Saturday, July 27, 2019

King's Lynn: St. Nicholas Church

I was out walking in north Lynn Sunday afternoon (July 14th) and heard the bells start peeling, and I knew they were coming from the tall-steepled old church I had walked past the day before and wondered about: gates locked and all closed up but clearly as old and large as the main parish church, St. Margarets. By the time I had gotten to the bells, it was apparent the church was anything but disused. St. Nicholas was a "church of ease," that is, a church built for the convenience of those, in the north of town, for whom getting to St. Margaret's was a chore. Way back in the Middle Ages. This church of ease, like many others, presumably, became a "redundant" church in recent times, that is, decommissioned, and now cared for by local friends and by the Churches Conservation Trust. The bells rang throughout the time I was there and then for another hour or two after I had gotten back to the camper. In Jenkins' book it is a one-star church, definitely in the top one thousand. I thought rather more of it, but perhaps just in view of the scores of people around that afternoon, ringing the bells, and caring for the old, ancient, neighborhood church. The building is so large, and sufficiently hemmed in, I couldn't get a decent exterior picture. I did two videos of the peeling of the bells...and will post them to YouTube in due course.



Eleven pairs of hovering angels




























Several burials bearing the name Cruso, but no relationship ever established with
Defoe

Through a slit window under the tower you could watch the men [sic] ringing
the bells































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