Norfolk Deserted Villages
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St Wrandregesilius, Bixley
A congregation
Of nettles now reclaim your
Broken, burnt-out frame.
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Godwick
No villagers now; Only sheep moving like clouds
Over the earthworks.
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Shipden
Out there under the
Waves - with your cottages and
Sunken church tower.
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Little Hautbois
That sense of something
Vanished - like ghost-light fleeing
In the Bure's mirror. |
Stanford
Church Stranded now in the
Battle Zone - with your old graves
And your blast proof roof.
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Stanford
Among the shelling
And machine gun fire lie
Your unquiet dead.
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Tottington You
came back to life
As a training ground for street
Fighters and snipers.
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Eccles-on-Sea
Impermanent still:
Beach chalets and caravans
Wait to be reclaimed. |
St Felix, Babingley
Suffocated by
Ivy - your vital signs grow
Weaker and weaker.
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Holkham You were
excluded
Permanently by Coke's
Six mile long wall. |
Shotesham Two
churches ruined; One church abandoned; one church
Alive on its hill.
|
Oxnead Sir Clement
Paston:
Outstretched and frozen now
In alabaster. |
St Edmund, Egmere
They stripped out the bells
From your tower and pulled down
Your nave and chancel. |
Sturston Your
broken, sandy
Land reverted finally
To rabbit warrens.
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Little Waxham
Rising out of the
Sea - the ghost voices of the
Old, dead villagers. |
Ashby and Oby Are
gone now - like the
Horn-helmeted Norsemen who
Seeded your place names. |
St Theobald, Great
Hautbois The Victorians
Removed your roof and let in
The beautiful light.
|
Frenze John Paston
said that
'Raff Blaundrehassett wer a
Name to styrte an hare'. |
St Mary, Cranwich
Inside, the plain white
Plasterwork. Outside, the old
Circular graveyard.
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St Mary, Fishley
Seemingly dropped from
Heaven in fields between
Acle and Upton.
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Leziate, Bawsey, Mintlyn
Your land was enclosed
And turned into pasture for
Thomas Thursby's sheep.
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All Saints, Waterden
At the apex of
Your tiled roof - they built a
Small, wooden bell-cote. |
Heckingham
Out beyond Loddon Where occasional cars pass
Bound for the ferry. |
East Somerton
No hymns; no sermons; No voice of God;
only the Unbroken silence.
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St Michael,
Braydeston
Ages ago - you Ran aground
on this island In a sea of fields.
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Markshall
Even the ancient Meandering River Tas Has
forgotten you. |
The Parishioners of
Wolterton
When Walpole rebuilt The
hall - you were removed and Never allowed back.
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Bowthorpe
You lie under the Roads and houses of Chapel
Break and Clover Hill. |
St Andrew,
Bickerston
You have slipped into A
coma now; your heart-beat Imperceptible.
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Pudding Norton
Your name means the place Of dirty water
by the Northern
enclosure.
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West Harling
Thomas Nashe never Forgot the 'fearefull
croking cry' Of the ravens here.
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