Church Of St Thomas A Becket

The Church of St Thomas a Becket is a mediaeval church, altered in the 19th century, located in Great Welney, Norfolk. It comprises a nave, chancel, north aisle, south porch, and north vestry. The church is constructed of rough-cast rendered flint rubble with limestone dressings, and has plain-tiled roofs to the nave and south porch, and slated roofs to the chancel, aisle, and vestry.

The chancel incorporates 13th-century features, including three lancet windows in the north wall, a double-bowl piscina and triple-arched sedilia with shafts having moulded capitals and bases and a dado moulding on the north and south walls. The nave was possibly rebuilt in the early 14th century, displaying ball-flower carving to the kneelers of the west parapet gable and a quatrefoil west window. Blocked north and south doorways have simple mouldings and rear segmental arches with hoodmoulds. A double-bowl piscina is present to the south, and a north arcade features two bays with octagonal piers bearing moulded capitals and bases. The north aisle was demolished before 1829 and rebuilt in 1839. A south chancel doorway was inserted in the early 14th century. Two 2-light windows were inserted into the chancel south wall during the 15th century.

The nave clerestory and roof were formed and rebuilt around 1500, with principal rafters, butt purlins, arch-braced collars, and wall-pieces. The clerestory windows are single-light and rendered. A simple timber-framed south porch was added around 1500, with a coupled rafter roof. The chancel also has a 4-light east window and a 2-light south window. The ceiled coupled rafter roof in the chancel may be mediaeval. A weatherboarded belfry was added to the west end of the nave roof in 1749, featuring a slated pyramid roof, modillion eaves, and a weathervane, funded by James Merest.

Alterations in 1839 resulted in the replacement of a probably 12th-century chancel arch, with sidelights, with a large, unmoulded arch, during which a 14th-century stone tracery panel was removed from the north sidelight and reset as a window in the porch wall. Stone cusping, dating to around 1300, has been reset in the 15th-century clerestory windows. A 15th-century octagonal limestone font has traceried panels on its bowl. A moulded 16th-century oak door has been reused and repaired for the 19th-century vestry. A 20th-century octagonal pulpit incorporates reused carved 16th-century panels.

A window in the south chancel wall contains mediaeval glass of several dates, reset at random, while fragments of similar glass are incorporated in other windows. Three mural tablets are located in the chancel: one to Richard Gipps, died 1660; one to Charles and Elizabeth Battely, died 1722 and 1752; and one to Revd. Thomas Lord, died 1788.