St. Michael the Archangel's Church, Booton

Booton is a small village between Reepham and Cawston to the north of Norwich. Its population stood at 196 in the 2011 census and, for the most part, it is a fairly typical rural English village with a few houses and farm buildings interrupting the sprawling expanse of arable crop fields. It is charming and peaceful and the flat landscape affords panoramic views in all directions. As you scan the horizon, you may be surprised as I was, to spot an extravagantly ornamented church looming there.

Having made its bold announcement the building invites a closer look so we made our way over on a footpath across a wheat field. The church is slightly obscured by trees so as we rounded those trees for a proper look it was quite a revelation. The two towers and central minaret look like they would be more at home in Westminster than this sleepy Norfolk village.

As you enter the gate, the blackened, winged figure of St. Michael the Archangel regards you gravely from his plinth with his sword slightly unsheathed as a challenge to anyone with mischief in mind. I gulped and decided against another toffee bonbon since I couldn't be sure what his policy on sweets was.

The flamboyance and attention to detail are in evidence all around the church. Our visit was too late in the day to enter - the doors had been locked half an hour earlier. I was eager to know the story behind this building that appears so incongruous in its setting and to learn if the contents are as ambitious as the exterior.

The Churches Conservation Trust who now manage the church answered some of my questions and introduced the principal character in this story:

This amazingly decorative and extraordinary church was the creation of one man - eccentric clergyman Reverend Whitwell Elwin - a descendant of Pocahontas. A friend of Charles Darwin, Elwin not only raised the funds for the building, he also designed it - without the help of an architect - borrowing details from other churches throughout the country.

The rich description at the excellent Norfolk Churches also describes the architectural influences and includes an extensive collection of beautiful photos. Looking at the photos we can see that the church is no less grand within. The stained glass windows are particularly remarkable. There is also more to learn about Rev. Whitwell Elwin:

He was a nationally noted man of letters, the editor of the High Tory Quarterly Review, and a regular commentator and correspondent in the London press. It is said that the Booton postbox was installed by the Post Office specifically to meet his personal letter-posting needs. Over the course of about 25 years, he turned Booton parish church from a homely medieval building into a fantastic palace

Coming back to those stained glass windows:

He was, rather, an individualist, an English Eccentric, who used as models for the angels in the windows his many intimate young female friends, his 'blessed girls', as he called them. With two of them, he toured the cathedrals of England looking for architectural forms to use; one of them contributed, over the course of ten years, almost £300,000 to the project, about six million pounds in today's money. Meanwhile, his evangelically-minded wife kept the rectory, which he himself designed, devoid of carpets and curtains.

It seems that Elwin was a man of influence, imagination and ambition. To have brought to life his interpretation of Glastonbury Abbey with features paying homage to other churches across England all in tiny Booton he must have had vaulting ambition. But he was also a privileged philanderer who nevertheless leant on others to fund his lavish lifestyle. Of course with all the oversight that we have in place in our enlightened age of equality we simply don't see today's authority figures abusing their power in this way. Imagine the furore!

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Its a bit raucous as a soundtrack for a blog about a church but I can't resist including Temple of Love by the Sisters of Mercy as the footnote to this entry.