ST MARY'S PARAPET

The tower parapet at St Mary’s Westgate, Burnham Market, is an exceptionally rare late-medieval carved parapet, added around 1500. It is not merely decorative: its panels form a cycle of biblical, Marian and saintly imagery, including John the Baptist, St Thomas Becket, the Annunciation, the Flight into Egypt and the Risen Christ. It is a pre-Reformation late-medieval visual catechism wrapped round the tower: Creation and Fall, Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection, saints, martyrdom, Mary, judgement and death. While medieval carved church towers are not unique, this kind of extensive narrative sculpture on a parish-church tower parapet appears to be virtually unparalleled in Norfolk.

THE EAST SIDE (CLOCK SIDE)

The Virgin Mary carrying the Child Jesus, sitting on the ass, and (in the adjoining arch) St. Joseph with an adze (apparently) over his shoulder, the two panels together depicting the going down into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14).  In the next two panels are the figures of the Virgin Mary and Elizabeth, representing the visitation (Luke 1:40)

The shield with the letter M in the centre of each side stands for Mary. 

St. Thomas with the traditional spear in one hand and the other uplifted as if in awe and surprise, and the second figure that of our Lord, with a banner, pointing to the wound in His side (John 20:27,28)

The two end arches are taken up by the Annunciation (St. Luke 1:26), the Angel Gabriel holding a sceptre or mace in his hand, and the Virgin Mary kneeling in an attitude of devotion at a "priedieu"; the Dove, emblem of the Holy Spirit, is seen hovering over her right shoulder. 

THE NORTH SIDE

A lady (possibly the donor of the battlements) kneeling in adoration before God the Father in glory, with orb and sceptre? The next figure apparently represents Death or (it is difficult to say which) a man in armour, and its companion an old man, possibly a king, with crown and sceptre.

Adam and Eve, and then in the first arch of the last panel the figure of the executioner with his sword in his right hand and in his left the head of St. John the Baptist, who is (in the next arch) kneeling headless before the prison door, which bears a striking likeness to a modern sentry-box.

THE WEST SIDE

This follows the previous scene. The attendant carrying the head of St. John the Baptist, on a plate, to Herod and Herodias, who are sitting at a table, on which are dishes are set, while Salome is tumbling tête à terre before them. 

St. Peter with the keys; St. Andrew with his cross.

St. John with chalice and serpent, and St. James with staff and wallet. Separated from these by a shield bearing the I.H.S. are the two last arches on this side, which set forth the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury; in the first two armed knights, the foremost with sword, and his companion with axe; and in the second, St. Thomas standing before the altar with hand uplifted. The chalice and candlestick are clearly to be seen on the altar, and there is evidently a rich dossel, or reredos, behind it. The cross-bearer stands behind the archbishop.

THE SOUTH SIDE

On the South side there is little that can be said with any degree of certainty about what it displays. The first arch contains the Christ Crucified, with rays surrounding, and a figure crouching at the foot, probably the Lord's Mother or Mary Magdalene. The figure next is mutilated, and beyond wearing a gown and hood has no distinctive marks. In the case of the other figures there are few clues to work on.

The second double panel shows a crowned abbess with a crozier, and an abbot or bishop, also with a crozier. The former may represent Etheldreda, who would be likely to be honoured here as a local saint, and it is not improbable that her companion was an ecclesiastic connected with the Church indirectly as Prior of Coxford or Abbot of Wendling, or possibly Bishop of Norwich, though the former dignitaries had far more to do with the Church of St. Mary than had the Diocesan Bishop. Of the rest who figure on this side we can say nothing definite; they are probably intended to represent apostles or saints of a later day

HISTORY OF THE PARAPET

"The devices on the shields should be a help towards fixing the date of this work, but it is difficult to determine their exact meaning, or the reason for their being where they are. 

The Tudor rose and portcullis are of course useful, but we have, besides, the three fleur de lis, the three covered cups, the lion, and the griffin. Mr. St. John Hope suggests that the two latter might be supporters for Henry VII, but I hoped that these might be identified with some local celebrity of the period. Mr. Minns, in a letter on the subject, speaks of "Lion as for Morley, whose arms used to be in one of the windows of the Church," but the lions, presumably for Morley, on the buttresses of Burnham Norton Church are not rampant but couchant; the griffin I cannot connect with any Burnham notable. The fleur de lis may be for France, or more probably for the Lexhams, who held Lexham's Manor in Burnham in the fifteenth century. In the Calendar of Papal Registers we find that authority to have a portable altar was granted in November, 1434, to William Lexham, Lord of the Manor of Lexham in the town of Burnham, of the Diocese of Norwich, nobleman, and Margaret, his wife, noblewoman. The three cups covered occur in the arms of Calthorpe in Burnham Deepdale Church, and that family had considerable property in all the Burnhams. Joan or Jane, Lady Calthorpe, held Polstede Hall Manor, which comprised the largest part of Burnham Westgate, in 1511. Further, Cecilia Walpole de Burnham Westgate desired, by her will in 1492, to be buried in the churchyard of St. Mary the Virgin in Burnham aforesaid, and bequeathed to the emendation and reparation of the said Church 6s. 8d., so that according to the date of the building of these battlements either of these ladies - Margaret Lexham or Cecilia Walpole at the end of the fifteenth century, or Joan Calthorpe at the beginning of the sixteenth, might have been the generous donor of this remarkable series of sculptures, or, we may as truthfully say, neither."

The text and identification of the figures are drawn from a booklet: 'Notes on the Sculptured parapet on the tower of St Mary's Church, Burnham Market'. Communicated by Rev T Felton Falkner, MA, Rector. In the Norfolk Archaeology Journal, Volume 17, 1910, pages 277-283

The images were taken courtesy of Sowerby's