Easter Sepulchre: St Mary, Kelling

The post-medieval raising of the chancel floor explains the 'sunken' base

Over the Easter weekend I decided to visit Kelling Church, north Norfolk, which seemed timely given one of the  treasures at St Mary's is this medieval Easter Sepulchre located in the north-east end of the chancel. 

A 'sepulchre' was, historically, a small room cut into rock, or built of stone, in which a dead person is laid or buried. The linguistic root comes from the Latin 'sepulcrum', meaning, 'burial place'. 

A cogent explanation of an Easter Sepulchre is provided in the glossary of Mortlock & Robert's, 'The Guide to Norfolk Churches:

'On the n. side of the chancel, a recess in the wall - ranging from the plain to the richly carved and canopied - housed the Easter Sepulchre (itself, normally a temporary structure of wood). On Maunday Thursday, a host [bread] was consecrated and placed in the Easter Sepulchre, to be consumed at the following day's Good Friday mass. This practice still continues in the Roman Catholic and some Anglican churches today, the host being 'borne in solemn Procession... to the altar of repose', to be processed back to the High Altar the following day. Until the Reformation, the sepulchre would be watched over from Good Friday to Easter Day and sometimes on Easter Monday, would be the setting for a dramatisation of the Resurrection. Most Sepulchres were disposed of during Elizabeth's reign, though in 1538, during the time of her father, Henry VIII, a list of 'superstitious lights' to be removed specifically excluded the light (i.e. a constantly burning candle) before the sepulchre.'

In their entry for Kelling, the authors describe this one as, 'well nigh-perfect example'. 

The Fallible Flaneur <*(((((><(