Description of Fincham

This description of Fincham is taken from an old guide book to Norfolk.

Fincham has a leisured air with its many old houses in a long street where ducks swim in the shade of a chestnut tree, opposite the fine church of St. Martin with its imposing tower. Once it had two churches not far apart, but the one dedicated to St. Michael fell into decay and was pulled down in 1744.

St. Martin's is mainly a rebuilding of 1450, but the porch is Victorian. Alternatively angels and demons adorn the hammerbeam roof of the nave, and old poppyheads are on new benches. The screen with fine pinnacles and tracery had diapered painting on the panels. On the screen are the arms of the Finchams, who were lords of the manor from King John to Queen Elizabeth I. Sir Nicholas, who died in 1503, is buried in the vestry he built, and John de Fincham, who died seven years earlier, has the east window of the south aisle as his memorial. Part of their old home survives in Fincham Hall at the east end of the village. One sees its north front from the road. The polygonal brick turret on the left is early tudor, the rest, stome-faced, is Elizabethan. Its original doorway, elaborate with pilasters and finials, is bricked up. It is to the left of the present entrance. Cotman's drawing of about 1818 shows the whole building in a dilapidated state.

At the west end of the village is Talbot manor where are the famous and delightful botanical gardens of Maurice Mason.

Now that the preservation of dialect is becoming of general interest the work of Robert Forby, vicar here from 1799 till his death in 1825, is being increasingly sought after. His Vocabulary of East Anglia published posthumously in 1830 was re-issued in 1970.

The great treasure of the church is the splendid font, its square Norman bowl carved with figures in three bold arches on each side. On the south is a Nativity; on the east are the three crowned kings with their gifts; on the north the Baptism of Our Lord with a bishop and John the Baptist; and on the west Adam and Eve, Eve plucking an apple from a tree. This remarkable font belonged to the lost St. Michaels church.

Fincham and the Finchams Welcome Page

Last updated 1st May, 1999