Redgrave, South Lopham & Banham
Redgrave & Lopham Fen is an internationally important lowland valley fen with a unique landscape of spring-fed sedge beds, rush and grass meadows, wet and dry heath, woodland and pools.
Home to insect-eating plants and Britain's biggest spider, the fen raft spider, this dramatic fenland landscape is one of the most important wetlands in Europe and the source of the River Waveney.
The fen is an exceptional place for wildlife and a testament to the vision of those who battled to save it. It`s a wild watery landscape of sedge, rush, heath and hundreds of pools created over many centuries by local people as they eked out a living, digging peat for fuel and cutting reed and sedge for thatching.
Talking of large spiders, here is an image I captured in 2010 on a visit. Not the best quality, but it does show the creature in its habitat.
The Raft Spider is a large, chunky spider that lives around the edge of ponds and swamps. Adults sit at the edge of the water, or on floating vegetation, with their front legs resting on the water's surface in order to feel for the vibrations of potential prey. Using the surface tension of the water, they chase out onto the water to catch their prey, which will even include tadpoles or small fish.
Raft Spiders will also swim underwater, often diving beneath the surface when threatened.
These two images are of the Four Spot Chaser dragonfly which was just trying to warm himself up at the start of the day.
This was I believe, a Variable Damselfly - Coenagrion pulchellum
and this a female Blue-tailed Damselfly - Ischnura elegans
....and then to an unfortunate one captured, and being eaten by a spider!
And so we made our way to South Lopham where the village sign shows how proud they are of their resident raft Spider.
South Lopham church (St Andrews) has the finest Norman tower in Norfolk and one of the best anywhere. It rises 70ft and is somewhat austere, even forbidding - it would not take a big jump of the imagination to see it in a Norman castle.
The original church was Saxon, dating from between AD 1000 and 1066. The Norman work was commissioned by the fearsome William Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. He was to drown in 1120 in the “White Ship” that was taking another William - the son and only legitimate heir of Henry I - from Barfleur in Normandy to England. The Bigods had fought alongside the Conqueror and most of Norfolk and Suffolk was their reward! We might speculate that the no-nonsense austerity of the tower owed something to the no-nonsense mindset of the Bigods!
The church tower might well have been designed to be the centre of a cruciform church, but the transepts never materialised.
There are a quantity of pew ends which are worth a look including this one, the Elephant and Castle emblem. It is a fairly common feature of mediaeval iconography. The carver of this piece obviously had little idea of the creature’s anatomy - hence the beak-like trunk and pathetic legs!
The font is from the fourteenth century and is of octagonal design. It`s stem and bowl carved with traceried patterns (each one different from the others) and topped with a seventeenth century cover.
This mighty parish chest, fashioned out of a single piece of oak! Some believe that it could well date from 1100, contemporary with the tower. In it parish documents and valuables would be stored. At a later date it was secured by three padlocks (the hasp of the middle one remains) for which the rector and two churchwardens each had a key, so all three had to be present for it to be opened.
So onto Banham to take in St Mary`s church with it`s 125ft lead covered spire, atop the tower. Most of the church is flint construction of fourteenth century, flint being available in large quantities in Norfolk.
Doors on old buildings have such a story to tell with their gnarled and weather beaten appearance. This one is from St Mary`s, but is no longer subject to the weather as the Friends of Banham Church had a modern glass entrance door constructed in 2007.
The fourteenth century Parish Chest.
Two images of the buildings which were originally the late sixteenth century Guildhall. Now known as Guildhall Cottages (not too original!)
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