St Mary’s, Whissonsett
Open daily dawn to dusk.This delightful church is prettily placed set back from the road in its large churchyard. The long path gives the visitor plenty of time to admire the exterior architecture. The 14th century tower was crowned in the 15th century by a fine flushwork parapet featuring shields and pinnacles. Step into the spacious, wide nave and admire the lovely set of kneelers depicting aspects of Whissonsett village life. In the 1870s the chancel was restored and a north vestry and organ chamber added. Notice the fleur-de-lys in the east window representing the Trinity. The west window contains medieval glass. Look up at the lion at the very top and the shield of King Edward III (1327-1377) in the top left corner. In the south east corner of the nave is a precious relic from the 11th century, the head of a Saxon wheel cross. This was found in the churchyard in the early 1900s and was probably part of a preaching cross before a church was built here. Whissonsett is best known for the famous brothers, Lt Colonel Derick Seagrim V.C. and Major Hugh Seagrim G.C. They were sons of the Rector. Derick was killed in 1943 during the Western Desert Campaign in Tunisia. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for leading an attack on two machine gun posts and accounting for 20 of the enemy personally. He died of wounds sustained in a subsequent attack. His brother Hugh served in Burma and raised guerrilla forces from the local Karen people to carry out sabotage missions against the Japanese. Following a run of success, the Japanese tortured and killed over 200 Karen people which prompted Hugh to turn himself over. He was executed in 1944.
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