St Mary the Virgin Parish Church

Until modern housing development started in the late 1960s, Tasburgh's parish church stood isolated halfway between the houses and farms along Low Road and those around the junction of Church Road with the A140. It owes its location to the fact that the Anglo Saxons had built their settlement within the iron-age hill fort so in fact, far from being isolated, it was originally at the heart of the early village. Some have suggested that the first church on the site may have been destroyed when the great Danish or Viking army ravaged East Anglia in 869 and was later rebuilt in flint during the reign of King Cnut (1016 -35). Of that church only the tower and the adjoining parts of its west wall remain because in 1375 the nave was widened by its patron, Sir Adam de Clifton, but architectural fashions change and in 1445 Thomas Bumpstead, who was the Lord of the Manor, left monies for raising the walls of Tasburgh church and further funds for raising the chancel of Newton Flotman. The Gothic style tracery of the windows in Tasburgh's nave and Newton Flotman's chancel are very alike, suggesting a similar date and possibly even the same builder. Sixty years earlier Thomas' grandfather, John de Bumstede, had left money in his will to repair the church tower, so the upper section and parapet may have been added then. The oldest of the tower's six bells dates from 1593, with three others from the early 1600s, but the last one was only installed in 2010.

The roof would originally have been thatched but in 1532 Margaret Gambyll left money in her will "for ledyng the church" and 42 years later further funds were left to repair and relay the lead on the south side of the church but in 1670 the decision was taken to sell at least some of the lead to pay for other essential work and to replace it with tiles. It seems this only affected the chancel, the upkeep of which was the personal responsibility of the rector, because the local historian Francis Blomfield writing in the following century said that although the chancel was tiled the nave was still leaded. The church may well have needed repairs following the Civil War and the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 because Blomfield records that following the execution of Charles 1 the rector was removed from office and the Puritans were in charge. By 1746 the roof needed further repairs and the remaining lead was sold but the current roof is of more recent construction, having been totally replaced with a rather poor copy of the medieval hammer-beam style construction as part of a major restoration in the early 1900s, which was paid for by Sir Charles Harvey of Rainthorpe Hall. At about the same time the east window above the altar was enlarged to take the stained glass donated by Mrs Berney-Ficklin of Tasburgh Hall in memory of her parents and infant son. Other structural work paid for by Sir Charles included raising and rebuilding the chancel arch, the addition of the vestry in 1911 and later in 1920 the installation of the current organ which involved building an extension on the southern side of the chancel. The final addition to the fabric of the church was the church room beyond the vestry in 1978 in which Mr and Mrs Walton of Tasburgh Hall played a major role.

Internally, extensive changes have also been made over the last 500 years and almost none of the original furnishings now remain. Before the Protestant Reformation, it is likely that the walls would have been much more decorated and colourful than they are today and even two hundred years later Francis Blomfield was still able to refer to the church's stained glass. Unfortunately, that together with the altar rails and other fittings, were removed to Stratton St. Mary in the early 1800s, when the Rev. Burroughs was rector of both parishes, but the church still retained an 18th century gallery at the back of the nave, a three-decker pulpit, an ancient wooden font and some box-pews. However all those, together with the Elizabethan Communion Table, were either removed or replaced as part of the early 1900's restoration carried out by Sir Charles Harvey. When he died in 1926, much remained to be done and it was left to Henry Neville of Tasburgh Hall to finish the work in the late 1930s. That involved paving the chancel and eastern end of the nave, and importing the current 14th century font from the disused church of SS Simon and Jude in Norwich. Mr Neville also employed craftsmen from the village to replace or recreate many of the wooden furnishings with much of the material coming from items in storage at Norwich Cathedral. That work included the current altar and the screen or reredos behind it, the choir stalls and clergy reading desks, and a new low level chancel screen, incorporating some 14th century tracery, which has since been repositioned against the back wall.

When the chancel floor was paved, a number of tombs were covered over, including one with a brass which read "Under this Stone lieth the Body of Robert Meeke, who in his Life-time and after his Death for ever, gave liberally to the Poor of the Parish, he was buried the 26 of Aug. 1598", but one small brass memorial was repositioned on the floor in front of the altar. The inscription in Latin commemorates Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Thomas Baxter who died unmarried on 3rd June 1586, aged 16. The brass also displays the arms of the Baxter family which also appear on the nearby tomb of her father, which stands against the south wall of the chancel. The marble top came from the old altar, which had been replaced by a Communion Table, and recorded that Thomas Baxter had died in 1611 at the age of 75. He was responsible for the current form of Rainthorpe Hall as well as being Patron of the church which explains why his tomb was positioned in such a prominent place, despite the fact that the rector had recorded in the Register that Thomas Baxter was buried at night without his knowledge.

On the opposite wall of the chancel is a memorial to his successor at Rainthorpe, Thomas Newce and his wife Margaret, and in the adjoining window there is a small pane of glass depicting Thomas' father, William Newce and his two wives. The pane was presented to the church in 1960 by Mrs Rosemary Hastings of Rainthorpe Hall where it had been since Thomas' ownership. Nearby is a memorial to The Rev. Henry Preston who was rector for sixty years, dying in 1896 at the age of 92, and another to Major General Hammond Gwyn, eldest son of William Gwyn of Tasburgh Hall. On the wall at the back of the church other memorials can be found to owners of both Rainthorpe Hall and Tasburgh Hall, together with the arms of George III over the tower arch, and boards displaying the names of rectors and their patrons dating back to 1299. These boards must have been in place for over 250 years because the entry for Evan Bowen, appointed in 1754, refers to him as being "the current rector". Although a small area of medieval wall painting has been preserved in the chancel, the most striking of the wall decorations are the biblical texts dating from the 1800s, and perhaps the most unusual are the pair of stylised dolphins. This corner of the nave was the site of a small guild chapel which was abolished as part of the 16th century Protestant reforms. When Thomas Baxter's wife died in 1587 he used the space for her tomb and the dolphin crest was painted on the wall above it. After the tomb was removed as part of the works carried out in the early 1900s it was realised that behind the painting was a niche which had been plastered over, and the decision was taken to reopen it which is why the dolphin painting is now incomplete.

It is easy to say in general terms that church attendance has significantly declined both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the village population but there are some clear base-line figures available from 1851. For the first and only time, the government decided that in addition to the general census that year, there should be a religious census, with each place of worship of whatever denomination required to provide attendance figures. St. Mary's form was completed by the Rev. Henry Preston, and showed that on Sunday 30th March thirty people attended morning service with forty children at Sunday School, and there were 120 people at an afternoon service, again with 40 children at another Sunday School session. These are suspiciously round figures but even allowing for that and the possibility that some may have attended twice, the afternoon attendance alone represented one third of the village population at that time.

The census also asked about the total seating capacity and how many seats were reserved as opposed to being available for anyone to use. The answer was that there were 67 "free" seats with 126 being reserved e.g. for use by the clergy, the choir or prominent families in their box-pews referred to earlier. The figure also included 32 spaces reserved for children, and with that number allocated for Sunday School use it seems likely that 40 children represented its maximum capacity, so those attending the afternoon session may well have been different from the morning service. If correct that would increase the church attendance figure to over 40% of the population, and taking into account those attending the newly opened Primitive Methodist chapel the total religious attendance for the Parish would have been considerably higher than that.