East Anglian Misericords

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The Misericords of East Anglian Churches.

This page list the churches with misericords on this website in the counties of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

With the exception of the single county of Yorkshire, the East Anglian region has the highest density of misericords in the UK, and by inference, the world. Why should this be? Although East Anglia, especially Norfolk and Suffolk are looked upon as sleepy backwaters, this was not always so, prior to the industrial revolution, they were a hive of industry. East Anglia produced some of the finest wool in Europe, and medieval England’s wealth was based on wool - to this day, the Lord Chancellor sits upon the “Woolsack”. With that to go on, you can see that there would have been a lot of wealthy land owners and merchants, and as a class they could sometimes be less than honest in their trading; this lead to fear about the afterlife - whilst there is no specific Commandment against lying, selling your mutton as lamb or anything else which would now come under the purview of the the Trading Standards act, they all knew the proverb about rich men, camels and the eye of a needle. The Great Suffolk churches were almost all built by the merchant class, but most churches with rich local land owners or congregations of merchants would have had chantries, a college of canons or at the very least a priest or two to sing masses for their souls, all of which required misericords.

Alpheton (St Peter and St Paul) Photos and Descriptions	One, defaced, 15th century misericord
Balsham (Holy Trinity) Photos Descriptions	Ten, early 15th century misericords
Bildeston (St Mary Magdalene) Photos Descriptions	Ten 15th century misericords
The Boston Stump (St Botolphs) Photos Descriptions	Sixty two, late 14th century misericords
Brundish (St Lawernce) Photos and Descriptions	One 15th century misericord
Cambridge (Jesus College) Photos Descriptions	19th century misericords created from earlier fragments
Cambridge (St John’s College) Photos Descriptions	Forty four, early 14th century misericords
Caston (Holy Cross) Photos and Descriptions	Two, 14th century misericords
Cawston (St Agnes) Photos and Descriptions	Three, 15th century misericords
Ely Cathedral Photos Descriptions	Eighty four, 16th century misericords
Framsden (St Mary) Photos Descriptions	Six, defaced, 14th century misericords
Godmanchester (St Mary) Photos Descriptions	Twenty, 15th century misericords
Great Eversden (St Mary) Photos and Descriptions	Two, 15th century misericords
Ipswich (St Mary-le-Tower) Photos Descriptions	Six, 15th century misericords
Kings Lynn Museum Photos and Descriptions	Four misericords on loan from the V&A
Kings Lynn (St Margaret's) Photos Descriptions	Sixteen, late 14th century misericords
Lavenham (St Peter and St Paul) Photos Descriptions	Five, 15th century misericords
Norton (St Andrew) Photos Descriptions	Eight, 14th century misericords
Norwich Cathedral Photos Descriptions	Sixty One, 15th, 16th and 19th century misericords
Norwich (St Gregory) Photos and Descriptions	Four, Early 15th century misericords
Orwell (St Andrew’s) Photos Descriptions	Eleven, 15th century misericords
Peterborough Cathedral Photos and Descriptions	Three, 14th century misericords
Salle (St Peter and St Paul) Photos Descriptions	Twenty six, 15th century misericords
Soham (St Andrew) Photos Descriptions	Nine, 15th century misericords
Stowlangtoft (St George) Photos Descriptions	Six, 14th century misericords
Sudbury (St Gregory) Photos Descriptions	Fourteen, 15th century misericords
Wingfield (St Andrew) Photos Descriptions	Fifteen, 15th century misericords