The Langham Madonna

Long before the Norman Conquest, Langham was divided into two parishes: Langham Magna to the east (also called Langham St Andrew, Langham Episcopi and Bishop’s Langham) and Langham Parva to the west (also called Langham St Mary and Little Langham), each with its own church – St Andrew’s being of course in Langham Magna and St Mary’s in Langham Parva.

St Mary’s was situated at the fork of the Binham and Cockthorpe roads. It had stood there for at least five centuries but disappeared between 1535, when Henry VIII ordered a catalogue to be made of all church property, and 1552, when a national inventory of church goods was taken. The dedication to St Mary was folded in with St Andrew’s, which is why our parish church now has a double dedication. No burials have yet been found at the site, nor any other archaeological remains.

A survey of 1602 says this of Langham Parva: ‘The Church there is whollie ruynated and p’faned long since, by Mr. Calthorp, sometyme Lord and Patrone thereof, there are no p’rishners dwelling in the said towne.’ In 1743 the church of St Mary was described as ‘demolished beyond the memory of man’.

In the 16th century there was a movement throughout much of northern Europe for rejection of papal authority. The Catholic Church was seen as idolatrous and corrupt. Protestantism was on the rise; in England this took shape in the first Act of Supremacy of 1534, when Henry VIII rejected Rome and founded the Church of England, with himself as its head. During the next five years the Dissolution of the Monasteries would see church property being seized and much of it distributed to Henry’s allies and cronies among the gentry.

In July 1538 Prior Vowell of Walsingham Priory acquiesced in its demolition and helped the king’s commissioners to remove its treasures, notably the figure of Our Lady. For this he received an annual pension of £100, a hefty sum in those days. The site was sold to one Thomas Sidney for £90. As to what happened to the figure, there is considerable confusion. Some accounts have it taken to London to be burnt, while others say it remained in Norfolk and was destroyed there.

Before the Reformation Walsingham was one of the most revered places in the Catholic world, drawing pilgrims from far and wide, as indeed it does to this day. Its desecration is bewailed in the contemporaneous ‘Lament for the Priory of Walsingham’:

In the wrackes of Walsingam

Whom should I chuse

But the Queene of Walsingam

To be guide to my muse?

Then, thou Prince of Walsingam

Graunt me to frame

Bitter plaintes to rewe thy wronge

Bitter wo for thy name.

Bitter was it, oh to see

The sely [innocent] sheepe

Murdred by the raveninge wolves

While the sheepharde did sleep.

Bitter was it, oh, to viewe

The sacred vyne

Whiles the gardiners plaied [plaited] all close

Rooted up by the swine.

Bitter, bitter oh to behoulde

The grasse to growe

Where the walles of Walsingam

So stately did shewe.

Such were the worth of Walsingam

While she did stand

Such are the wrackes as now do shewe

Of that so holy lande.

Levell, levell with the ground

The Towres doe lye

Which with their golden, glitt’ring tops

Pearsed oute to the skye.

Where weare gates noe gates are nowe,

The waies [pathways] unknowen,

Where the presse [crowd] of freares [friars] did passe

While her fame far was blowen [trumpeted].

Oules [owls] do scrike where the sweetest himnes

Lately wear songe,

Toades and serpents hold their dennes

Where the palmers did throng.

Weep, weep O Walsingam,

Whose dayes are nightes,

Blessings turned to blasphemies,

Holy deedes to dispites [crimes].

Sinne is where our Ladye sate,

Heaven turned is to helle;

Sathan sitte where our Lord did swaye,

Walsingam, oh, farewell!

            — Anonymous

It is not unusual for two churches to be near one another in Norfolk, as at Wiveton and Cley, so what happened to St Mary’s? A possible clue is in the name.

Thanks to Henry’s largesse to the ruling class, much of it was quick to welcome the new Protestant order. Much of the peasantry, however, clung to the comfort of the old religion and its rituals. This was especially true in the countryside, and especially so in the remote countryside of north Norfolk. Matters were not helped in many hearts by a deep-seated resentment of the gentry, a phantom of the hatred of the Anglo-Saxons for their Norman overlords; many of the contemporary gentry could trace their lineage back to France.

Michael Medlar, in his study (pdf) of early sixteenth century Langham wills, finds that bequests were made by villagers to ‘Our Lady of Tofte’. One in particular, the largest, of £45 in land and goods, was made by one Oliver Dawbeney on 27 October 1532, two years before the first Act of Supremacy. Barendina Smedley speculates that there may have been a figure of the Virgin Mary venerated in St Mary’s named Our Lady of Tofte, though she leans more to the idea that there was a now-vanished chapel for the figure next to the present north door of St Andrew’s.

The origin of the name is clouded in mystery and may have a connection with the hamlet of Toftrees, south of Fakenham, which in the past was called ‘Tofte’ or ‘Toftes’.

Stephanie A Mann notes that a wooden statuette of the Virgin and Child at the Victoria and Albert Museum, dated to about 1220-30 and still bearing traces of paint, goes under the name of ‘The Langham Madonna’.

The Walsingham Seal

She also notes that, while the Langham Madonna is said (on no evident authority) to have come from Langham in Essex, it bears a close resemblance to the figure in the Walsingham Seal; and she speculates that Our Lady of Walsingham may have been spirited away to a local but out-of-the-way site of Marian worship – St Mary’s, Langham, Norfolk: for the Calthorpes of Langham Hall (not the Hall by the crossroads, but an earlier one, now lost) were known to be recusants, and the vicar of Langham, John Grigby, was arrested for his part in a conspiracy which tried to resist the dissolution of Walsingham Priory.

We are unlikely ever to know what happened. Could it really be that the ‘ruynation’ of St Mary’s, so expeditiously carried out by ‘Mr. Calthorp, sometyme Lord and Patrone thereof’, included the further spiriting away of that iconic artefact of ‘popery’? And could it be that the arrest of the conspirators persuaded Mr Calthorpe thus to distance himself – and his dangerous reputation as a recusant – from John Grigby and so protect his person, his family and his lands from men of even higher rank and influence?

The village sign

The Langham village sign, situated on the green, was made in 1979 by Harry C Carter and restored in 1998. It is surmounted by a bishop’s mitre – in 1086 the eastern part of the tenancy of Langham, which includes the present-day church, was granted to William de Beaufeu, Bishop of Thetford. The mitre depicts the English flag, which at one time was also the pre-eminent maritime flag, known as the white ensign. That leads us, anticlockwise, to the sailing ship which commemorates not only Langham’s associations with the sea but also Captain Marryat, who came to live here in 1843.

The next quarter depicts the landmark church tower, of course, with its distinctive stair-turret. The Domesday Book lists two parishes in Langham, Bishop’s Langham or Langham Magna and Langham Parva, the latter being granted in 1086 to Peter of Valognes, William the Conqueror’s uncle, who, incidentally, provided land for the construction of Binham Priory, which was founded in 1091.

The two parishes were later united and the Langham Parva church (St Mary’s, situated on the north side of Cockthorpe Road where it forks from Binham Road) fell into disuse and was eventually demolished. The existing, Langham Magna, church was dedicated to St Andrew, the patron saint of fishermen and agricultural workers, among others, and acquired its double dedication when St Mary’s was no more.

The name lives on in ‘St Mary’s Lane’, one of the names chosen by the District Council in the 1970s when the housing estate of that name was built on the site of the former barracks for RAF Langham.

The next quarter celebrates the chief industry here, and the last refers to the turkey farm on the old airfield, which in 1979 was run by Bernard Matthews.

Village signs of this kind are frequent in Norfolk and Suffolk; let’s compare Langham’s sign with those in some neighbouring villages.

In what follows we are indebted to Adrian S Pye, who has made a special study of village signs and licensed his text and images under a Creative Commons licence.

He writes, ‘The design usually depicts a particular feature of the village, or a scene from its history, heritage, or culture. The signs are typically made of wood or metal or a combination of both. Modern cast and fibreglass signs are becoming more commonplace; the less elaborate are often made within the local community.

‘The tradition of village signs is believed to have started in Norfolk early in the 20th century when Edward VII suggested that village signs would aid motorists and give a feature of interest on the Sandringham Estate.

‘The interest soon spread beyond Norfolk, and can be attributed to Prince Albert, Duke of York (later George VI) who gave a speech to the Royal Academy in 1920 promoting the wider use of village identity signs.

‘In 1929, Harry Carter, an art and woodwork master at Hamond’s Grammar School (which now serves as the sixth-form buildings for Hamond’s high school in Swaffham), carved a sign for his home town. By the time of his death in 1983 he had carved over 200 town and village signs.

‘Acknowledgement must be made to the Women’s Institute, who sponsor many of the signs and present them to the villages and towns in their county.

‘While the practice is now widespread, decorative village signs are particularly common in Norfolk and Suffolk as well other East Anglian counties. Some village signs take the form of sculptures, such as those at Stibbard, Corpusty and Walpole St Andrew, which are constructed entirely from metal.’

Binham

Image credit: Jane Rackham; licence

The sign simply depicts the priory for which the village is famous.

Blakeney

Image credit: Pauline E; licence

‘The sign is surmounted by two hammers (known locally as bietels) and a chestnut. This refers to a local nonsense rhyme “Blakeney people go up the steeple to crack a nut with a five-farthing bietel”.

‘An English galleon, one of three from the village on the way to fight the Spanish Armada, is the primary feature of the Blakeney village sign. The mallard duck and drake represent the bird sanctuary, and fish forming the spandrels are a further reference to the strong maritime connection. The boy with a fiddle and the cave in the cliff relates to a legend in which the boy (and his dog apparently) tried to fiddle his way to Wiveton via a tunnel from which he never emerged and which itself disappeared. Strange that!’

Hindringham

Image credit: Adrian S Pye

‘The sign is carved out of oak and celebrates the 25th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It depicts the church and the mill as well as the unique 12th century chest which is in the church.’

Stiffkey

There are no fewer than four village signs in Stiffkey, three of them at the limits of the village, depicting a common tern perched on a post.

The principal sign, near the church, reminds us of one of the traditional pronunciations of the name, the other being ‘Stuckey’. It is dominated by a representation of cockle-gatherers and a Stiffkey blue or Stiffkey blew, the blue-shelled cockle found locally. The chalice and pig refer to the Bacon family, who lived at Stiffkey Hall.

Image credits: Theo Foster; licence

Bale

Bale’s sign commemorates the Bale Oak which once occupied a site next to the churchyard.

There is a painting in the church giving an idea of the tree’s appearance:

and below it a typewritten note:

The

GREAT BALE OAK

at

BALE alias BATHLEY

This picture is a reconstruction of the Tree as it would have appeared before it was pollarded in about 1750, in a vain effort to stimulate it to new growth.

The painting is based upon the following facts.

1. A drawing in the “London Illustrated News” for May 17th 1845.

2. A drawing made some time in the 1850s by some connection of the Jones family of Cranmer Hall near Fakenham, who were at that time Lords of the Manor of Bale Nogeons and Thorpes. This was reproduced in the Eastern Daily Press in May 1967.

3. An oil painting shewing the tree prior to the pollarding but not dated or signed. This is owned by D. H. Hammond Esq. [of] Bale Manor next door to the church.

 – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

In the picture The Cobblers’ tools referred to the shoemaker who used the hollow Tree for the whole of one summer as his shop.

The Pig is there because in the Frere MSS., which are the unpublished material sent to Blomfield for his Norfolk history (he died in 1752), it is said that the inside of the tree was used as a “swinesty”, i.e. a place to keep swine in.

The Raven is a reminder that the Tree probably was a sacred oak, which was why the Christian church was built beside it. The Raven was the constant companion of Thor, the chief of the gods of the Saxon–Norse mythology.

Here we see a connection with the Viking raiders who plagued the east coast in the last two or three centuries of the first millennium, and who themselves converted to Christianity. The sign itself has a suitably pagan flavour:

Detail of the top, showing the cobbler and swineherd:

Sharrington

The meaning of this sign is unclear, unless it is to indicate that the village is in a land of milk and honey provided by agriculture, which arguably it is. The date (1977) suggests the sign may have some connection with the Silver Jubilee of the late Queen.

Brinton

‘The jolly little character sitting on the sign is John Page, who in his day was a merchant, soap boiler, grocer, draper and tallow chandler, hence the two candles. The candle factory still exists in the form of Chandler’s Cottage.’

Gunthorpe

‘The sign is carved in wood and shows various periods in the history of the village. A wheatsheaf indicates that the village is agricultural and has been for most or all of its existence. A tree and four pigs, dated 1086, tell us that Gunthorpe was mentioned in the Domesday Book and had woodland and four pigs. Below is a dog peering at a crown, with the date 1201: this recalls, and I quote, “William, son of Robert le Mey, had 20s. lands, formerly the King’s demean, granted by Henry I. and held with Causton, by grand serjeanty, the keeping a hound (brachettus) for the King. In 1678 the poor have 25s. a year out of Malthouse Pightle, left by Christopher Ringer, and in 1777 John Towne makes a similar gesture”. A cottage loaf, bottom right represents the legacy. In 1747, Isaac Le Heup of Gunthorpe, local gent and landowner, died. He is represented by a gravestone bearing the initials I L.’

Langham’s sign is up there with the best of them in terms of symbolism and craftsmanship. Thank you, Mr Carter. Long may it stand!

Astley Cottage

Astley Cottage in Binham Road is a quintessential vernacular north Norfolk house, faced in whole flint with brick quoins and a pantiled roof. Originally two cottages, the house has since been sympathetically extended. The result is a unique family home with a relaxed, charming and even quirky interior.

It is not easy to estimate its age, because it is not shown on maps of Langham before the Tithe Map of 1836. What appears to be a bricked-up window on the west gable-end suggests it may have been built before 1696, when the Window Tax was introduced. However, the bricking-up may have been done whenever the single storey extension was added, since the line of its roof cuts across the bottom left hand corner of the window.

The view to the rear is of the field Lanpro wish to see built upon.

Langham used to be divided into two parishes, each with its own church: Langham Parva to the west and Langham Magna, or Bishop’s Langham, or Langham Episcopi, to the east.

The name ‘Astley Cottage’ suggests that the original pair of cottages was built by one of the owners of Astley Hall in Langham Parva, presumably to house workers on the estate. Astley Hall was first mentioned in 1368; in 1472 Edward IV granted Holewell Hall (also now vanished) to John Astley, Esq. The genealogy of the Astleys is described here.

The Astleys are still very much a part of the local scene. The current and 23rd Baron Astley (born 1960) is Lord Hastings, who took over the Astley Estate at Letheringsett in 1998; among his other enterprises is Back to the Garden, the farm shop on the A148 just outside Holt.

We are most grateful to Wendy and Robert Jones for their kindness in letting us visit and photograph their home. If you have a house that you would like to see profiled here, especially if it has some history or interesting architectural features, do please get in touch. The idea is to let everybody understand what treasures we have here in Langham and, sometimes, to allow a peep at rear elevations or gardens of properties we know only from their outward faces.