flint with stone dressings, and covered with lead and slate roofs. The building comprises a west tower, nave with two roof lines, chancel, north and south aisles, north and south transepts, and a north porch.

The four-stage west tower features a lead fleche and embattled parapet. Five-stepped diagonal buttresses run up the tower with a plinth decorated in flint chequered flushwork. The western buttresses contain cusped niches. The 3-light west window has Decorated tracery and a cusped niche above; it breaks the string course and was renewed. The second stage has slits facing all four directions, though the eastward-facing slit now lies within the nave. The third stage contains a clockface to the north. The 14th-century 2-light tall openings have ogee-headed lights with Decorated tracery and break the string course. An internal stair in the south-west angle has pierced quatrefoil lights. Some brickwork appears within the flintwork.

The nave was restored in 1874. It has three bays to the west with a slate roof and two bays to the east with a lower pitched lead roof. A gable between them features added studwork and barge boards. The clerestorey contains 2-light openings, all from 1874: six to the north and six to the south, each set under a quatrefoil; three to the west sit under basket heads, and three to the east have 4-centred arches with quatrefoils.

The north porch is two storeys with broken flint, a lead roof, and a gable parapet. It has a Perpendicular arch with side shafts bearing salamanders at their capitals. Angel stops decorate the hood, with angels in the spandrels. A 2-light opening above has panel tracery, with empty niches to left and right. The porch returns feature renewed 2-light openings with panel tracery; the east return displays a stone shield bearing Passion symbols. The porch interior contains a tierceron vault with sculptured bosses; the ribs spring from corbels carved with mythical beasts. The Perpendicular doorway is renewed, with a double-leaved door having wrought iron decorative panels.

The north aisle has four renewed openings of 2 ogee-headed lights under a quatrefoil each. The south aisle is similar but has four large stepped brick buttresses and a stepped string course running into a square hood mould of a 4-centred south doorway. Both aisles share similar west openings.

The chancel and transepts were rebuilt in 1874 (the chancel having been in ruins since the 16th century). Their facings are of field flints. The transepts are attached to the aisles with straight buttresses; diagonal buttresses support the east transepts and chancel. Transept openings and the north and south openings to the chancel have 2 trefoil-headed lights under a quatrefoil. The 3-light east window is early 14th-century Decorated. Gable crosses crown the chancel, east nave, and porch.

Internally, the church has a five-bay arcade to the north and south with quatrefoil piers and double hollow chamfered arches. The Perpendicular tower arch has semi-circular jambs, painted with floral decoration and texts in 1866. Seating dates to 1857. The chancel arch and arches to the transepts have 19th-century quatrefoil jambs and double hollow chamfered arches. The chancel contains an angle piscina in 13th-century style with a red marble colonette. A 14th-century trefoil-headed piscina stands in the south aisle. The font is octagonal with varied cusped figures to its faces; the bowl is supported by a central column and eight small limestone colonettes. A high doorway with a pointed arch in the north-west angle leads to the tower stair and retains its medieval boarded door.

A mural monument in the south aisle commemorates Isaac Motham (1703/4) by W. Stanton. The inscription is flanked by Corinthian columns beneath a broken segmental pediment containing an achievement, with putti at the base. Thirteen Tournai marble ledger slabs date from 1633 to 1816, many heraldic, including one from 1816 to "John Luke Iselin Esq. a native of the City of Bazil in Switzerland ... Eminent Merchant and Manufacturer in Norwich". Rails to the north and south aisle chapels feature early spade-headed bench ends. A 17th-century base to the south aisle table survives.