This is not a simple category; does one include chapels as well as the cathedral in Norwich, or churches with spirelets? And when does a spirelet turn into a spire? This little construction on top of the tower at Long Stratton church is definitely a spire in my estimation, but others would say it just a spirelet.
Genuine full-sized spires are rare in Norfolk; I leave out the grandest of them al, the spire of Norwich Cathedral. Of the others the spire of Snettisham church is the best example that I can bring to mind. Even the churches with littlw spirelets are rather thin on the ground.
Compare this with a random search of another county – say Northamptonshire. Here you are immediately resented with many examples of spires. This may be because the churches in Norfolk are largely medieval, but this can only be a partial explanation. Even if a spire did not come as naturally to the mind f a church architect in the middle ages as it might to a later practitioner, there was nothing to stop a spire being added to the earlier version.
SHIPDHAM CHURCH in South Norfolk has a charming spire. this is what the Norfolk Churches website has to say about it. “The late medieval tower is surmounted by a great wood and lead fleche, pointing to heaven. It is almost eastern in character, as if borrowed from a Russian orthodox church. I’ve read various conflicting dates for it, but I wondered if it might be a confection from the early 17th century, possibly to replace a spire that had fallen.“
The church of St Edmund, Downham Market had a spire, but it is not a impressive as that at snettisham nor as interesting as the one at Shipdam.
joemasonspage 