St Margaret South Elmham

This is the church I visited after the book sale a couple of weeks ago. I'm glad I had a map as there are so many little lanes in the area.

A small church

With a two storey porch, the upper storey was often used to store the churches silver and parish records

Flint everywhere of all colours, the tiny window are for the stairs going up into the tower

Inside it's just a small plain church

 The reason this church gets a mention in the 100 treasures is because of this feature. The Easter Sepulchre. An arched recess in the wall of the sanctuary with a shelf where every Good Friday, some of the consecrated bread from the Mass was placed and then brought back to the altar on Easter Sunday morning , symbolising the burial of Jesus in the tomb or sepulchre.

Even small village churches have beautiful stained glass

There are often small doors in churches, this one leads up to the tower. The bell ringers stand at the base  of the tower to ring the bells in this church.

And John Sellynge  left his mark with C16 graffiti on the stonework above the door

 Old well carved font with Harvest Festival decorations

Small stairs going up inside the wall leading nowhere now and too small for modern day people to climb. Maybe this church had a rood-loft at one time (A gallery, or platform, at the top of a rood screen, used for the rood (crucifix) and sometimes for musicians or singers. Most rood lofts and most roods, were destroyed during the Reformation.)

In the porch a reminder of village punishment from earlier times  - The Stocks

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Sue