Introduction

The Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey is a volunteer led community archaeology project that is undertaking a systematic graffiti survey of the county's surviving medieval churches. The pilot project, which ran from January 2010 to June 2012, undertook detailed surveys of the first 10% of Norfolk's 650+ medieval churches and carried out initial surveys at an additional 40 sites.

Established to discover and record examples of this little known resource, the survey has already achieved some noted success. Of the 65 churches surveyed during the pilot project, over 80% were discovered to contain significant pre-reformation graffiti inscriptions.

The Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey is changing the way we look at the very fabric of our historic church buildings. Where instances of medieval graffiti were originally thought to be relatively rare within the county, the survey has now established that the phenomena are far more common and tell us a great deal about the people who once lived and worshipped there.