Norfolk: Bale, Parish Church of All Saints

The church has a fourteenth-century west tower with a niche that originally held a statue of the Virgin Mary; a fifteenth-century nave and north transept; and an early fourteenth-century chancel, which has a four-light east window with cusped tracery. The chancel did have three two-light windows on each side, but the north-east one is now blocked. ¹ Although the church is dedicated to All Saints, the evidence of the glass here speaks for a strong Marian devotion in the fifteenth century, particularly to the Annunciation. ² In 1938, the glass was releaded and rearranged by G. King & Son, and a description of the glass was published by Dennis King in 1940. ³

It is not now possible to say from which windows all the glass came. Two fourteenth-century prophets almost certainly were made for the side chancel windows, which would have furnished twelve lights for glazing. The prophets were probably part of a series of twelve, each with a prophecy, placed over twelve Apostles with Creed scrolls.

Part of a fifteenth-century series of Apostles with creed scrolls is also found here; a full series could have been accommodated in three nave windows (sV, sVI and nVIII) and the north window of the transept (nVI), although this rather unsymmetrical arrangement is unlikely and the possibility that some of the glass at Bale was brought from other locations cannot be discounted. ⁴

There were also at least five representations of the Annunciation here, all except one from tracery lights. The main-light Annunciation could have found a home in the transept, and the smaller figures may have occupied various tracery lights in the nave and transept. There are several references in wills to a light of the Blessed Virgin. ⁵ This was not at the high altar, and may have been in the transept, especially if this was used as a Lady Chapel (although there is no evidence for this). There are no antiquarian records for this church, but the extant small shields for Wilby may be connected to the Wilbys who, according to Blomefield and Parkin, were lords of the manor of Nugun’s or Noion’s in Bale in the reigns of Henry IV and Henry VIII, and presumably in between. ⁶ There are no historical indications of date, and the datings given here are based on style.