For the first time in more than half a century a remote church on the edge of Thetford Forest was visited by Norfolk Church Tours.
The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Consolation and St Stephen, Lynford, was built by one of Britain’s most wealthy women in 1877. Yolande Marie Louise Duvernay, a world famous danseuse, had inherited more than £1m (worth more than £100m today) on her husband’s death in 1862.When she got fed up with being driven to worship at the nearest RC church in Thetford, she had one built on her 8,000-acre Lynford Hall estate.
The Norfolk Churches Trust has leased the church from the RC Diocese of East Anglia since 2009, and unusually is orientated north/south. Instead of the altar at the eastern end, it is actually at the north. The architect of the church, which took six years to complete between 1878 and 1884, was Henry Clutton, who greatly admired Pugin.
This church, which is approached down a long tree-lined forest track, has been extensively restored by the Norfolk Churches Trust. It took about four years and the parapets and bell turret had now been restored to their former glory. Extensive repairs were carried out on the north parapet, roof and bellcote in 2021/22. Some minor electrical repairs stll need to be carried out.
Norfolk Church Tours was started by the late Richard Butler-Stoney, of Mileham, in 1969, who wrote about 400 church guides over the following decades. His pioneering role was taken on by Mrs ‘Lyn Stilgoe, who has researched and written a total of more than 300 illustrated guides to Norfolk churches.
This year 16 churches across the county were visited on the free guided tours, which were led by Mrs Stilgoe, Richard Barham and Michael Pollitt.
However, it was the first time that a Roman Catholic Church was included by Norfolk Church Tours. About 40 people joined this season’s final visits, which started at Ickburgh, then to Mundford and ending with a service of evening prayer at Northwold.
The church is now enclosed by trees because apparently later owners of the Lynford Hall estate were vehemently anti-Catholic and wanted to hide it from view!
The exterior has been faced with knapped black flints, all uniformly round, and the length of the church has an elaborate parapet of pierced arches. Inside, there is a striking set of Stations of the Cross. The series of 14 painted panels starts with the trial before Pontius Pilate and the final scene of the burial of Jesus in the tomb.
As no expense was spared inside, the original carpet has fleur-de-lys in gold – the design of the Lyne-Stephens family. These are also featured in front of the ornate altar and reredos which is heavily influenced by a design by A W Pugin.
Mr Barham, on behalf of the Norfolk Church Tours, thanked the Trust’s secretary Scilla Latham for her help including arranging the cleaning the church and greeting visitors on behalf of the Trust. Donations were made by visitors and also the Church Tours.
The church is usually locked but contact the Norfolk Churches Trust office for details.
Photographs – Michael Pollitt.
