LARLING Church

On a fine summers day Larling Church sits triumphantly amidst the beauty of the surrounding fields.

The church is an integral part of the wider farming community and truly comes to life at Harvest and Christmas celebrations, which invariably overflow into the nearby Angel Public House.

 

The isolated position of the church is probably not due (as might be thought) to the Black Death having decimated the village. Archaeological evidence shows that there was once a settlement round the church, but sometime after the Middle Ages it appears to have migrated southwards, towards the ford where the Angel Pub stands.

 

HISTORY of Larling Church

The west tower is in the l5th century 'Perpendicular' style. In 1473, Peter Benne, of Thetford left £1 "ad fabrica nova campanilis (i.e., the new tower) in ecclia de Lerling", and there are further bequests in the wills of Stephen Galle (Hargham, 1485) and Thomas Smale, a rector of Larling (1494).Like the rest of the building (and most Norfolk churches) it is built of flint, with stone used only for dressings.

The west buttresses have some flush work decoration, including the insignia of the Virgin Mary. It is possible that the tower was not completed to the original designs as the buttresses end somewhat abruptly and the tower has a plain parapet instead of the normal battlements. The staircase turret on the north side leads to the belfry.

The vestry on the north side of the nave was built by the mother and sister of the then Rector, the Rev'd J.B. Atkinson, in 1889, as is recorded in a window. The cost was £150. The windows on the north side of the nave are l5th century insertions into an earlier wall. The chancel windows mainly have the 'Y' tracery characteristic of about 1300.

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