St Mary's Church is the parish church of

Old Hunstanton Old Hunstanton is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 47 in 25 households at the 2001 census. The population had risen to 628 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local ...

in the English

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. It is dedicated to the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

. The church was built in 14th-century

Perpendicular In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', � ...

, and restored in 1860 by

Frederick Preedy Frederick Preedy (2 June 1820 – 28 March 1898) was an architect and glass painter in England. Life Preedy was born in Offenham near Evesham in Worcestershire and died at his son's home in Croydon. During his early life, his family moved f ...

at the instigation of Henry Le Strange. It is

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The church is 14th-century, and replaced an earlier Norman building. The only remnant of the Norman church is the font. The church is built from flint, with a tower in the north west and north and south aisles. The south porch is a 19th-century addition.

Architecture and fittings

The Norman font is in the traditional location at the west of the nave. The lower panels of the chancel screen are 16th-century. There is a single tenor bell, by John Stephens of Norwich and dating from 1726.

Stained glass windows

Most of the stained glass dates from the 1860s refurbishment. The five-light east window is generally regarded as Preedy's greatest work. Preedy also designed the three-light

Tree of Jesse The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, shown in a branching tree which rises from Jesse (biblical figure), Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It is the original use of the family tree as a schemati ...

east window in the south aisle chapel; there are also windows by Powell and Paul Quail.

Organ

The organ was built in 1936 by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd; the organ case was built by Sir

Walter Tapper Sir Walter John Tapper (21 April 1861 – 21 September 1935) was an English architect known for his work in the Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival style and a number of church buildings. He worked with some leading ecclesiastical archit ...

. Walkers undertook various refurbishments and modifications; the most recent refurbishment was by W. & A. Boggis of Diss in 2008.

Bats

The church is home to a roost of common pipistrelle and

soprano pipistrelle The soprano pipistrelle (''Pipistrellus pygmaeus'') is a small species of bat. It is found in Europe and often roosts on buildings. Taxonomy Until 1999, the soprano pipistrelle was considered as conspecific Biological specificity is the tendenc ...

bats.

References

{{coord, 52.94865, 0.51251, format=dms, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade I listed churches in Norfolk Church of England church buildings in Norfolk