IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Broadmoor Road, THETFORD, IP25 6SZ

In the time of Henry II, Maud, countess of Clare, gave the church of St. Peter, Great Carbrooke, and of St. John Baptist, Little Carbrooke, to the Knights Hospitallers.

Through Carbrooke

On Church Street.

The group is kept on a pasture all to their own; they have just noticed, and are watching with great interest, the farmer's car driving into their pasture.

In > Image The church of St Peter & St Paul stands on an elevation in the village of Carbrooke (its 99 feet/30 metres high tower can be seen for many miles), adjacent to a pasture where the Carbrooke Commandery once stood Image; here the Knights Hospitallers collected alms for pilgrims to Jerusalem and the military duties that arose from their care and shelter. The church houses East Anglia's oldest identifiable coffin slabs, both bearing the cross marks of the Knights Templar, and presumed to mark the graves of Mathilda, the widow of Roger, Earl of Clare, who founded the Commandery in about 1193, and their son James > Image They date from the early 13th century. According to the church guide, the Latin inscription says: "Here lies buried a mother of the family of Clare by a soldier of which (family) England boasts herself renowned" and "A son rests interred at the right hand of his mother. Returning to his own birth he has sought this harbour"

This is a grand 15th c. church: the north porch has a parvise and a south porch as well as a west doorway beneath the lofty tower which is worthy of close examination. A flushwork base course runs all the way around the building. A 14th c. ogee south doorway is also unusual to find. A five window clerestory casts plenty of light onto the arch-braced false hammerbeam nave roof with its angels and carved flowers at each intersection. The 14th c. octagonal font has geometric decoration. The benches all have charming animal carvings on their ends, some of which are renewed. The only piscina is in the chapel of the south aisle and the sedilia in the chancel seats only two. On the altar is a mediaeval stone mensa. Hanoverian Arms and an ancient parish chest are on display and more. All very interesting.

The church of St Peter & St Paul stands on an elevation in the village of Carbrooke (its 99 feet/30 metres high tower can be seen for many miles), adjacent to a pasture where the Carbrooke Commandery once stood Image; here the Knights Hospitallers collected alms for pilgrims to Jerusalem and the military duties that arose from their care and shelter. The church houses East Anglia's oldest identifiable coffin slabs, both bearing the cross marks of the Knights Templar, and presumed to mark the graves of Mathilda, the widow of Roger, Earl of Clare, who founded the Commandery in about 1193, and their son James (seen here at bottom of picture). See also > Image The north porch has been blocked; the entrance into the church leads through the ogee-arched south doorway. The hammerbeam roof with figures of angels dates from the 15th century as does the (restored) rood screen. A medieval altar stone with five consecration crosses, one in each corner and one in its centre, forms the altar in the north aisle > Image A memorial commemorating a former rector's daughter (died in 1932) can be seen on the east wall. The church is kept locked. For more information see: http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/carbrooke/carbrooke.htm