The enigmatic Church of Little Snoring, where RAF pilots prayed

The United Kingdom is a country full of very ancient and enigmatic places, and one of them is a church in the county of Norfolk.

The small church in the United Kingdom that pays tribute to the Polish airmen of the WW2
The Berlin 1939–1945 War Cemetery that honors 3,595 allied soldiers

This church is dedicated to Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, although it is located on the east coast of England, in a small village of 619 inhabitants known as Little Snoring. The origin of this church is a mystery, since it is so old that its construction date and who built it are unknown. It possibly dates from the Saxon period, although it also has typically Norman elements.

The church has a circular tower, a very common shape for churches in Norfolk, but with the peculiarity that the tower is separate from the rest of the church, something that is really strange. The website greatenglishchurches.co.uk notes the following about this tower: "its east face gives conclusive evidence that it was once a west tower integrated into the structure of a church in the normal way. So why on earth did someone demolish that church and build another parallel to the old one a few feet further uphill?"

The same source states the following about the possible origin of the church: "One theory is that the tower is all that remains of an Anglo-Saxon church that deemed to be too small or was destroyed in about 1100 and replaced by a Norman structure a little further uphill on a slightly shallower slope. The chancel arch is Early English from around 1250 so, the theory goes, this replaced a smaller Norman one. Another theory is that, bizarrely, there were two Norman churches here and the lower of the two was demolished leaving just its tower!"

Due to its very early construction period in the High Middle Ages and its later additions, Little Snoring Church offers curious aspects, including certain Middle Eastern influences, surely brought by English knights who traveled to the Holy Land during the Crusades. These influences are also observed in some Spanish churches from the Middle Ages, such as the Church of the Vera Cruz in Segovia.

The earliest mention of Little Snoring dates back to 1085 and appears in the Domesday Book, completed by order of the Norman king William I of England. Regarding the Crusader influences of this church, it should be noted that in that village there was a house of the Order of Saint Lazarus, a military and hospitaller order founded in 1098, during the First Crusade, and whose monks were especially known in medieval Christendom for their dedication to the care of lepers.

Another curious detail about the church is that it has vestiges of the Second World War, since there was once a Royal Air Force base, RAF Little Snoring, nearby. It housed Supermarine Spitfire fighters, Avro Lancaster bombers, and de Havilland Mosquito and Bristol Beaufighter fighter planes. The base was built in July 1943 and was closed in 1958. The site now houses a civilian airfield, which still preserves the old Watch Office building from the original base.

St. Andrew's Church still has panels on which RAF Little Snoring pilots recorded their victories against German aircraft. Inside the church, there is also a memorial that commemorates that this Anglican church was used as a place of worship by RAF pilots in 1944 and 1945, during the Second World War.

If you want to know more about this church and get to know it a little better, on July 28th the YouTube channel Written by the Victor published an interesting video showing it inside and out and talking about its history:

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Main image: Written by the Victor.