All Saints Church and Local Areas Fring Norfolk


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All Saints is one of those churches that sits ina stunning location and can be seen from the local countryside and from the peddars Way footpath. It feels like one of those Italian landscape painting where you see churches set in the landscapes, which is unheard of where I'm from in the bleak and lifeless Fens just 30 miles away.

The church dates to the 14th century and is decorated flint and stone dressing, but was restored in 1897 and had modern 19th-century roofs.

The west bell tower is 3 stage type and has large diagonal buttresses. The west window is lozenge-shaped with four petal flower tracery and seems unusual and is a first for me. The top half has 4 Y tracery windows and a brick parapet.

The church stands in rather small grounds. So my 10mm wide angle lens comes in handy here, it allows me to show as much as possible but if used wrong will cause those bendy converging verticals (brilliant if that's what you are looking for). I don't use software to fix every photo, so I have to come up with novel ways to help cut down those lens issues. One is to use foreground interest, placing the main subject higher up and forgetting about the rules. So an old headstone, path or whatever will suit the photo or compliment the main topic will work always.


Springtime is a colourful time of the year, and when the sunlight shines through those spring colours, it can make them pop. Where I'm from, The Fens, the most massive trees can mostly be found within or around the churches but will be missing from the countryside, where you find popular trees which are so unnatural looking and offers nothing for wildlife. The same goes for the wildflowers, when walking along the Peddars Way that's just across the field to the west f the church, you will see many kinds of wildflowers where the Fens has none, all killed by over farming and habitat loss.

I always find wondering around these lovely old places is a pleasant experience, no matter the conditions of the church or its grounds. Some people will find an overgrown churchyard a sad sight, but I see an opportunity for nature to feel safe from development and persecution. The grasses provide a home for insects, a home for mice and voles which feeds the owls which live in the trees nearby. When the moths come out to play at night, they feed and mate amongst the grass which feeds the bats that live in the church. Often you see rabbit which is food for the fox or Buzzard that fly overhead. So when you visit a church its looking down and out, take a closer look to see the amount of nature that's living there. Care must be taken towards the old graves and building but its a genuinely diverse world in a small space.

Heading out into the countryside, you have gentle rolling hills, and yes there are hills in Norfolk. Just enough to make a sprite levels bubble move haha. where you find natural woodlands and full of wildflowers which is a sight for sore Fenland eyes where that world is stuck in monochrome. The Peddars Way footpath runs across the fields just to the west of the church and this trail runs for 46 miles and starts from the Brecks somewhere in Norfolk through different types of countryside to the North Norfolk coast near Hunstanton.

I parked the car about one mile Fring Road here from the church, which for me is the perfect way to visit churches if I can. I get to see the surrounding countryside, taking in all the nature and to also clear my head from the horrors of driving cars. To hear the birds and bees, to see butterflies and rats! is a joy. Hearing hardly any cars and seeing just one person in 4 hours is heaven and it's why I do all these kinds of things, to escape the madness of the modern world.

As soon as you enter the path from the roadside, you enter into a world of hedgerows (something unseen in my local patch). The trail is full of nature, birds of all kinds and a good range of butterflies, from holly blues, commas, speckled woods, brimstones (in springtime) orange tips. They have such a wide range of wildflowers to feed on and of course, will be their traditional food plants. Moving on you have the small woodlands and will be one of the critical areas for wildlife. I have to rest often due to leg issues, so I like to watch the different types of creatures with these places, and they seem to be thriving with the help from local farmers with seed bins laid out, but sadly these bins are for game birds for those evil bird shoots at certain times of the year.

Well, Fring church and its local countryside is a beautiful place to visit. I highly recommend parking the car away and walking to the church if that's your kind of thing and walking the Peddars Way. I would love to walk the path its full length, but that will never happen until the hospital fixes my walking issues.

All Saints Church and Local Areas Fring Norfolk