ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH - SAHAM TONEY
Saham Toney is located one and a half miles north west of Watton and seven miles south of Swaffham. The area around Saham Toney had been settled long before records began, as the many archaeological finds bear witness.
Location and Early History
By the time the Normans came from France in 1066, there would have been an established Christian community settled on the south-facing slope to the north of the mere, which was to become part of the administrative centre for the management of the extensive Waylands belonging to the Crown. It is on this site where Hall House, the manor of the 'satellite' settlements controlled by the de Toeni dynasty out of nearby Necton, was located. The lane which skirts the mere to the west and north is to this day known as Pound Hill, taking its name from the pound in which goods and cattle would be held in lieu of unpaid dues.
In medieval times apparently there were two manors, the one mentioned above belonging to the de Toeni’s granted by King John in 1199 to Roger de Toeni who is depicted on the village sign, and the other a little further north-east of the church named Pages Manor where William de Saham lived; Bailiff to the de Toeni. Pound Hill and Pages Lane form part of the original boundary of the settlement. Possibly it was Roger de Toeni who started the building of the new church seen today.
Members of the de Toeni family had been on the crusades between 1191 and 1192. St. George was the patron Saint of the Crusade, and the fight with the dragon, which is depicted in the spandrels above the West door, is part of the St. George legend. The cross of St. George was adopted as a badge over the armour of many English soldiers in the fourteenth and later centuries. It is customary to fly the flag of St. George from the tower on the Saint's day, (23rd April), the supposed date of his torture and execution in the year A.D.303. The legitimate line of the de Toeni became extinct in 1299 and there is no memorial to the family in St. George's Church.
The patronage of the church had a somewhat chequered history of passing from royalty to St. Catherine's Abbey at Rouen in France, back into royal hands to another abbey, Hermonsworth, then to Richard II. In 1389 William-de-Wykeham was granted the patronage by the king. William was an ecclesiastic of no mean standing being made Lord High Chancellor by King Richard II in 1367-72, and 1389-91. He founded New College Oxford in 1380 and Winchester College in 1387. His coat of arms, formerly on the east wall of the chancel, is now resplendent over the doorway of the old rectory next door. Shortly before his death in 1404 the patronage and avowdson passed into the hands of New College Oxford in 1393. This accounts for the way in which St. George and Saham Toney have benefited from the quality of its rectors. There have been 50 incumbents here from 1313 up to 2000.
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