Marham No. 1 / Mareham / Marsam

Blomefield (1805-1810) writes: "Here were formerly two churches in this town, one dedicated to St. Andrew, the other to the Holy Trinity; this last is still standing: they were rectories united and valued together [...] The patronage of the vicarages, which were consolidated, was in the priory of Westacre, [...] The Church now standing, of the Holy Trinity, has a nave, with a south isle and a chancel built of rag-stone, clunch or chalk, and covered with lead; at the west end of the nave stands a lofty four-square tower of flint stones, &c. with quoins, embattlements, &c. of freestone, with 4 bells; on the top of this tower is a wooden shaft or spire covered with lead; the length of the nave is about 63 feet, and with the south isle about 30 in breadth [...] Nicholas occurs vicar of the churches of the Holy Trinity, and St. Andrew in Marham about 1250, and John in 1294 [...] The church of St. Andrew stood in the close, near to the vicar's house, the site is still to be seen, by the wall of flint in some places; Mr. Frost, vicar, making a ditch here, found several human bones and a stone coffin. This church was standing, as appears by a will, in 1428." The font here is described in Pevsner & Wilson (1999): "Octagonal, Perp[endicular], with a variety of blank tracery motifs on stem and bowl. On the stem it is instructive to see that they include tracery motifs of c. 1300 and of c. 1330." In Knott (2009): "the font is a fairly spectacular example of the early 14th Century, its panels depicting a variety of Decorated tracery." [NB: there was a second parish church, St. Andrew's, of which "only a few carved architectural fragments remain -- Holy Trinity goes back to Norman times, St. Andrew's may have been medieval, and there had been a 13th-century nunnery here, but we have no information on the early fonts of these buildings]