Harpley, Norfolk - St Lawrence: A C15th arch-braced roof, with shallow-relief angels adorning the apex or ridge beam of the roof against a backing plate. This is the only example of this design type in Norfolk.
Harpley, Norfolk - St Lawrence: A C15th demi-angel on the wall plate.
Hockwold, Norfolk - St Peter: Hockwold's angel roof alternates arch-braced tie-beams with hammer beams, the hammers carved into the shape of angels. This is the same structural form as at Methwold, which is close by. Birkin Haward has suggested that the design of horizontal angels carved into the hammers occurs mainly before 1450 (e.g. Westminster Hall, late 1390's; St Nicholas, Kings Lynn, ca. 1410; Wymondham, ca. 1440; and Ely Cathedral, 1430-40).
According to Mortlock & Roberts, the roof at Hockwold was restored by the Friends of Friendless Churches.
Hockwold, Norfolk - St Peter: One of Hockwold's C15th roof angels. The carving is rough and ready (note the disproportionate size of the hands) but charming. While Hockwold and Methwold share the same roof structure (alternating arch-braced tie-beams and hammerbeams) they are the work of very different craftsmen.
Holme Hale, Norfolk - St Andrew: Detail of one of the C15th roof angels. The head and wings have been restored, and very well. The torso is original. The roof structure is one of alternating arch-braces and hammerbeams, the hammers carved into angels. This might date the roof to before 1450 (see entries under Hockwold, above).
Holme Hale, Norfolk - St Andrew: Detail of a restored angel wing, nicely done. The crispness of the cuts and the darkness of the wood show that the wing is not Medieval.
Holme Hale, Norfolk - St Andrew: C15th roof angel; the body is original, the head and wings are replacements.
King's Lynn, Norfolk - St Nicholas: A spectacular arch-braced, tie-beam roof, with projecting angels between the tie-beams. The roof is believed to date from 1405-9, which would make it the earliest angel roof in Norfolk. Vast and exploding with light, St Nicholas, which is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, is a magnificent creation.
King's Lynn, Norfolk - St Nicholas: An arch-brace, tie-beam angel roof, likely to date from the the very early C15th (1405-1410?). An angel in the ceilure, or canopy of honour (the roof section nearest to the altar) bears a Bible.
King's Lynn, Norfolk - St Nicholas: A close-up of one of the roof angels, holding a psaltery. The angels at St Nicholas carry musical instruments (one plays the earliest known representation of a recorder, apparently restored), Bibles, and the instruments of the Passion. The iron spike driven through the angel's left eye is part of an unsympathetic attempt to secure the structure.
King's Lynn, Norfolk - St Nicholas: A roof angel holding the hammer and nails of the Crucifixion, instruments of the Passion.
King's Lynn, Norfolk - St Nicholas: A C15th roof angel carries a timbre, or tambourine.
Knapton, Norfolk - SS Peter and Paul: A double-hammer beam, massed angel roof, dating from 1504, which is late in the era of angel roofs. 70ft long and over 30 ft wide, the roof was endowed by John Smithe, Rector from 1471-1518 (according to Mortlock and Roberts). 138 angels adorn the roof beams, the lower ones probably restored. It has been suggested that this angel roof was brought in to Knapton in North Norfolk by water, from an Ipswich master's workshop. Massed angel roofs of this kind are about overwhelming dramatic effect, rather than the delicacy of the individual angel carvings. The total roof structure, and the intricate carpentry is amazing; the angels themselves are (I think) quite dull. For comparison, see Swaffham church in Norfolk and St Wendreda's at March in Cambridgeshire. Roofs of this type major on structure and volume, not individual sculpture.
Knapton, Norfolk - SS Peter and Paul: One of the 138 roof angels, probably restored, from one of the lower hammerbeams.
Methwold, Norfolk - St George: A C15th arch-braced and hammerbeam roof. Only five angels remain here, their wings reduced to stubs by decay or iconoclasm, but they are exquisitely carved, and perhaps the finest roof angel sculptures in Norfolk. Here a female angel bears a crown. She is reminiscent of a pair of crown-bearing female angels in St Mary's, Bury St Edmunds, which it has been suggested represent Margaret of Anjou, betrothed to Henry VI in 1444, and crowned as his queen in 1445. Whoever the Methwold carver was, he was a master. The pliancy of the faces, the crispness of the hair and the delicacy of the hands in this and the following two photographs are remarkable.
Methwold, Norfolk - St George: One of five surviving C15th roof angels here bears the crown of thorns, a symbol of Christ's Passion. The angel's wings are now only stubs, whether from decay or religious vandalism, but some of the thorn points in the crown still remain, set in place by an unknown hand in the 1400s.
Methwold, Norfolk - St George: Another of Methwold's five remaining roof angel holds the nails and in his right hand the hammer of the Crucifixion (now lost).