Is This The Most Unique Church Of Norfolk?

A short video where I explore a somewhat hidden area of the Norfolk countryside named 'the Plateau', where I venture to the gem that is Saint Michael's the Archangel's church of Booton.
Discover this glorious church with me and find out why it is such a unique historical site.
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[@kcnmsepognln]

What must be some 40 years ago, I went on a sponsored bike ride around local churches, so your introduction immediately had me interested. But I wasn't ready for this... I had no idea anything like St Michael's even existed. It's quite unlike anything I've seen before: I'm as confused as the first time I saw Sagrada Família. Most striking for me, was the way flints were used on a huge scale, like impossibly large stained glass windows. Supposedly, there's a house here in Ipswich, featuring carvings by someone who's work is also in the Palace of Westminster: I wonder if he worked in Booton? Anyway, thanks for introducing me to this church which is, I'd think, entirely unique to the UK (let alone Norfolk).

[@AlexTheHistoryGuy]

What a lovely comment, I genuinely smiled reading this. Well thank you for perfectly explaining the goal of my channel - to shine a light on the lesser known and generally hidden historic sites of Britain. As for the cycle ride, I ended up cycling from Norwich to Booton, then onwards to Reepham, Sculthorpe, Walsingham, Binham, Blakeney, Weybourne, and finished in Sheringham where I got the train back home. It was an exhausting day but it was definitely worth it!

[@AlexTheHistoryGuy]

Oh, and in regards to your Westminster query - one of the stained glass windows in this church was inspired by a similar window in St Stephens Chapel within the Palace of Westminster. Also, the stained glass windows in St. John the Baptists Catholic cathedral in Norwich was made by the same company who did the stained glass windows in Westminster.

[@MoOniEXXXXXXX]

My wife and i found this little gem about 20 years ago while out on a sunday drive round norfolk, instantly fell in love with the church but totally forgot where it was lol similarly, we found a stunning church near Dereham around the same time, it had a white grand piano in the nave, which we both made a beeline for and proceeded to play on it for the next hour or so, the acoustics in that place was unreal, and the sound that piano made has stayed witrh me all this time, yet neither of us can recall which church it was, now i say it was between dereham and north elmham, other half says it was closer to norwich but im buggered if we can find it, being a musician, i really want to get a sound sample of that piano in those surroundings to use in my music, and we took several drives last summer to look for it but we drew a blank every time. But today is our first day out looking for it this year, starting at swanton morely, wish us luck!

[@AlexTheHistoryGuy]

Hmm I'm not too sure about which church that could be - perhaps St Mary's of East Bilney? I know that has a piano inside.

[@lovelyskull3483]

Thank you.

[@AlexTheHistoryGuy]

Thank you :)

[@General_Confusion]

I recon old James would have been getting cheesed off with angels by the time he got to number Twenty Two.

[@AlexTheHistoryGuy]

I don't think he ever wanted to look at an angel again!

[@user-re2fl3sh2d]

Thanks. The interior curiously seems to lack the Anglo-Catholic High Church flourishes that clergymen of that era (c1850s) leaned to if of the antiquarian Gothic Revival bent. But of course the camera focused on the (gorgeous) carved angels so it's a little hard to get a balanced view as to whether the rest of the iside is as austere as the shot of the altar [without reredos you'll note] suggests. The outside on the whole is - to put it bluntly - over-fussy, unbalanced and verging on ugly: the spires and twin towers are way too elongated. They just look jarring. The Rev Elwood clearly had too much time on his hands with his architectural sketching...

[@AlexTheHistoryGuy]

Haha yes it is quite a jumble of seemingly random or loosely connected architectural styles - but as mentioned in the video, the creator was not a professional architect and built this purely on his own personal fancies which I think is pretty cool