Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21/02/2020

TG 31 NE
8/77

LUDHAM
NORWICH ROAD (south side)
Church of St. Catherine

[Formerly listed under NORWICH STREET (south side)]

16.4.55

I

Parish church. C14 west tower and chancel. Nave and aisles C15, bequests to new work date from 1466 when tower also altered. Restored 1861 and 1891. Quaternary and Quarry Flint with Lincolnshire Limestone and Bath Stone ashlar dressings and some brickwork. Chancel roof of slate, remainder of lead. Three stage tower with diagonal west buttresses and side east buttresses. Restored two-light mouchette west window. Lancets to ringing chamber and a pedimented clock face to north dated 1762. Two-light Y tracery belfry windows, the tracery replaced with timber and louvred. Crenellated parapet. North aisle west window of three cusped lancets. Aisle windows of three lights and Perpendicular, except that east of south porch which is of four lights and transomed. Stepped side buttresses, diagonal at corners. Three light Perpendicular clerestory windows under four-centred arches. Two storey south porch with diagonal buttresses. Arched doorway in square surround, the spandrels carved. Buttresses rise to polygonal turrets. Gabled roof and plain parapet. Over door are two cusped statuary niches with nodding ogees flanking central two-light parvis window. Cinquefoiled side windows to parvis. Polygonal stair turret to north-west with flushwork. Gabled north porch of coursed knapped flint. Diagonal buttresses and two-light depressed Perpendicular side lights. Multiply wave moulded four-centred entrance arch below ogeed statuary niche with finial. Facade decorated with two tiers flushwork cinquefoil arcading. Chancel supported by stepped side buttresses, diagonal to east. One C19 three-light Perpendicular south window and a two-light C14 window with tracery head consisting of a single encircled quatrefoil. Arched Priest's door. Five-light reticulated east window. Two two-light C14 divergent mouchette north windows. Chancel of knapped and coursed flint.

Interior. Five bay octagonal arcade on high bases. Polygonal capitals below double hollow chamfered arches. Clerestory windows over apexes of arches. Double hollow chamfered tower arch on semi-circular responds with circular capitals. Polygonal chancel arch responds with capitals carved with grotesques (north) and seaweed foliage (south). Double chamfered arch. Hammerbeam nave roof probably of 1466, the hammerbeams alternately on wall posts and all on arched braces. Polygonal wall posts drop to corbels carved with angels bearing shields. Wall arches to ashlaring. Spandrels of hammerbeams pierced above and below. Arched braces to-ridge piece. One tier butt purlins. All timbers moulded. Aisle roofs have arched braces to central purlin, the outer wall posts on head corbels. Chancel screen of three bays right and left of arched opening. Middle rail inscribed: Pray for the soule of John (Salmon) and Cycyly his wyf that gave forten pounde and for alle other benefactors made in the year of ower Lord God MCCCCLXXXXIII (1493). Tracery head in form of crocketed ogees within cusped arches. Dado has two painted panels each bay depicting from left to right, Mary Magdalen, St. Stephen, St. Edmund (King of East Anglia), Henry VI, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory, St. Jerome, Edward the Confessor, St. Walstan, St. Lawrence, St. Appolonia. The first four panels on the south side by a different hand. Painting of such quality that these panels represent an important example of C15 English art. Remainder of dado traceried and gilded. On west side are free standing annulated buttresses. Painted tympanum in chancel arch showing Crucifixion on west side, arms of Elizabeth I on east. Octagonal C15 font. Against the stem Wild Men. Angels and seaweed foliage under bowl. Bowl with panels carved with symbols of four Evangelists. Numerous C15 poppyhead bench ends. Rustic stalls in chancel. C19 chancel roof: an undisciplined though not complex composition of arched braces. Ogeed sedilia and piscina with crockets and finials. Eight brasses in nave the best of which are: 1650 to R. Barker, 1633 heart brass to Grace Whitey and 1659 to Christopher White. All inscription brasses.

Listing NGR: TG3881118266

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536880

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)