NHER 8372 (Building record) - St John's Church, Waxham, Sea Palling

With ruined chancel.
Hooks in roof where lifeboat hung during period of disuse.
E. Rose (NAU).

Press cutting (S1) in file.

Ruined chancel and graveyard scheduled 1990 (S2). Details in file. Church listed (S3).
E. Rose (NAU), 1 May 1990.

Church very briefly seen on 17 October 1998.
Chancel in ruins, very poor condition. Nave with two blocked slits and one round headed window variously called Late Saxon or Norman. Other windows have V-tracery of about 1300. Tower said to be 15th century, bell openings boarded up, huge tower arch bricked up, as is chancel arch.
Banner staff locker in nave north wall by large recess that looks like the entry to a demolished chapel. Stone coffin lid in fragments; Wodehouse tomb 1571 (moved from chancel??). Octagonal font on brick base with ?reset floor tiles. Organ, 19th century good quality, made at Ludgate Hill London.
E. Rose (NLA), 19 October 1998.

Communion cup inscribed THE TOWNE OF WAXHAM 1568 stolen from Sea Palling church 1999 but recovered soon after.

July 2002-January 2003. Watching Brief.
An archaeological watching brief monitoring the excavation of drainage trenches on the south side of the church of St John’s Waxham and observing the removal and reinstatement of wooden floors on the north and south nave aisles inside the church was carried out. The archaeological work was undertaken over three separate days. One slightly disturbed burial was observed in the base of the central inspection tank hole south of the church. Inside the church, post medieval make-up layers were revealed and under the south nave aisle part of a stone plinth, along with holes possibly caused by stone robbing, were recorded.
See report (S4) for further details. The results of this work are summarised in (S6) and (S7).
The associated archive has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2016.48).
M. Horlock (NLA), 11 March 2003. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 17 May 2019.