The Early Days
It was a warm summer day back in 1992 when Gloria Davey (Bob's wife) stumbled upon the then ruined Saint Mary's Church. Whilst on a ramble with the local WI. Gloria managed to get into the church where she found evidence of satanic worship. (they had used it for some thirty years with no problem but they did not count on Bob) Gloria returned home to Bob who as a devout Christian “wasn't having it”. The church had not been used much at all after 1929, the odd summer service held, when each April a horse and cart would take a harmonium up in order to provide the music, each October it was collected. Slowly it just became another abandoned church left to go to rack and ruin, The chruchyard resembeled a jungle, over grown with bramble black thorn and ivy, there was no longer a roof on the nave, windows long since smashed in. (Pictures of the ruinous state are on the gallery page). The tower still stood high and proud a mere shell, covered in ivy, with a huge crack in it, which had been caused in October 1916 by a zepplin that was loosing height dropping its cargo of unused bombs, which landed in the church yard. As you can imagine not every one welcomed Bob's enthusiasm in those early days. The satanists would turn up periodically, So Bob mounted patrols. Eventually they got the message, Bob was not going anywhere, it was his church, and so after some persuasion they left. So the back braking and hard workwork began, clearing the church yard and riding the structure of ivy, removing a tree that had grown inside. Bob approached the County Council to see what he could do. Only to find out that infact Houghton Church (a church without a village) was actualy on a list of 20 of Norfolk's 100 old ruined medieval churches, they together with English Heritage would hopefully get round to at least stabalising it to prevent further deterioration. They must have been overjoyed to have Bob's letter drop through the door, for here was a local man full of enthusiasm. (An enthusiasm that lives on 19 years later). And yet it was still considered to be a gamble, here was a church with no village, all the small villages around about still had their own churches. It had not been used properly for nigh on 70 years, there was no congregation, (Bob's enthusiam soon changed all that) It had never been deconsicrated, which is what had made it all the more inviting to the had been satanists. The last baptism had taken palce in 1931/3, the last wedding was that of Miss Anderson (who then became Mrs Colwell). Bob met Mrs Colwell who gave him an insight of life at the time, she was a servant girl up at the farm house. Her father was an under shepherd during the lambing season he would have to live in a small hut in the field for up to three months. So on a sunday her mother would take the children to Sunday School and then slip over the field to see him. The original idea of English Heritage and the council was simply to buttress the walls and shore up the arches, and to make sure it was safe and nothing else would fall down. All this changed dramatically when Dr David Watt, the county councils surveyor inspected the timbers of the roof. He decided rather than remove them he would reinstate the roof, Not to its original state, which would of course been thatch but, with reeds and a nice slate roof, Bob was delighted with this news, he had already had several services in the roofless church and its popularity was growing. It was this event that was a critical turning point in the restoration of Saint Mary's as we see it today. During the victorian times the inside of the nave had been plastered but with the roof gone the damp had got in and much of the plaster had crumbled off to reveal 16th century biblical text. On much closer inspection this text was found to be overlaying wall paintings of the 15th, 14th and the 13th century, all of these overlaying a very rare Romanesque painting which is thought to date from when the church was built. First found in the North window and then elsewhere wall painting consultants Hurst Associates were called upon.Though now much faded due to the lack of roof and the openess to the elements, the paintings portraying the Holy Trinity various prophets, angels and disiples were quickly recognised as the most important discovery of their type in over 20years in England. The only comparable items are in Nether Wallop church in Hampshire, and are Anglo-Saxon paintings which date from the 11/12th century. With this discovery things changed, suddenly all sorts of people got involved the Courtauld Institute at London University being the most notable, they are recognised as a leading authority on wall paintings and their research and monitoring at Saint Mary's is ongoing. Work continues and with the new roof came new guttering and soakaways.
During the digging of the soak aways 17 skeletons were found. This is not surprising, as it is after all a churchyard. However in one of the pits seven skeletons were found in different layers the upper most being only two feet beneath the surface. The top one a woman with a gunshot wound to her skull, who died in the 1600's. Was she a bystander of a Civil war skirmish, or something more sinister? A further layer down another woman buried with an infant laid across her chest. Right at the bottom another woman buried in the 1100's. On the North side a woman buried face down with stones piled on her head, from the 1400's, probably thought to be a witch having been buried in this manner on the North side. All have been reintered in a communal grave at the west end of the church yard marked with a simple cross.
As to the actual age of the church? It is clearly very old, opinions range from 800's to 1090, (excavations in the floor revealed three or four naves going back to the 7th century) and still 19 years on no one has put an exact date on it. There is re-used roman materials I the walls ( recycling went on way back then) a Roman Villa stood just down the way with Peddars Way running right past. The corners of the nave have large stone laid alternatley along each wall for strenghtening a flint and rubble construction this is known as long-and-short work. It was a technique of the Saxons, born of necessity as there was very little workable stone for building. The church and its lands constantly throw up little things to keep Bob going.
In the early stages Bob and Gloria funded much of the work themselves, from hard core to make the lane way more accessible to cars, to paying for the architect's drawings and materials for the repair of the tower, “because they could not bear to see the tower standing like an empty shell”. The materials paid for , the Norfolk Churches trust and English Heritage did pay for the actual labour to be carried out. The church floor tiles had been removed and put into safe keeping some years ago, but were then sold! Bob located the floor tiles to a farm house in Litcham, then proving they should not have been sold in the first place managed to get reimbursement for the sold items and had replicas made. The Lottery fund paid for the second phase of the wall paintings to be uncovered, new oak seating and training for more volunteers.
Still the work goes on.