St. Peter Mancroft Church (Norwich)
St. Peter Mancroft is one of the many mediaeval churches in the historic cathedral city of Norwich.
It is the largest church in the city, and is not surprisingly often mistaken for Norwich Cathedral. It was always the civic church, and used by the merchant guilds for services and meetings.
People often ask "Who was St. Peter Mancroft?" The answer is that there was never a St. Peter Mancroft. It is simply St. Peter's Church on the main croft, or main open space.
It was built in the Perpendicular style between 1430 and 1455. It has an impressive tower, and the rest of the church is well proportioned. The North and South porches are both vaulted.
There is a fine hammerbeam roof, held up by slender pillars.
The East window is superb, containing an array of Bibical scenes. One of these shows a woman trying to strangle a soldier who is impaling her baby. The window was blown out by an explosion during the Civil War, but enough pieces were collected to painstakingly almost entirely reassemble it.
In the North transept, the St. Nicholas chapel houses the Mancroft Heritage Exhibition.
St. Peter's tower has a famous peal of twelve bells. The bellringers are known as "scholars".