On the altar steps of St Mary’s, Fordham, in Norfolk, there are two remarkable objects that really shouldn’t be there.
These carved slabs of stone appear to be coffin lids. But how old are they, where have they come from, who was buried beneath them, and what messages do they communicate to the living?
The larger stone is beautifully decorated with an elaborately floriated cross. At one end, toothy wyverns are chewing on the intricate vine.
The other stone is much smaller. Could it have been for a child? Or did it once mark the burial of a heart or viscera?
Dr. Madeleine Gray investigates these mysterious memorials at Fordham.