The ruin of St. Mary's church, Appleton

Image: © Adrian S Pye Taken: 3 Jun 2010

This is quite a picturesque ruin right next to the road. Most of the early round tower remains along with the nave arcades. The tower has much carstone in its construction, the nave a little less. It is possible, indeed very likely that the tower is Saxon but the nave about 2 centuries later. Now railed off but still accessible it contains the tomb of Agnes Paston (1479) who married into the local Paston family who had significant influence in the area. I have been unable to find out with certainty when the church became ruinous but I would hazard a guess at about 1700. About 50 yards to the south is a spring called ‘Holy Well’ said to have been used by pilgrims on their way to Walsingham. Although there is not much to see apart from the skeletal remains of a church it is worth a visit and easily accessible.

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