Thurgarton

The poet George barker used to visit the church here and it provided the inspiration for one of his finest later poems At Thurgarton Church. The church, which stands at a crossroads has a thatched roof, but no tower. Barker lived at nearby Itteringham with his novelist wife Elspeth Barker.

Thurgarton Church

George Barker

The poem is addressed to his father and concerns Barker's sense of sin and his fear of Judgement day. Here are the first three verses of the poem:
 

I could compare it with
the Norse longboats that bore
burning the body forth
in honour from the shore
of great fjords long ago.

The sky is red and cold
overhead, and three small
sturdy trees keep a hold
on the world and the stone wall
that encloses the dead below.

Read complete poem
 

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All Saints Church