All Saints Parish Church Morston is perched on a pronounced mound of land. It sticks out so much that the coast road has to take a sharp curve around it. It once overlooked a busy narrow creek that was navigable down to the sea. The village has always been small, and was over many centuries renowned for only two things - fishing and smuggling. The church has a very understated exterior architecture. No grand walls of windows like those at near bye Salthouse or Blakeney, nor the architectural flourishes of Cley. Quite small windows generally and all without stained glass. The only stained glass being a tiny medieval fragment in a high window of the tower. The quatre foil windows in the clerestory are perfunctory and modest.
In fact modesty seems to be this churches dominant quality as a building. What else strikes you is that its been in the wars, the tower having had a patchwork brick repair. That this was done might indicate a lack of financial resources to repair properly in flint. The tower was struck by lightening in 1743 and partially collapsed. The 18th century appears to have been a bad generally for churches in North Norfolk. Many falling badly into disrepair at this time. So undoubtedly as a smaller poorer parish in the first place Morston did not escape the neglect of this period. The tower collapse damaged the crenelations on the east nave roof which were not repaired. When you look closer at some of the interior stone carving is hurried looking and not finely worked. The arch corbels and font panels are particularly crudely executed to the point of looking sinister. The sort of detail that M R James would use in one of his ghost stories.
But all these 'folksy' elements to the church emphasise that this is a humble building, with little by way of grand asthetic pretensions. This is part of its charm. There are a number of quite distinctive things about Morston Church. The majority of its fabric is 13th century, some of it quite early. The pillars have a more Norman Romanesque look to them, whilst many of the nave arches straddle the transition from Norman curved to Early English pointed arche. The windows are all noticeably set higher than is usual in the walls, so no one can look out of them. There are three rough cut piscina, two either side of the altar and one in the nave. This might indicate side altars or shrines to specific saints, supported by local guilds.
A remarkable survival are the base panels of a medieval rood screen. Made still more unusual by the fact that all the panels are undamaged, the paintwork still quite bright and clear. The figures are of the four Evangelists and four Doctors of the Church _ Gregory, Jerome, Ambrose and Augustine, so perhaps uncontroversial enough not to arouse Puritanical iconoclasm. Above the rood arch is an 18th century Tympanum, which bears the Royal Arms, a 'Decalogue' panel containing the Creed, Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments, Made in the years after the tower collapse and repair, partially to hide damaged areas, but since moved to its present situation
The church has, by choice no electricity. But it does have several splendidly wrought ironwork candelabra throughout the church. These are used during evening services, this must make for a very atmospheric ritual space. The only organ they have is a pedal driven one. This all gives added emphasis to its rusticated character, which I can quite understand the local parishioners might wish to preserve.
Before leaving take a walk around the church ground there is precious little by way of a graveyard. Most of its medieval burials had wooden grave markers that have not survived. There are however, three coffin shaped graves set flat into its grass which are flint set into lime wash. This quietly speaks of the impoverished nature of Morston in previous centuries.
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