St Peter Mancroft

St Peter Mancroft is a parish church in the Church of England in the centre of Norwich, Norfolk. After the two cathedrals, it is the largest church in Norwich. It was originally established by Ralph de Gael, Earl of East Anglia, in circa 1070. It was later rebuilt, between 1430 and 1455.^[1] It stands on a slightly elevated position, next to Norwich Market.^[2] St Peter Mancroft is a member of the Greater Churches Group.

St Peter Mancroft is dedicated to Saint Peter;^[3][4] The earliest evidence of a dedication to a prince of the apostles comes from a charter issued by King Henry I (r. 1100–1119), describing it as "the church of St Peter which is in the market".^[5] While some historians state that the church had an unofficial dual dedication to Saint Paul,^[5] supported by carved stone shields the late Middle Ages over the west door which depict crossed keys for Peter and crossed swords for Paul, this was conventional during this time and is not direct evidence of the church being dedicated to both saints. Wills and inventories of the church do not evidence the presence of imagery or ornaments related to Paul.^[4]

References to "St Peter of Mancroft" do not appear until the early 13th century.^[5] The toponym 'Mancroft' likely derives from the Old English germane croft meaning 'common field',^[3] 'common land', or 'common enclosure',^[5] though it is also frequently said to have been derived from the Latin magna crofta meaning 'great field'. Both of these names reference the field which lied to the south of the church; the college known as St Mary-in-the-Field, on which Assembly House now stands, was also named after this field.^[3]

Between 1069 and 1075,^[6] circa 1070,^[4] the church was founded by Ralph de Gael, the powerful Earl of East Anglia,^[6] in the first decade of England's Norman rule.^[7] This founding took place during a period in which William the Conqueror and the papacy were political allies, prior to attempts by Pope Gregory VII to assert authority in England.^[4] The church's positioning was prominent in the marketplace of the French Borough, a new urban quarter built to accommodate the Bretons who came with de Gael to England in 1066.^[8] It was positioned such that its building aligned with the street Sadelgate, now known as White Lion Street, with a clear prospect from the foot of Norwich Castle bridge to the east end of the church until the 14th century. Its churchyard is sloping, positioned on the west side of the Great Cockey valley.^[4] No foundation-era fabric of the building has yet been discovered, though it likely had a single-vessel nave, a similarly single-vessel chancel, and two transept arms. This was likely later expanded with one or two nave aisles and a north chancel chapel. Its chancel's exterior width was about equal to that of the interior width of the main vessels of the present church at about 23 feet (7.0 m).^[8]

In the late 11th century, the church changed hands twice; from Ralph de Gael to William the Conqueror following a failed rebellion by de Gael in 1075,^[5] during which time it was administered by the King's deputy and sheriff Roger Bigod and Bigod's priest Wala,^[4] and then to Gloucester Abbey in 1086 or 1087 as the abbey was a favoured institution of William,^[5] also being dedicated to Saint Peter. It is possible that Wala himself remained a priest at the church, serving on behalf of the abbey. Evidence of a 12th century nave aisle and transept on the south side of the building, in the form of two limestone bases, was discovered in 2018; within a century of its foundation, the church was already a major building in the city. In 1254, a valuation given for a taxation was £8 13s 4d, of which £3 6s 8d went to Gloucester and the remainder went to the incumbent. This evidences that Mancroft was the richest parish church in Norwich at the time. The total valuation rose to £20 13s 4d by 1291 and remained at that level in 1368.^[4]

The church's benefice remained under the Abbey until the 1380s when the College of St Mary in the Fields, in Norwich, appropriated it.^[5] The College was partially within the parish of St Peter Mancroft, and was gaining an expanded role in Norich's religious and civic life with support from Bishop of Norwich Henry le Despenser. The change also corresponded with a 1380 royal charter which gave more power to the city's baliffs and aldermen. Under the new arrangement, rectorial revenues were appropriated with Gloucester retaining some income, and the church was served by chaplains.^[4] During the Late Middle Ages, there was almost certainly a song school at the church, intended to teach reading and writing.^[9]

The present building results from a major rebuilding in 1430 on the site of an existing church, and the church was completed and consecrated in 1455.^[3][2] This rebuilding took place when the church was in the wealthiest parish in the city.^[10] Historians disagree on the pace of its rebuilding, with Francis Woodman arguing that it took place 'in fits and starts' and Zachary Stuart arguing that a coherent vision from 1440 was carried out and completed around 1465 with few amendments to this original plan.^[4]

The church is present on William Cuningham's 1558 map of Norwich, with what is now known as Bethel Street running up to its tower entrance.^[11] In about 1568, a bell was gifted to the church by Sir Peter Reade, and this benefaction is noted in a memorial panel of about 1646 which includes a depiction of the bell.^[12] John Whitefoot delivered a funeral sermon at the church in honour of Bishop of Norwich Joseph Hall on 30 September 1656, and this was later published in London as Death's Alarum in 1658.^[13] In 1766, a survey of Norwich by Samuel King noted that White Swan Lane was the street that ran to the church's entrance, calling into question Cuningham's 1568 map.^[11]

When news of the Jacobite rising of 1745 reached Norwich, the vestry of St Peter Mancroft made the decision that the church would not ring its bells, in opposition to the rising.^[14]

By 1818, the school at St Peter Mancroft was led by the Norfolk and Norwich National Society.^[15] The 1851 religious census found that St Peter Mancroft was seeing adult morning congregations of 700 people.^[16] George Edmund Street published an exhaustive study of the church in 1879,^[17] and in 1896 a small lead-covered spire with flying buttresses was added, designed by his son A. E. Street.^[2] It became a Grade I listed building in 1954.^[18]

In 2014, as part of Norfolk and Norwich Festival, a 22-metre (72 ft) "cardboard church" was constructed by 200 volunteers on the steps of The Forum opposite, emulating the real church's tower. Titled the People's Tower and designed by French artist Olivier Grossetête, it consisted of 1,000 box "bricks" and over eight miles (13 km) of packing tape.^[19] Marking the centenary of the end of World War I, 15,500 handmade poppies were displayed at the church, each representing an individual named on a Norfolk war memorial.^[20] In March 2024, 48 solar panels, heat source pumps, batteries and LED lighting were installed on the church as part of net-zero plans by the Church of England. Bishop of Norwich Graham Usher inspected the works on the roof in October alongside the church verger, Canon Edward Carter and a BBC reporter; they were reported to Norfolk Constabulary by a bystander who falsely believed they were "suspicious youths".^[21]

The church is 180 feet (55 m) long,^[2] and is in the Perpendicular Gothic style.^[10] Zachary Stewart has put forward that St Peter Mancroft is one of a handful of churches in this style that are "essentially cathedrals in miniature."^[22] It features a nave and chancel, north and south aisles and chapels, north and south transepts, north and south porches, a three-storey east vestry, and a west tower.^[3]

The whole church is faced with freestone ashlar, indicating that the parish was wealthy enough to add this decorative cladding. On the west, north and south sides the ground stage of the church is open to accommodate a processional way, with the east processional way being blocked by the construction of a coffee bar in 1983. The north porch, which faces the market, is more complex than the south porch.^[3]

The tower itself is elaborate and features panelling and image niches, though these niches have likely never been occupied. It has a parapet with pepperpot-shaped pinnacles and flèche, all from 1895.^[3]

The church has medieval stained glass, which includes the 1450 Toppes Window, donated by Robert Toppes, a Mercer and mayor of the city.^[23] These main-light and tracery panels were originally in the east window of the north chancel chapel, which is highly likely to have been painted by locally-trained glazier John Mundeford at the John Wighton Workshop. Some of the designs for this were also adapted for use at the church at East Harling.^[24] 11 panels of that window survive in the reconfigured east window. These are the ones showing:^[25]

• Jesus at the Tomb
• The Circumcision of Christ
• The Apostles^[25]
• The Jew arresting the funeral of Virgin Mary. The Jew is shown wearing full armour, bearing the coat of arms of the disgraced royal favourite, William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who had feuded with, and was despised in, the city.^[26]
• The Annunciation
• The Visitation
• The Nativity and shepherds
• 2x Adoration of the Magi
• Massacre of the Innocents
• Robert Toppes and two wives.^[25]

It is noteworthy that none of the glass is in situ, having been relocated on a number of occasions. These movements include John Dixon’s "improvements" dating from 1847 to 1841, the work undertaken by Clayton and Bell in 1881, and the 1947 reinstallation by Messrs G King and Son which involved releading and rearranging the tracery lights after the window was removed for the duration of World War II.^[27] This east window also shows St William (possibly the Norman London bishop, Bishop William) and St Erkenwald.^[28]

Several other windows in the eastern arm of the church were also glazed by the John Wighton Workshop in the decade from 1445, and nearly all of the surviving panels from this workshop are now in the east chancel window, although none are originally from there. Mundeford's father William worked on some of the panels, and much of the stained glass work that is less linear, more painterly and with more expressive faces and gestures can be attributed to him. This includes a panel depicting the Passion of Christ and another showin the Crowning with Thorns and the First Mocking of Christ.^[24]

There is a 1573 Flemish tapestry.^[23]

The north transept displays a collection of church silver, including the Gleane and Thistle cups, as well as memorabilia associated with the physician-philosopher Thomas Browne, author of Religio Medici (1642).^[29] In 1850 two L-shaped trenches accommodating a number of acoustic jars were discovered beneath the wooden floor on which the choir stalls had previously stood. The earthenware jars were built into its walls at intervals of about three feet, with the mouths facing into the trenches.^[30]

The church's baptismal font survives from its medieval era, and is one of its most notable attractions. It has an octagonal stone bowl dated to c. 1465, and a large and detailed wooden canopy or 'baptistery' dated to the 1520s. John Causton, under the alias of a grocer named John Julian, left 10 marks (£6 13s 4d) in 1463, likely motivating the church authorities to commission it. The bowl originally bore images of the seven sacraments as well as several figures, likely being almost as detailed as the other Norwich font depicting the sacraments in St Mary in the Marsh, but this bowl was a victim of iconoclasm and much of it is effaced.^[4]

The canopy is octagonal in its upper sections, aluding to similarly octagonal Early Christian baptisteries in Italy. This rests atop four columns like a ciborium.^[4]

Christopher Joby has described a "monument culture" in St Peter Mancroft, with a large number of monuments to notable individuals. Several of these monuments use multiple languages in their inscriptions. In the north aisle, there is a monument to Euphrosyne Gardner (d. February 1662), the wife of linen draper, sheriff, mayor, and Member of Parliament for Norwich Francis Gardiner. It includes an inscription which has a Greek apophthegm; "Ην γαρ φιλει Θεοσ αποθνησκει Νεος", meaning "If God loves someone, he dies young." Euphrosyne died aged 24. Above the north door is a small monument to Samuel Vout (d. 1666), which is in English despite Vout's heritage in Norwich's Dutch Stranger community. There is a monument in English to Lady Dorothy Browne (1621–1685), which faces that of her husband, the physician and author Sir Thomas Browne (1605–1682) across the chancel and in Latin. The former describes her remains that are entombed beneath. The latter mentions Sir Browne's most famous works, was placed there by Dorothy, and indicates that his body was buried near the monument. The couple worshipped in the church.^[10]

There is another large monument to one of the Dutch Strangers, cloth merchant and alderman John Mackerell (d. 1722) high on the north wall. Mostly in Latin, it ends with the first two verses of Psalm 112 in Hebrew script, an unusual occurrence for the time. Robert Camell (d. 1728), assistant minister at the church who was then buried there, also has a monument that is in Latin, with one word in Greek, "θεAνθρωποΣ", meaning 'God-man'. Other monuments, to sheriff and mayor Edward Coleburne (d. 1730), sheriff of Norwich John Smith (d. 1753), the merchant Thomas Ives (d. 1781), and sheriff and mayor Thomas Starling (d. 1788), also reside in the church.^[10]

• Adam Davemport (by 1374)^[31]
• Hugh Casselton (1572–1588)^[32]
• William Wells (1598–1620)^[33]
• John Brereton (1620–1632)
• Thomas Tenison (1670–1680)
• John Connould (1683–1708)^[32]
• John Jeffrery (1714–1723)^[32]
• Charles John Chapman (1805–1826)
• John Watson Bowman (1826^[34]–1848)^[35]
• Charles Turner (1848^[36]–1878)^[37]
• Sidney Pelham (1879–1881)
• Henry Neville (1881–1884)
• Frederick Baggalley (1884–1890)^[38]
• William Pelham-Burn (1890–1901)
• Frederick James Meyrick (1901^[39]–1929)
• Hugh McMullan (1929–1940)^[40]
• Vacant (1940–1945)^[41]
• John Waddington (1945–1958)
• Kenneth Wilkinson Riddle (1959–1960)^[42]
• Frank Sydney Jarvis (1960–1965)^[43]
• William John Westwood (1965–1975)
• David Sharp (1975–1998)
• Peter W Nokes (1999–2015)
• Robert Avery (2015–2017)
• Ian Bentley (2017–2018)
• Edward Carter (2018–present)

A new organ by Peter Collins was installed in 1984. The specification can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.^[44]

• William Pleasants (1708^[45]–1717), son of Thomas Pleasants, organist of Norwich Cathedral
• Humphrey Cotton (1717–1720), afterwards organist of Norwich Cathedral
• George Baker (1720–????)
• Samuel Cook (????–1780)^[46]
• Edward Beckwith (1780–1793), acting organist from 1769
• John Christmas Beckwith (1794–1808), afterwards organist of Norwich Cathedral
• John Charles Beckwith (1809–1819), son of John Christmas Beckwith
• Alfred Pettet (1819–1837)
• Samuel Critchfield, Junior, 1837^[47]–1851
• James Harcourt (1851–1877), afterwards organist of Wymondham Abbey 1880–1881
• Edward Bunnett (1877–1908)
• Richard John Maddern-Williams, F.R.C.O (1908–1922), formerly assistant at Wells Cathedral
• Frank Edward Newman (1922–1926)
• Richard John Maddern-Williams, F.R.C.O (1926–1941)
• Charles Joseph Romaine Coleman (1942^[48]–1959), and jointly assistant organist at Norwich Cathedral
• Kenneth Ryder^[49] (1963–2005)
• Matthew Pitts (2006–2009)
• Julian Haggett (2009–present)

• Charles Robert Palmer (1899–1901)^[48]
• W. Percy Jones (1910–ca., 1921–????)
• Andrew Benians
• Roger Rayner
• Tim Patient (1990–2005)

Benjamin Mackerell, an antiquary, was the author of the first historical account of the St Peter Mancroft Parish in 1776; he wrote that the church "[r]anked among the Chiefest Parochial Churches in England."^[50] Architect Thomas Rickman in 1817 said it was "particularly [...] deserv[ing] attention."^[50] In 1962, architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner referred to St Peter Mancroft as "The Norfolk parish church par excellence."^[50] In 2003, the church was included in the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition Gothic: Art for England 1400–1547.^[51]

The parish of St Peter Mancroft was extensive and took up much of the land in Norwich's Mancroft ward. It had bounds to the north partially along St Giles Street while including some properties on Gaol Hill, to the east by Norwich Castle motte aside from the northern end where it was bounded by the Great Cockey, to the south by the parish of St Stephen with some variation, and to the west by the line of the city wall.^[4]

In the Domesday Book of 1086, the parish had 125 householders or households, possibly 8 to 10% of the population of Norwich. If households were logged rather than householders, Ayers et al. has estimated that this was around 500 to 700 people. The parish was important for the medieval Jewish community in Norwich, with numerous Hebrew and Latin property deeds surviving here. A synagogue stood on the east side of Hay Hill.^[4]

• Official website
• Book review article about the medieval stained glass in the church Vidimus no. 1 (November 2006)