| Babingley | |
The ruin of St Felix Church |
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Babingley
Babingley shown within Norfolk |
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| OS grid reference | TF607253 |
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| Shire county | Norfolk |
| Region | East |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Police | Norfolk |
| Fire | Norfolk |
| Ambulance | East of England |
| EU Parliament | East of England |
| List of places: UK • England • Norfolk | |
Babingley is one of Norfolk's lost villages. This small parish was located on the western side of the A149, 1 mile north-west of Castle Rising, and 5½ miles north-north-east of King's Lynn. Today, the village of Babingley is constituted by several houses on the A149 - the King's Lynn to Hunstanton road - and Hall Farm. Saint Felix church stands on the farmland.
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It is claimed that Babingley was the landfall of St Felix the Burgundian, who converted the East Angles. Felix was invited by the Wuffings, the East Anglian royal family, to evangelise their kingdom—although Babingley is about as far as it is possible to be in East Anglia from the former royal capital at Rendlesham. St Felix is said to have arrived in Babingley around AD 615 via the River Babingley after taking shelter from a violent storm, and made his way to Canterbury where he was ordained as a bishop around 630[1] by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Honorius, at the request of King Sigebert of East Anglia.[2] St Felix made his cathedral on the other side of the kingdom at Dummoc, the modern Walton.
The ruins of Babingley’s church stand in the meadows close to the river. It is said to be the first Christian Church erected in the county. This remote ruin, now part of the nearby Sandringham estate, was still a working church in the early 19th century. Indeed, there are records of an attempt to repair it as recently as 1849, according to Nikolaus Pevsner. However, the introduction of the mission church on the main road in 1880 led to its final demise, and it was abandoned. Derelicted by having its roof removed, it declined very quickly, and what remains today apart from the sturdy 14th-century tower is just an empty shell, but there is one fascinating detail. Curiously, the chancel arch was blocked and has a window set in it. Despite the suggestion that the chancel was blocked off and used for other purposes, it is far more likely that it was simply abandoned in a move to decrease the church's size in response to its dwindling population, which also explains why the north aisle suffered a similar fate; the south aisle still survives. There is a substantial Tudor brick porch, which must have been a fine one. Like several ruined churches in the area, St Felix was captured in an atmospheric painting by John Piper in the early 1980s. Since then, ivy has virtually swamped the entire site. It is hoped that this could be cleared in the near future, not least as the church is Grade 1 Listed.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Babingley Babingley] at Wikimedia Commons