St. Margaret's

About St Margaret’s, Little Dunham

Little Dunham stands on a three way watershed heading the Rivers Wensum, Wissey and Nar. Neolithic flints have been found in the Village. A Roman Road passes through the Village up to Kempstone. A medieval pilgrims route called the Walsingham Way also passed through the Village at a place called High Cross.

St. Margaret’s Church sits in a pleasant park setting and to the west of the Church can be seen the humps of the old Village. Like most Norfolk churches it is built of flint rubble with stone dressing. The Nave and Chancel were built in the early 13th Century in the Early English style.

The Tower was added in the late 14th Century in the Perpendicular period and the Porch was built in the 15th Century in the same style. Substantial refurbishment was carried out in 1862 when the current pews were installed.

A walk around the outside of the Church shows the three centuries of construction. Of note are the simple lancet windows including the triple lancet windows at the end of the north aisle and the quatrefoil sound holes in square frames in the Tower. There is a slab slate sundial in the Porch and the site of two peg sundials on the south side. In the north east corner of the outside the remains of the Chapel of St. Mary can be seen clearly.

Entrance to the Church is through the original 13th Century door which has defaced heads in the stone door frame. Inside the Church there is an atmosphere of rustic peace and tranquillity. Unusually there is no evidence of a rood screen and the 13th Century aisle runs the whole length of the Church with three bays for the Nave and three slightly lower ones for the Chancel although two of these were filled in many years ago. There are traces of the original colour on the arches of the Chancel aisle and two painted consecration crosses on the pillars. Close to the altar can be seen the angled piscina and the sedilia complete with a stone elbow rest which are both fine examples of the Early English period.

A curiosity is the corbel head supporting the westernmost end to the Chancel arcade. The head seems to support leaves and horns. The face has been broken off save for one staring eye. Is this the devil or a pre Christian green man?

The stained glass in the eastern window was installed in 1868 and was repaired and reset in 2012. Close by there is a memorial window to the then Rector’s son Edward Hare who died of wounds received in the battle of Abu Krn.

The old font was replaced by a Perpendicular font from another church which was found in a garden in Norwich.

There used to be three bells in the Tower of which one remains. This was rehung in 1997 and is tolled before services.

The Church Records go back to Lady Day 1562. The Church plate includes a London Chalice dated 1788 and a 1790 Salver.

Prior to the Reformation there were three guilds in the Church, to St. Margaret, the Holy Trinity and the Virgin Mary.

A board to the left of the door as you enter lists the Rectors. John Nelson, a cousin to Admiral Lord Nelson was Rector from 1820 to 1865. His younger son Charles is commemorated in the floor of the Chancel and there are other Nelson graves in the back of the Church.as members of the family lived locally. John Venn was Rector from 1782 to 1793 when he left to become Rector of Clapham. He presided at the first meeting of the Church Missionary Society and had strong connections with the Clapham Sect of whom William Wilberforce the anti slavery campaigner was a leading member.