Blickling homilies

The Blickling Homilies is the name given to a collection of anonymous homilies from Anglo-Saxon England. They are written in Old English, and were written down at some point before the end of the tenth century, making them one of the oldest collections of sermons to survive from medieval England: 'the Vercelli Book and the Blickling Homilies ... are our two principal witnesses to the state of homiletic writing in English before the work of Ælfric appeared'. Their name derives from Blickling Hall in Norfolk, which once housed them; the manuscript is now Princeton, Scheide Library, MS 71.

The Homilies

The homilies in the collection deal primarily with Lent, with items for Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday and Holy Week, as well as homilies dealing with Rogation Days, Ascension Day and Pentecost. The rest of the homilies in the collection are saints’ feast days.

As numbered in the first edition of the homilies, by Richard Morris, the contents are:

Blickling

Coordinates: 52°48′35″N 1°13′53″E / 52.8096°N 1.2313°E / 52.8096; 1.2313

Blickling is a village and civil parish in the Broadland district of Norfolk, England, about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north-west of Aylsham on the B1354 road. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 136 and covers 862 hectares (2,130 acres). Since the 17th century the village has been concentrated in two areas, around the church and also at the park gates of Blickling Hall. Most of the village is contained in the Blickling Estate, which has been owned by the National Trust since 1940.

Historic buildings

The parish has many farmhouses, cottages and buildings, several of them are Grade II listed. This gives the parish an immense variety and also provides an unusually complete picture of vernacular Norfolk architecture.

Listed properties

St Andrew's Church is located on a knoll close to the entrance of Blickling Hall. The flint and limestone 15th century Grade II* church was substantially remodelled in the 19th century. Surviving from the medieval building is the collection of brasses, several are to the Boleyn family and Anne Boleyn. Sir Nicholas Dagworth (b.1390 an early owner of the hall) is buried in the church and marked by a tombstone. Also of note is the memorial to the eighth Marquis of Lothian by George Frederick Watts.