1200-1700
The present parish church was begun in 1320 and the tower and nave arcades and windows are in the decorated style (1290-1330). It is dedicated to St Remigius (438-533), the great Bishop of Rheims. Remigius de Hethersete, a priest who also participated in the building of Hingham Church, may have suggested the dedication in honour of his name-saint. The clerestory of the nave and the lovely north porch were added in the 15th Century.
Today's church dates from the fourteenth century with fifteenth-century additions. It is built of flints and local field stones with Caen stone dressings and the roof is of lead and slate.
The tower, built in four stages, supports a lead dressed steeple which is topped by a weathervane depicting a dove perched upon a coiled serpent and holding in its beak, loves-lies-bleeding. Chequered flushwork of dressed stone and flints around the plinth and buttress facings contrast with the field stones and small patches of brickwork of the tower walls. There are niches at the lower levels and a fourteenth-century west window with decorated tracery.
A clock faces the road, and below the battlements, on each face, are fourteenth-century two-light openings. Small quatrefoil openings provide daylight to the tower stairs ascending in the south west corner. A medieval door to the stairs gives access to eight bells cast between 1607 and 1904.
An attractive fifteenth-century porch on the north side is built with broken flints embellished with flushwork. It is entered through a perpendicular arch flanked by side shafts with salamander capitals and angels carved within spandrels.
Inside, the ribs of a fine vaulted ceiling supporting the priest room above spring from carved corbels. The nave, enhanced in the fifteenth century and restored in 1858 has two roof lines and a shallow clerestory. Both aisles have matching windows.
The north side is buttressed with dressed stone and flint while at the south, red brick replaces earlier work.
Around 1535, following Dissolution, the chancel fell into disrepair. Rebuilding took place in 1897 and at the same time transepts were formed by extending the aisles eastwards. Field stones and flint facings salvaged from the foundations of the nearby ruined hall were used in the rebuild. Diagonal buttresses support the corners. The east window dates from the fourteenth century. Gable crosses adorn the chancel and nave.
Inside, floral decoration and texts are painted above the arches of the arcades, tower and chancel. An early thirteenth century styled piscina with a marble colonette is in the chancel and another, with a trefoil head of fourteenth century origins, in the Lady Chapel.
The octagonal font with traceried bowl, now stands at the west end of the north aisle. The beautifully painted panels of the reredos depicting saints was the work of Sister Myra of All Hallows Convent, Ditchingham.
The Doomsday Village had become three manors or at least was part of three manors by the 13th Century. These became known as Hethersett Cromwells, Hethersett Hacons and Hethersett Woodhall. Cromwells was the chief manor and its manor house was probably in the meadows immediately to the south of Church Farm. Hacons and Woodhall sites are less certain and the lands of these manors lay in the neighbouring parishes as well as Hethersett.
Thickthorn seems to have had a separate hamlet with its own moated house near to the present Hall.
As the community grew during the 16th Century, the commons became especially important to those who had little other land. Hethersett with its open green, Lynch Green, would have had cottages and farm buildings around the edge. Lynch Green opened out westwards to the great common where Wymondham, Great Melton and Hethersett parishes met.
The most famous event in Hethersett's history took place in 1549 when Robert Kett and his men tore down John Flowerdew's hedges on Hethersett common. Kett's Oak is said to commemorate the spot where rebels gathered before marching to Mousehold Heath in Norwich.
After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, property here as elsewhere changed hands. Thus the manors of Hethersett, which had been settled on Thomas Flowerdew of London, merchant, after having been mortgaged to William Gostlin, were sold in 1678 to Captain John Aide of Horstead. The advowson had since 1639, been in the hands of the Gostlin family, and in 1670, Caius College, Cambridge, presented Mr. Thomas Church to the Rectory. Some indication of the character of the man.... May be inferred from an entry in Register Book No. 2... 1671 I came hither to reside in May, during the vacation of the living, and the time before the residence the burials and the christenings were unknown to me.
Today's church dates from the fourteenth century with fifteenth-century additions. It is built of flints and local field stones with Caen stone dressings and the roof is of lead and slate.
The tower, built in four stages, supports a lead dressed steeple which is topped by a weathervane depicting a dove perched upon a coiled serpent and holding in its beak, loves-lies-bleeding. Chequered flushwork of dressed stone and flints around the plinth and buttress facings contrast with the field stones and small patches of brickwork of the tower walls. There are niches at the lower levels and a fourteenth-century west window with decorated tracery.
A clock faces the road, and below the battlements, on each face, are fourteenth-century two-light openings. Small quatrefoil openings provide daylight to the tower stairs ascending in the south west corner. A medieval door to the stairs gives access to eight bells cast between 1607 and 1904.
An attractive fifteenth-century porch on the north side is built with broken flints embellished with flushwork. It is entered through a perpendicular arch flanked by side shafts with salamander capitals and angels carved within spandrels.
Inside, the ribs of a fine vaulted ceiling supporting the priest room above spring from carved corbels. The nave, enhanced in the fifteenth century and restored in 1858 has two roof lines and a shallow clerestory. Both aisles have matching windows.
The north side is buttressed with dressed stone and flint while at the south, red brick replaces earlier work.
Around 1535, following Dissolution, the chancel fell into disrepair. Rebuilding took place in 1897 and at the same time transepts were formed by extending the aisles eastwards. Field stones and flint facings salvaged from the foundations of the nearby ruined hall were used in the rebuild. Diagonal buttresses support the corners. The east window dates from the fourteenth century. Gable crosses adorn the chancel and nave.
Inside, floral decoration and texts are painted above the arches of the arcades, tower and chancel. An early thirteenth century styled piscina with a marble colonette is in the chancel and another, with a trefoil head of fourteenth century origins, in the Lady Chapel.
The octagonal font with traceried bowl, now stands at the west end of the north aisle. The beautifully painted panels of the reredos depicting saints was the work of Sister Myra of All Hallows Convent, Ditchingham.
The Doomsday Village had become three manors or at least was part of three manors by the 13th Century. These became known as Hethersett Cromwells, Hethersett Hacons and Hethersett Woodhall. Cromwells was the chief manor and its manor house was probably in the meadows immediately to the south of Church Farm. Hacons and Woodhall sites are less certain and the lands of these manors lay in the neighbouring parishes as well as Hethersett.
Thickthorn seems to have had a separate hamlet with its own moated house near to the present Hall.
As the community grew during the 16th Century, the commons became especially important to those who had little other land. Hethersett with its open green, Lynch Green, would have had cottages and farm buildings around the edge. Lynch Green opened out westwards to the great common where Wymondham, Great Melton and Hethersett parishes met.
The most famous event in Hethersett's history took place in 1549 when Robert Kett and his men tore down John Flowerdew's hedges on Hethersett common. Kett's Oak is said to commemorate the spot where rebels gathered before marching to Mousehold Heath in Norwich.
After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, property here as elsewhere changed hands. Thus the manors of Hethersett, which had been settled on Thomas Flowerdew of London, merchant, after having been mortgaged to William Gostlin, were sold in 1678 to Captain John Aide of Horstead. The advowson had since 1639, been in the hands of the Gostlin family, and in 1670, Caius College, Cambridge, presented Mr. Thomas Church to the Rectory. Some indication of the character of the man.... May be inferred from an entry in Register Book No. 2... 1671 I came hither to reside in May, during the vacation of the living, and the time before the residence the burials and the christenings were unknown to me.