Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This parish church, now used as a Greek Orthodox church, originated in the 12th century with significant alterations in the 15th and 19th centuries. The walls are constructed of stone rubble including indurated gravel conglomerate, mostly plastered and repaired with red brick, with limestone dressings. The roofs are of handmade red clay tiles.

The nave dates from the 12th century, while the chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century. The south porch dates to around 1500. The chancel contains a 19th-century east window, and its east wall has been much repaired and buttressed with brick. The south wall features a 19th-century doorway, part of a blocked 19th-century window, and a 13th-century piscina with chamfered and rebated jambs and a 2-centred head. A 20th-century partition divides the chancel. The 15th-century chancel arch is 2-centred with 2 hollow-chamfered orders dying on to hollow-chamfered responds. The roof contains 14 coupled rafters with soulaces and ashlar-pieces of medieval origin, though more than half was restored in the 19th century.

The nave's north wall contains three windows: the easternmost and westernmost are 19th-century; the middle window is 15th-century with 2 cinquefoiled lights in a square head with moulded label. West of this is a 15th-century north doorway with moulded jambs, 2-centred arch, and label. The internal splays are moulded to form half-round shafts with capitals and 2 hollow-chamfers. The rear-arch is shallow 4-centred form with double-ogee moulding. The 15th-century door-leaf is of V-edged boards with one strap hinge decorated with incised herringbone pattern; the lower half is bricked up externally and wholly blocked internally. The south wall contains 3 windows of similar 15th-century date and details to those in the north wall; the middle window is blocked internally with only the cinquefoiled head and label visible externally. Between the two western windows is the 15th-century south doorway with partly restored moulded jambs, 2-centred arch, moulded label, and headstops carved as two bishops, now defaced. The west wall contains a 19th-century window of one light, possibly with a 13th-century hollow-chamfered 2-centred rear-arch with splays. A 19th-century brick bellcote stands at the west end.

The nave roof spans three bays, each with 7 rafter couples with soulaces and ashler-pieces of medieval date; 5 couples at the west end were renewed in the 19th century. At the east end against the chancel-arch is a hollow-chamfered tiebeam and wall-pieces with solid knees. The second tiebeam is richly moulded with hollow-chamfered wall-pieces and solid knees. The third tiebeam is modern; no tiebeam exists at the west end.

The south porch dates to the 15th or early 16th century and was much restored in the 19th century. It retains base walls of early red brick in English bond with 19th-century stone copings. The roof is of crownpost construction, of which 5 of the 6 rafter couples, the cranked inner tiebeam, and short plain crownpost with 2 cranked braces are original.

Within the blocked north doorway is a mutilated stone effigy of a man in armour dating to around 1380, wearing a bascinet, camail with a series of lappets each decorated with a crescent, surcoat and sword-belt, with the head resting on a helm; the legs, arms, and features are missing or much defaced.

According to P. Morant's History and Antiquities of Essex (1768), the church formerly had a timber belfry with two bells and a shingled spire. Of two bells recorded by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, the one dated 1575 has been stolen; the other, cast by Miles Graye in 1664, was removed for safety to the Greek Orthodox Monastery on Rectory Road. The font recorded by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, now broken, is also in store at the Monastery as of April 1985.