Four miles south-west of Cromer in Norfolk is the small village of Sustead. In 2009 we stopped off there to have a look at the parish church of St Peter and St Paul. The architecture of this building, like many in Eastern England, reflects the ongoing attempts of the parish to erect, embellish, extend and repair its most important structure. You can see work from the Saxon and Norman periods, from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, from the time of the Tudors and the Victorians. The piecemeal work of the roof (pantiles and plaintiles) and the walls (rubble, flint, render, bricks and cut stone) give it a "worked over" look that suggests enough money was rarely forthcoming. The vast majority of English church towers are rectangular. The tower at Sustead is one of 124 round towers in the county of Norfolk. The other examples are in Suffolk (38), Essex (6), Sussex (3), Cambridgeshire (2) and Berkshire (2).
photo © T. Boughen Camera: Olympus E-510 2009
