Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a medieval parish church with a nave dating from around 1100. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 14th century, when a north vestry was also added. The west tower is largely 14th-century, but was rebuilt, probably after a collapse, in 1586. The church underwent restoration by J Clarke in 1867, which included rebuilding the south porch, with further work on the tower in 1883-4 by F Chancellor, who also extended the north vestry in 1887. A large north parish rooms complex was built in 1979 by Bryan Thomas and Partners and further extended in 1988.

Materials and Construction

The church is built of flint rubble with stone dressings. Late 16th-century and 19th-century brick is used in the tower, and 20th-century brick in the north extension. The south porch is timber framed. The roofs are tiled and slated.

Layout

The building comprises a chancel with north vestry, nave with south porch, and west tower, together with the north parish rooms complex.

Exterior

The early 14th-century chancel has a three-light east window with reticulated tracery and a hood mould with head stops; above it is a small, square-headed opening. The chancel south wall contains three 14th-century windows, all of two lights, with different flowing tracery patterns. The westernmost is a low-side window with a dropped sill and transom. There is also a 14th-century priest's door with head stops. The chancel north wall has a 14th-century two-light window with an ogee head, and next to it a lean-to vestry, medieval in origin and greatly extended in the 19th century.

The north side is dominated by the very large, late 20th-century red brick parish rooms complex, but the nave north wall still retains medieval windows, more clearly visible internally, including a small light of around 1100. The south nave wall has a 14th-century-style window and two heavily restored 15th-century windows with square heads. The remains of a blocked window of around 1100 are also visible behind the south porch. The 19th-century porch is timber framed and has stained glass windows with figures on the sides.

The three-stage west tower is partly flint rubble but was substantially rebuilt in brick in the late 16th century and again in the 19th century. It has large, 19th-century brick buttresses, a 19th-century polygonal brick stair turret, and an entirely restored embattled brick parapet. The west window is 19th-century; there are narrow lights in the second stage, and 16th-century three-light brick windows in the upper stage. A restored inscription on the south side reads 'Prayse God for al the Good Benefectors Ano 1586'.

Interior

The interior is plastered and painted. There is no chancel arch, but the division between nave and chancel is marked by a narrowing of the structure and change in roof form. The westernmost truss of the chancel roof has cusping; below it is a tie beam and a 15th-century screen. The door to the former rood stair, and part of the stair, survive in the chancel south wall. The 14th-century chancel windows have elaborate moulded and shafted rerearches and labels with head stops. The sill of the chancel south-east window is dropped and has 17th-century panelling around the lower part. There is a recess, probably for a locker or cupboard, in the chancel north wall, and a door to the vestry with stop-chamfered mouldings and an early 16th-century door with its original door furniture.

The 14th-century tower arch is of two chamfered orders; the head has become deformed. The corbels of the inner order are 19th-century. In the east wall of the second stage of the tower, visible internally, are the remains of an opening and an arch in Roman brick; other openings or recesses are also visible in the north and east walls.

Fittings

The church contains an outstanding late 12th-century font, one of the finest in the county, with floral scrolls around the square bowl and leaves on the base. There is a heavily restored early 14th-century piscina in the chancel with a cusped inner arch on shafts and an outer label with head stops, contemporary with the rest of the chancel. The 15th-century chancel screen, much restored, has an opening with an elaborately cusped sub-arch and similar tracery in the side arches. The dado has blind tracery carving, and similar patterns are used on the 19th-century timber lectern.

The altar table of 1624 was reduced in height in 1683; removed during the 19th-century restoration, it was returned in 1990. Seventeenth-century panelling with an arabesque frieze on the back of the chancel south-east window forms a sedilia. Framed paintings of Moses and Aaron, now at the back of the church, date to 1643 but were formerly part of a reredos. Royal arms of 1791 are displayed in a Rococo frame.

The church contains some interesting stained glass, including late 15th-century or early 16th-century fragments reset in the chancel north-east window, and a number of panels of Flemish 17th-century glass in the south-east and south-west chancel windows. There are some medieval and 16th-century fragments, including some armorial glass, reset in the nave south-west window, and some good 19th-century and 20th-century glass.

Among the monuments is a brass in the chancel showing a man in armour, probably for Thomas Coggeshall, who died in 1421. There are a number of good ledger slabs, including several of the late 17th century, now removed from the floor and standing upright, and some 19th-century wall tablets in the nave. A bequest board of 1624 is preserved. A large war memorial to members of the Essex Yeomanry has a long roster of names of the dead from the First World War.

Historical Summary

There was a church in Springfield at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, and the present church dates to the late 11th or very early 12th century. The superb font is late 12th-century. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 14th century in a very smart style, and the tower and north vestry are also 14th-century in origin. The chancel arch was probably removed in the 15th century, when the present screen was installed, and the rood stair is probably also of this date. The tower apparently collapsed in the late 16th century and was rebuilt in brick in 1586.

The church was extensively refitted in the early 17th century, using money originally left to add a spire to the tower, but only some panelling and the altar table survive from this work. Further furnishing in the 17th century included the paintings of Moses and Aaron that were part of a reredos. The chancel was restored, including some work on the screen, in 1840 by J A Repton, and the church was extensively restored in 1867 by Joseph Clarke (1819/20-1888), a well-known church architect, who removed all of the post-medieval furnishings. The paintings of Moses and Aaron were returned to the church in 1925 and the altar table in 1990. There was further work, including on the tower, in the late 19th century by Frederic Chancellor (1825-1918), a well-known Essex church architect who was seven times mayor of Chelmsford. The large north parish rooms complex was added in 1979 to designs by Bryan Thomas and Partners, who worked elsewhere in Essex on churches and other buildings. It was extended in 1988.