NHER 12699 (Building record) - St Faith's Church, Lenwade

A red brick, Victorian church that contains an elaborate Renaissance pulpit from Little Witchingham church (NHER 7475).

NGR corrected from original TG 0989 1834.
M. Horlock (NLA), 24 March 2003.

The church has a chancel of red brick with moulded brick hoodmoulds to the windows; the nave is mock-Tudor with wooden panels imitating framework set between rendered panels. In 2007 the church is disused and Faculty has been granted to move the pulpit to Great Witchingham St Mary NHER 7474.
E. Rose (NLA), 29 June 2007.

The building started life as a Victorian mission church originally dedicated to All Saints. Despite its central location the church was little used and became redundant. The church is still fenced off and its future is uncertain (probably conversion or demolition for residential development). The altar has been moved to St Elizabeth’s church, Cadge Road, Earlham (a modern church, not on NHER). This is a fine example of a mission church, and an interesting feature is that the altar etc were located at the west end of the building. The layout was reversed in the 1920s or 1930s, when the church was extended to the west.
D. Gurney (NLA), 11 January 2010.

November 2010. Building Survey.
The style of the church is Tudoresque constructed from Flemish bond brickwork laid in a lime mortar with a steeply pitched tile roof. There is evidence of possible black ?ash pointing on the northern side and in moulding around the windows. Externally the nave comprises three bays, each with a window on both north and south sides. The windows are of two lights contained in a rectangular frame of moulded red brick beneath hood moulding. There are two buttresses at the western end, where the nave meets the chancel, and three buttresses on the southern side. The vestry occupies the eastern end of the church. The bell turret is located at the eastern end with a timber louvred belfry and was originally surmounted by a lead covered button with cast iron cross but this was taken down when it became unsafe and is now placed in the space beneath the tower of St Mary's in Great Witchingham (NHER 7474). The west gable of the nave abuts the chancel and is built from red brick with the roof verge being covered by a timber bargeboard painted white. The south porch is an open timber structure supported on a red brick plinth. The chancel is a smaller and lower rectangular building with roughcast rendered walls divided into eight panels sitting on a red brick plinth of Flemish bond with blackened mortar (see above). The church was stripped of its fixtures and fittings prior to the survey which has been documented by the Reverend. A photographic record of some fittings in-situ was made by C. Tillet in November 2004. The nave is 11m long and 6m wide and separated from the chancel by a decorative wooden screen and at the eastern end from the entrance lobby and vestry by a second plain screen. The nave roof is timber and comprises sets of common rafters rising from a wall plate to a ridge piece.
See report (S1) for further details.
S. Howard (HES), 24 February 2011.