Mary at Kirby Bedon has been allowed to fall into decay, and for
nearly two hundred years has been ruinous. St. Saviour's Church,
Surlingham, was pulled down at the beginning of the eighteenth century
on the ground that one church in the village was sufficient for its
spiritual wants, and its materials served to mend roads.
A strange reason has been given for the destruction of several of
these East Anglian churches. In Norfolk there were many recusants,
members of old Roman Catholic families, who refused in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries to obey the law requiring them to attend
their parish church. But if their church were in ruins no service
could be held, and therefore they could not be compelled to attend.
Hence in many cases the churches were deliberately reduced to a
ruinous state. Bowthorpe was one of these unfortunate churches which
met its fate in the days of Queen Elizabeth. It stands in a
farm-yard, and the nave made an excellent barn and the steeple a
dovecote. The lord of the manor was ordered to restore it at the
beginning of the seventeenth century. This he did, and for a time it
was used for divine service. Now it is deserted and roofless, and
sleeps placidly girt by a surrounding wall, a lonely shrine. The
church of St. Peter, Hungate, at Norwich, is of great historical
interest and contains good architectural features, including a very
fine roof.
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