Home page for St Mary's Church Houghton-on-the-Hill

Can You Spare a Couple of Hours?

St Mary’s church is looking to expand our friendlyteam of guides as we move to the busy summer visitor season. St Mary’s team of guides were nationally praised for their welcoming and knowledgeable reception to visitors, becoming runnersup in last year’s National Churches Trust’s “Open for Visitors” awards.
The church is open to visitors every day from 2 to 4 pm. So, if you have a couple of hours to spare each week, or even less frequently, to offer our visitors please contact jwhigham@btinternet.com You will be fully trained about the history of the church and its internationally important wall paintings.
We look forward to hearing from you.

What People Say...

Thank you for a wonderful afternoon. It was so exciting driving up the lane to the church and then finding so much more than I expected in this beautiful, isolated location. And I was expecting much from reading about the early rarity of these wall paintings! What an unusual churchyard, and then so peaceful to walk into the wilder area and find the bench overlooking the fields. Kate, our guide, conjured up the nearby village that existed up until the 1930s and then explained the alterations to the church that had taken place over the last 1000 years - visibly evidenced in the brickwork and the uncovered foundation stones outside. Although the revealing of the Saxon wall paintings is partial, (respecting the layers that came after), is sometimes faint, sometimes therefore speculative, what can be seen is this explosive, and much larger than I'd imagined...- just wonderful!

Michele Witting

Today it's one of the most important churches in East Anglia, attracting visitors and academics from all over the world, but it was only discovered by chance during a WI walk over 27 years ago

KL Magazine August 2019

Beautiful! Such a special place.

visitor from USA

The most wonderful feeling in this church. Long may it flourish!

visitor from Suffolk

What a privilege to be here and have such a lovely guided tour. Very special. Thank you!

visitor from Wiltshire

A truly wonderful peaceful church steeped in so much history. Renovation is second to none and was brought to life totally by very knowledgeable and interesting guide.

visitor from Swaffham

A fascinating place thanks to one man's devotion

visitor from Pontefract

Revealed in the 1990s during the repair of a semi-derelict, ivy-strewn church in Norfolk, the paintings at Houghton on the Hill, near South Pickenham, are the most extensive scheme of early wall paintings to have survived

Medieval Wall Paintings by Roger Rosewell

As with the architectural fabric, there is evidence of an Anglo-Saxon hand in the paintings on the east wall. Most obvious, perhaps, is the quatrefoil, on the Father's knee. The quatrefoil is a rarity in Romanesque art, but a common feature in pre-conquest England.

Munns – Cross and Culture

The paintings … have caused ripples of excitement in art-historical circles, due to their exceptionally early date and extremely rare subject matter.

Park & Heywood

Well worth a visit and lovely walking area as well

Stvngbbns Gibbons

Fantastic and historical place. The trustees are very knowledgeable and interesting

Paul Hunt

Stunning little church with amazing voluntary local guides. Every time I have visited there is always someone waiting for visitors and I'm always astonished at how many people turn up. The murals on all the wall are said to the be the oldest in Europe - it is fascinating to see what the church may have been like hundreds of years ago. The church itself has many different build and roof levels/wall changes/window changes and so on - Roman, Saxon, Medieval... and the stories that go with it are captivating. It really is worth seeking out and making a visit. I love it here.

Tamasine Smith

"Whoever you are who has made such an oasis in the middle of nowhere, may God truly bless you. Such a haven of peace that only He can give. Thank you"

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