Fincham Church, Norfolk

We stumbled on the church in the village of Fincham in Norfolk a couple of days ago. There was nothing really to say it was anything different from a thousand other medieval churches in England, though the book did mention a crude Norman font. So, as we were going through anyway we stopped to have a look.

And the font really is a treasure, and in not that bad condition, apart from the fact that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the serpent in this first illustration have had to be replaced. They have done it sensitively so that there is no question as to what is original and what is replacement. Both Adam and Eve are clutching themselves - even groping themselves it might be said. The recent legal decision in Italy that it is an offence for men to touch their private parts against the evil eye would mean that Adam would be carted off to jail there.

You have to look twice at the carvings to make out what they are trying to depict. This next one, of the Nativity, had us puzzling at first as to the grouping on the right. At the bottom is the baby in the manger, and at the top the chrysamthemum shaped object must be the star. The two objects between, looking a bit like feet, made us think at first that the whole carving on this face of the font was of the Ascension. But then it dawned. The scene is the Nativity, and the two strange objects are the heads of the ox and ass, just sticking into the picture.

Joseph is on the right, holding a staff, and Mary stands stiffly in the middle.










These are the Wise Men, all holding up their gifts in their right hands.

The last side depicts the Baptism of Jesus, though the Jordan he is standing in looks more like this square font than the river it is supposed to be. The dove which is divebombing his head looks rather like an oven-ready chicken. The figure on the right is probably John the Baptist in his animal skin garments; the figure on the right could be anyone.

I have seen a suggestion on one website that the font came from another church in the parish when it was demolished in the seventeen hundreds, and that it is in fact Saxon, rather than Norman. That would figure. I have not seen such crude Norman carving before.

The church is well worth a visit just for the font, but we will stop next time we pass anyway, as we apparently missed a wonderful collection of gargoyles on the outside of the church.