Lammas, Norfolk - Places of Worship

Places of Worship

The village church is dedicated to St. Andrew. Much restored in the 19th century, the church nevertheless still displays some traces of Anglo-Saxon work in the walls of the nave. The chancel slants away from the nave, probably due to the marshy nature of the riverside site. Inside, there is a finely-painted organ decorated with images of St. George and St. Michael. Two RAF standards hang in the chancel. A late nineteenth-century writer reports that, prior to the restoration, the old church possessed some fine medieval figurative stained-glass, but that this had vanished during the restoration. Today, the church possesses a ring of five bells, and the ringing chamber was extensively restored by Peggy Anne Williamson of Lammas Hall, a former tower Captain. The writer Anna Sewell is buried in the graveyard of the old Quaker Meeting-House on The Street. The meeting house itself has now been converted into a house, but Anna Sewell's gravestone is set in a wall fronting the Street. The other stones commemorate local benefactors John Wright and Phillip Sewell, of Dudwick Park, Buxton. The burial ground was partially destroyed in 1984, when a large part was bulldozed without permission.

In the 19th century, Lammas had a small Particular Baptist Chapel, but this has long since vanished. Calvinistic Baptist John Grace, minister of Tabernacle Chapel, Brighton preached here in 1856.

The Rector of Lammas from 1738 to 1754, the Reverend William Lubbock, was the ancestor of the Lubbock family, Lords Avebury.

One of the former Rectors of the Parish is named simply as 'Roger' on the board in the Church. Local legend says this is because he murdered a man shortly after he had been inducted to the benefice and fled. It is said that the man's body still lies under the Church porch.

The current incumbent is the Revd Dr Peter Hansell, who was instituted as Rector of the Bure Valley Benefice in September 2010.