Parish Church Of All Saints

Parish Church of All Saints

A parish church of the 13th to 16th centuries with 19th-century restoration, built on the north side of Feering Street. The structure is constructed of flint and septaria rubble with red brick in English bond, with dressings of brick, clunch and limestone, and is roofed with handmade red plain tiles and lead.

The church comprises a nave of 12th or 13th-century origin, a chancel mainly of the early 14th century, a north aisle of the early 14th century, a west tower of the 15th century, a south wall and south porch of the early 16th century, and a north vestry of the 19th century.

The chancel contains an early 14th-century east window of three pointed lights with plain intersecting tracery in a two-centred head, with chamfered jambs and arch in two orders and a hollow-moulded rear-arch. The north wall, west of the vestry, is of roughly coursed rubble and possibly earlier than the main part. It contains two windows similar to the east window but of two lights, wholly restored externally, with the eastern window having a low sill forming a seat. Between them is a 19th-century doorway to the vestry. The south wall has two similar two-light windows and further west an early 14th-century doorway with chamfered jambs and two-centred arch, now blocked internally, with a hollow-chamfered rear-arch. Above it is a blocked early 16th-century window of brick with three four-centred lights in a four-centred head, partly restored. The chancel-arch is reported to be by Sir George Gilbert Scott (1845) and reproduces the original of around 1200. The chancel roof dates to 1960.

The nave has a north arcade of around 1330 comprising four bays with two-centred arches of two wave-moulded orders. The columns each have four attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases, and the responds have attached half-columns. The south wall is built or faced with early 16th-century brick and has a moulded plinth with panels of flint inlay and a crenellated parapet on a trefoiled corbel-table. It contains three early 16th-century brick windows: the easternmost is of four four-centred lights with plain tracery in a four-centred head with moulded label and chamfered rear-arch; the second window is similar but of two lights with tracery; the westernmost is similar but of five lights without tracery. Between the two western windows is the south doorway, which has a 19th-century external appearance but retains an early 16th-century four-centred rear-arch. The door itself is 14th-century, composed of seven radially cut and V-edged boards nailed to six rear battens which are dovetailed into the rim. It has two original strap-hinges with enlarged shoulders and incised chevron patterns, and one 19th-century reproduction. The stock-lock and bolt are later of uncertain date. The base of the door has been repaired in the 19th century.

The nave roof is of late 17th-century date, of butt-purlin construction in eight bays, with moulded wallplates decorated with arabesque and other ornament, and three straight tiebeams carved with lozenges and wheat-ears. The middle tiebeam has small pendants at the base of the principal rafters; the other principals have small brackets. Each truss has an arch-braced collar with two raking struts and moulded pendant. There are two chamfered butt-purlins in each roof pitch.

The north aisle contains three 14th-century windows in the north wall: the easternmost is of three pointed lights in a segmental-pointed head with moulded label and wave-moulded rear-arch; the two western windows are each of two trefoiled ogee lights with tracery in a two-centred head with moulded label, partly restored. Between them is the 14th-century north doorway with plain jambs and two-centred arch of two wave-moulded orders, above which is a gabled weathering with fleur-de-lys finial, indicating the former existence of a north porch. The west wall contains a window similar to the western window in the north wall, restored externally. In the middle of the north wall is a late 14th-century tomb recess with shafted jambs, moulded ogee arch, label and foliated finial, restored with cement.

The early 15th-century west tower comprises three stages with a moulded plinth, moulded bands between the stages, two diagonal buttresses, and a stair-turret in the north-east angle. The two-centred tower-arch is of three orders: one chamfered, one moulded, and one hollow-chamfered, with the inner two dying on to the square responds and the outer order continuous. North of it is the door to the stair with moulded jambs and two-centred arch. The west window is of two cinquefoiled lights with tracery in a two-centred head with moulded label (restored). Below it is a doorway with moulded jambs, two-centred arch and heavily weathered moulded label. The second stage has windows in the north, south and west walls, each of one trefoiled light in a square head with moulded label. The bell-chamber has in each wall a window of two cinquefoiled lights under a square head with moulded label, with the head of the west window restored. The stair is lit by three plain loops. The parapet is crenellated.

The south porch is of red brick with a diaper pattern of flared headers. It has a trefoiled corbel-table and crenellated parapet, crow-stepped at the south end and finished with crocketed pinnacles at the angles and a truncated pinnacle at the apex. The moulded plinth has trefoiled panels of flint-inlay. The outer archway has moulded upper jambs and a four-centred arch with double label (four-centred and square). Above it is a projection on moulded corbelling enclosing a niche with a four-centred head surmounted by three trefoiled panels with a stepped and moulded label. The side walls each have a window of three transomed and four-centred lights with moulded label. The roof has a brick vault with diagonal cross and intermediate ribs springing from moulded corbels; in the middle is a shield with a merchant's mark. Above the south doorway of the nave and below the vaulting is a four-centred and moulded wall-arch resting on splayed angles, each with two four-centred niches, and on a squinch across the north-west angle of the porch. The bench on each side of the porch is supported by two shallow three-centred arches of brick. The porch was restored in 1982 to 1983.

Fittings include two piscinae: one in the chancel with trefoiled head, moulded label and sexfoiled drain (early 14th century, restored), and one in the north side of the north arcade with wave-moulded jambs and two-centred arch with defaced cusped head and repaired octofoiled drain (14th century). In the south wall of the nave is a stoup with plain chamfered jambs and two-centred head, the basin destroyed, of uncertain date. The floor of the north aisle contains a 13th-century coffin-lid, a tapering slab with double hollow-chamfered jambs and cross with trefoiled ends in relief.

Memorials on the north wall of the chancel include a brass to Judith (Gaell), wife of Robert Aylett LL.D. (1623, inscription only); an oval stone tablet to Joseph Driffield (1781) and his widow Mary (1806); and a similar tablet to Elizabeth Driffield (1789), her infant daughter Mary Sophia (1780), and to Walter Wren Driffield (1828), friend of the painter John Constable. The floor of the nave contains diaper stone slabs inscribed E.D. 1798 and M.D. 1806, and another inscribed M.T. 1816, W.W.D. 1828 and E.K. 1826.

The tracery of the middle window of the north aisle retains 14th-century glass with foliated and tabernacle work in situ, with reset below it glass of various periods and national origins, including a 16th-century roundel of a crowned rose with initials E.R. Framed on the west wall of the nave is a lead sheet embossed "John Brewer, John Eley, churchwardens, 1802, Slyth plumber". Remounted on the 19th-century door to the stair turret are 15th-century incised strap hinges and an iron key-plate with protective flap of uncertain date.

The church contains eight bells, of which the sixth, seventh and eighth were recast by Miles Graye in 1624.