Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This parish church, located on the north side of High Street in Maldon, dates from the 13th to 15th centuries and was substantially remodelled in 1728. The building underwent major restoration work in 1858 affecting the south aisle and spire, again in 1867 when it was restored and reseated, and further restoration in 1877.

The church is constructed of mixed flint and rubble with limestone and ashlar dressings. The north wall of the nave is of red brick with burnt headers, and there is a red-brick east gable. The roofs are covered in plain tiles, and the spire is clad in oak shingles.

The plan consists of a nave with a four-bay south aisle. The north arcade was removed and the north aisle wall rebuilt in 1728. At the west end of the nave stands a triangular tower with its arch facing north-east. The west wall of the nave runs south-west at an angle from the north-west angle of the north aisle to meet the tower. A 19th-century north porch, now used as a vestry, adjoins the nave. To the east is a three-bay chancel with the D'Arcy chapel to the south and an organ chamber to the north, arranged beneath a triple gabled roof.

The exterior features an early 13th-century three-stage tower, probably incorporating earlier fabric in its base and partially refaced in the 19th century. The tower has restored lancets to its south and north-west faces, with an area of blocking beneath the latter indicating a former doorway. Round-headed slit windows appear above, and a small section of chevron moulding survives above the south opening. The top stage displays a pair of restored louvred lancets and a single louvred lancet to the south, while the north-west side retains blocked openings. The spire is flanked by short spirelets at its angles.

The south aisle dates to around 1330 and features a wide west door with two orders of attached shafts with moulded capitals bearing a band of carved foliage and an eroded vine scroll to the arch. A 19th-century Geometrical-traceried window sits above, replacing a 5-light intersecting tracery window recorded in Grieg's print of 1819. A small south door with eroded foliate capitals also opens from the aisle. The three-light aisle windows are set on a sill band and display intersecting, reticulated, and Geometrical tracery, with the unusual reticulated and panel-traceried eastern window having retained its original external stonework. The 19th-century offset buttresses are enriched with figure statues in niches. The north wall contains 19th-century panel-traceried windows.

The chancel features restored Perpendicular three-light windows in the south chapel, two in externally chamfered reveals, and a 19th-century priests' door. A restored five-light Decorated east window has had the lower section of its tracery blocked. A 19th-century four-light chancel east window sits beneath a 19th-century brick gable. The north (organ chamber) recess has stone jambs and a brick Tudor arch surmounted by a square brick recess. The north wall displays three Perpendicular windows with ferramenta, the westernmost having been renewed in the 19th century.

Interior

The interior features a double-chamfered tower arch with the inner order on renewed corbels, a blocked opening above, and a base of pudding stone. The nave was extensively remodelled in 1728 with the rebuilding of the north side, when the chancel arch and north chapel arch were replaced. A flat nave ceiling with coving was introduced at this time. The south arcade consists of four bays supported on slender Purbeck piers of quatrefoil section with fillets, Pontefract bases, and moulded capitals that appear disproportionately small for the arcade above. The western arch is roll-moulded with fillets and foliate steps, while the west respond has triple attached shafts with a moulded capital bearing a band of foliate carving. The eastern respond was renewed and the arches restored.

The south aisle is lavishly decorated with two tiers of blind arcading in Decorated style. The lower tier comprises cusped ogee-headed arcading beneath a moulded string, with wide ogee arches and pinnacles over each door now renewed. The arcading on the south wall is interrupted by an ogee-arched door with broach stops leading to the crypt; to the east of this, the arcading is set upon a stone bench lining the wall and features additional diapered spandrels. The string course and head stops are largely 19th-century in date. At the east end the arcading is truncated by the stonework of a vaulted canopy with buttresses, belonging to a sedilia or tomb recess that has been hacked away. Above the string course, the wall arcading alternates between wide and narrow bays, with wide arches containing the windows featuring moulded jambs and arches with continuous vine scroll decoration. The narrow bays between the windows have sub-cusped sub-arches with a cusped vesica above. A ceiled barrel roof incorporating three reused moulded tie beams spans the aisle. A double-chamfered arch on triple responds with tall Perpendicular bases leads to the D'Arcy chapel. A mutilated 14th-century piscina survives in the aisle.

The chancel south arcade has Perpendicular quatrefoil piers with hollow chamfers in the angles, polygonal bases, and moulded capitals. Nineteenth-century parclose screens are installed, with the remains of a rood door above. The chancel is covered by a ceiled barrel roof with a cornice and boxed-in tie beams. The north arcade features octagonal piers with double-chamfered arches, with a plaque reading "REBUILT 1800".

Monuments

The chancel east and south walls retain good 17th-century wall monuments: John Jeffrey (died 1657), Mary Scrivener, wife of John Vernon (died 1647), and Sarah Butler (died 1638). The east wall of the north chapel displays a monument of 1602 to Thomas Cammocke and his two wives, featuring kneeling figures in a continuous aedicule.

Fittings

The church contains Stuart Royal Arms in timber, a rood screen of 1925, a 19th-century stone font, and a 20th-century pulpit with tester.

History

The south chapel was probably founded as the chantry of Sir Robert D'Arcy around 1443.