PLAN
The plan of the church is both simple and uncommon being 62 ft. wide and with a uniform chancel and nave including two parallel aisles of equal 135 ft. length on either side. The chancel and nave are bordered by a series of seven arcades with octagonal piers while the walls (rough in the nave and smooth in the chancel) are plastered. The absence of a chancel arch adds to the building’s loftiness while the clerestory windows high above the chancel and nave (today sadly blocked off above the latter) were an unusual addition when the church was re-roofed one hundred years later. The roughly hewn tie-beams, king-posts and queen-posts continue to support this massive and impressive structure.
Between the chancel and the nave is a step which marks a clear distinction between them. It has been remarked upon that the blocked and open clerestory windows also mark this distinction although the windows on the south side of the chancel are fewer but grander. In cathedral fashion, three original steps lead from the chancel towards the sanctuary and to the high altar In medieval times a burning sanctuary lamp was suspended over this area to denote the presence of the Sacrament and there are records of parishioners leaving money in their wills towards its upkeep.
MEDIAEVAL WORSHIP
In order to understand St. George’s it is useful to know something of the pattern of mediaeval worship and the uses towards which different parts of the church were put. The dedication of the south chapel to St. Katherine of Alexandria was doubtless as a result of her great popularity during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries until the time of the Reformation. Towards the end of this period she had become something of a cult figure acting as a model of the ideal lay Christian and an example of femininity and young womanhood. The villagers are known to have had a Fraternity of St. Katherine where the Light of St. Katherine’ would be kept burning. Its original altar steps remain.
The north aisle was the Lady Chapel and an exposed bracket to the of the now blocked window is believed to have once supported a statue of Mary. Writing in her 1967 church guide. the marsh’s historian Anne Roper records that at that time above this bracket were faint fragments of a mural painting showing the outline of a figure under a canopy with some foliated framing. The village’s Fraternity of St. Mary held its services in the chapel and the large five-lighted late Perpendicular window was a splendid addition allowing the morning light to stream into and flood this area of the church with brilliance.
The same north aisle also once housed a chapel dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel although where its altar stood is unknown. The Fraternity of St. Michael was the third such parochial brotherhood in the village while additionally there was also a Chantry Chapel which was endowed for the celebration of masses for the soul of the church’s founder. The parish supported a chantrv priest, in addition to the Rector, whose job it was to celebrate mass throughout the year in honour of the founder With as many as five altars, and often simultaneously celebrated masses and offices for the living and the dead, it can be perhaps understood why St. George’s occupied quite so much space.
