Thurne, Norfolk - St. Edmunds
The 13th. century church at Thurne is dedicated to St. Edmund, King of East Anglia who was martyred by Danish invaders in 872 AD.
Thurne is an isolated village now and was even more so in past centuries. The church is on raised ground with flat, tidal marshland in front of it. There is a strange spyhole at eye level in the church tower which points directly at another of Norfolk’s isolated places of worship, St. Benet’s Abbey on Norfolk’s River Bure, and it said was an early form of communication in times of great need. If a candle was lit, it sent a clear message to the monks at St Benet’s, many of whom had medical knowledge: “Please send help now”, and then the monks knew there was sickness and need of a doctor in the village or at Oby, or Clippesby. So they’d come rowing in their little boat, a mile and a half across the marshes to tend whoever needed them.
Some say that the ‘spyhole’ is in fact a squint, a hole through which lepers were able to view the priest who was consecrating Holy Communion bread without infecting worshippers and perhaps it was used for this, too. Others believe the hole was from a time when there was a special cell attached to the church which would have been lived in by an anchoress or an anchorite. Like Julian of Norwich, an anchoress was a woman who was walled into a cell to live a life of prayer and contemplation, the male equivalent was an anchorite It was a strangely popular way of life for the devoutly religious in medieval times. An anchoress’ cell was attached to a church and contained three windows, one where a servant would bring food and dispose of waste, another that opened on the church so the anchoress could partake of Mass and a third to look out on the outside world. Some anchoress’ never left their cell, even after death.
The church gained Grade: II* listed building status on 25th. September 1962. (English Heritage Legacy ID: 227733)
Thurne, Norfolk - St. Edmunds
The 13th. century church at Thurne is dedicated to St. Edmund, King of East Anglia who was martyred by Danish invaders in 872 AD.
Thurne is an isolated village now and was even more so in past centuries. The church is on raised ground with flat, tidal marshland in front of it. There is a strange spyhole at eye level in the church tower which points directly at another of Norfolk’s isolated places of worship, St. Benet’s Abbey on Norfolk’s River Bure, and it said was an early form of communication in times of great need. If a candle was lit, it sent a clear message to the monks at St Benet’s, many of whom had medical knowledge: “Please send help now”, and then the monks knew there was sickness and need of a doctor in the village or at Oby, or Clippesby. So they’d come rowing in their little boat, a mile and a half across the marshes to tend whoever needed them.
Some say that the ‘spyhole’ is in fact a squint, a hole through which lepers were able to view the priest who was consecrating Holy Communion bread without infecting worshippers and perhaps it was used for this, too. Others believe the hole was from a time when there was a special cell attached to the church which would have been lived in by an anchoress or an anchorite. Like Julian of Norwich, an anchoress was a woman who was walled into a cell to live a life of prayer and contemplation, the male equivalent was an anchorite It was a strangely popular way of life for the devoutly religious in medieval times. An anchoress’ cell was attached to a church and contained three windows, one where a servant would bring food and dispose of waste, another that opened on the church so the anchoress could partake of Mass and a third to look out on the outside world. Some anchoress’ never left their cell, even after death.
The church gained Grade: II* listed building status on 25th. September 1962. (English Heritage Legacy ID: 227733)