The Boleyn grave in Salle Church

Salle is a village situated between Reepham and Cawston. Although it's a small village it has a huge magnificent medieval church, St. Paul and St. Mary Church. I have been to Salle many times because my friend and her family live just a walking distance to the church but I have never had a chance to have a proper visit to the church.  The village Salle is an ancestral home of the Boleyn family,  family of Anne Boleyn the most famous Queen of England who was the first queen who was publicly executed.😖😢

I'm not a historian and I won't go into English history here but personally, I like Anne Boleyn. She was interesting and even though she did get her head chopped off in the end, still I admire her ambitious and courage as a woman during the medieval time - she seemed such a badass 😁

So it was nice to visit a place in Norfolk that has something related to her. She was born in Blickling Hall not far from Salle and I wonder if she was baptised in this church as it was her family church - who knows. 

The rumour had it that her body was snatched from the tower of London by a masked man at night and put in a carriage which carried her to this church in Salle where she was buried in an unmarked grave near to her family's grave.  There is no evidence that it was true but it's still interesting, isn't it? 

So my mission that day was to find her "supposed to be her secret grave" which was something I had been wanting to do. I read it somewhere that this grave was a plain black marble slab next to her family's grave. I had it in my head that it would be outside in the churchyard. How stupid I was, I didn't realise at all that there were so many dead bodies buried underneath the church floor 😕😟😅

And I eventually found Jeffrey and Alice Boleyn's grave. They  were Anne's great grandfather. It was so touching. And that led me to find a simple plain black marble slab which the folklore believed it was Anne's

Then to another of the Boleyn family, Simon Boleyn's. Who was Simon Boleyn? I think he was Anne's uncle. To be honest, I'm glad I didn't study English history because I shall have to take a lot of  paracetamol before I graduate. 😅

All the same, I find it was touching that eventually I have done something I wanted to. Anne Boleyn is buried in the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula inside the Tower of London but to find something about her here in Norfolk is still thrilling. And poor Anne, although she has been dead for 490 years but she is still expected by people to appear here, there and everywhere especially during Halloween's 😂

Apart from finding the Boleyn's grave - I find the church most fascinating. I don't know much about churches but I love to reminiscing about what might happen in the past and who might be here in the past. For 600 years, many people for generations who I didn't know were once stood where I stood, they wore different clothes, lived different life-style. They had their worries, their happy moments, fell in love, raised their family and one day they were gone and now it was me standing there. One day I will be gone too. The idea didn't frighten me but gave me the sense of impermanent. 

Why doesn't impermanent bother me? Because it makes me appreciate more of what I have now knowing that one day it will be gone. I was there in Salle Church with Soba in the rucksack. When I left no one would ever know that my cat and I were there and to be honest no one would really care - not even me. But when I was there I enjoyed the moment and when I left it was the memory I kept.

Who would've thought that a sleepy village like Salle has such a magnificent church - it's beautiful and interesting. I'm glad I was there. My friend and her family are moving to Scotland soon and I won't have the reason to be visiting Salle anymore if she is not there. 😪😭Okay, this is a sad part of life, isn't it? We meet to part and perhaps we will meet again. who knows 😀

Visiting old church makes you feel philosophical, honestly. And when you think our time is precious because it's limited - we shouldn't spend it miserably. At least Soba won't - he is very independent and self contained. 😁 Thank you Soba to accompanying me to Salle Church whether you like it or not.