Church of St Peter

St Peter's Church at Forncett, in south Norfolk about ten miles south of Norwich, is one of the finest of the famous round-tower churches of East Anglia. Its Anglo-Saxon round tower, built around the year 1000, is considered one of the best of its kind in the country, and the church around it is a Grade I listed building of national importance, rich in medieval and later features. Now one of seven churches in the parish of Upper Tas Valley All Saints, and formerly the parish church of Forncett St Peter, it is an active place of worship with a long and fascinating history — including a connection with the family of the great poet William Wordsworth.

The history of worship at Forncett is very old. According to the Domesday Book of 1086, the estate of Forncett was held by Roger Bigod of Norfolk, and is recorded as having two churches — the present-day St Peter's and the nearby St Mary's — each a separate parish church. The Anglo-Saxon church of St Peter was simple in plan, consisting of a round tower, a nave and a chancel, and was quite large by the standards of its time, the chancel measuring some twenty feet square. The magnificent round tower, together with much of the fabric at the west end of the nave and in the chancel, dates from the eleventh century. Round towers like this are a special feature of East Anglia, where the lack of good local building stone led the Saxon and Norman builders to construct round rather than square towers from the flint that lay readily to hand — and Forncett's is among the very finest.

The church was much enlarged and embellished in the later Middle Ages. In the fourteenth century a three-bay clerestory was added and the roof raised, the chancel was extended, the chancel arch enlarged, and narrow aisles added on either side of the nave. In the later fifteenth century the aisles were widened, large windows in the Perpendicular style were inserted, and the south porch was added. The church preserves a wealth of historic features: the Drake tomb of 1485, a unique ancient staircase within the tower, carved medieval pew ends, fine ledger slabs in the chancel and nave, good examples of Victorian coloured glass, and a ring of six bells.

The church has a notable literary connection. From 1788 until 1794, Dorothy Wordsworth — the beloved sister and close companion of the poet William Wordsworth — lived at the rectory of Forncett with her uncle, the Reverend William Cookson, who was rector here. It was during these years at Forncett that Dorothy spent part of her early womanhood, before she went to live with her brother, and the rectory and church form part of the background to the early life of one of the most important figures in English literature.

In recent years St Peter's has faced the challenges that confront many ancient churches: it is on the Heritage at Risk Register, with a critical need for repair, and a community group, the Friends of St Peter's, was set up in 2019 to lead a major fund-raising campaign to secure the future of the building. Despite these challenges, it remains an active Anglican church in the Diocese of Norwich, cherished by its community and by all who value the round-tower churches of Norfolk.

The church stands in the village of Forncett St Peter, in the gentle countryside of the Tas Valley in south Norfolk. The city of Norwich, with its great Norman cathedral and medieval streets, lies about ten miles to the north, while the market towns of Diss, Wymondham and Long Stratton, the many other round-tower churches of Norfolk, and the wider rural landscapes of East Anglia are all within easy reach.

From its Anglo-Saxon round tower of around the year 1000, through the two churches recorded at Domesday, the medieval enlargements of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Drake tomb and the years when Dorothy Wordsworth lived at the rectory, St Peter's Church gathers more than a thousand years of Norfolk history into one building. A Grade I listed round-tower church in the Tas Valley, lovingly cared for by its Friends, it remains the living parish church of Forncett — one of the finest Anglo-Saxon survivals in the county of round-tower churches.