Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church with early 17th-century chancel and nave, incorporating a 14th or 15th-century bell turret. The south porch is dated 1633. The building underwent extensive repairs and restorations around 1869 and later.

The church is constructed of ragstone rubble with Reigate and Barnack stone dressings. The roofs are covered in red plain tiles, with cedar shingles to the bell turret and spirelet.

The chancel has three 19th-century lancet windows with labels on the east wall and angle buttresses. The north wall contains a lancet window with a label and 12th-century rear splays. The south wall has two restored lancet windows with labels, the western one being taller, and the eastern window retains 12th-century rear splays. A blocked and partly restored 13th-century doorway with chamfered jambs and two-centred arch is positioned to the east.

The nave's north wall features an eastern 19th-century window of three trefoiled lights with tracery above and a two-centred arch with moulded label and stops. A western 12th-century round-headed window also exists on this wall. A 12th-century round-headed north doorway contains a 15th or 16th-century door of four nailed overlapping boards with one strap-hinge and a heavy oak cill. This doorway is now disused and serves as a cupboard, with electricity metres fixed to its inner face. Stone quoins mark the angles, and wrought iron crosses adorn the gable apices.

The west wall contains a 19th-century window of two cinquefoiled lights with tracery above and a two-centred arch with moulded label and foliate stops. Stonework below this window suggests a blocked doorway. The south wall's eastern window mirrors the north wall's eastern design—three trefoiled lights with tracery and a two-centred arch with stops. A 12th-century round-headed window occupies the western position.

The gabled and plastered south porch features a moulded, square-headed wooden doorway dated 1633 with sunk spandrels and a guilloche pattern lintel. A round door arch with key block surmounts it. Nineteenth-century barge boards decorate the gable, and 20th-century outer doors have been added. A wrought iron cross crowns the gable apex.

Internally, the roof is boarded. The side walls each contain blocked windows featuring turned balusters, possibly from former altar rails. Below these windows, 17th-century panelling lines the walls—partly fluted and partly plain frieze—with names cut into the west side: Charles Hobson 1647, Samuel Purchas 1647, and ...ard Britridge 1647. The south doorway has a 13th-century two-centred arch of three moulded orders; moulded jambs of three orders each contain one attached and two free shafts with moulded capitals and bases.

In the chancel, a 15th-century roof of seven cants features a square-section four-armed crown post on a central tie beam and a moulded wall plate. The floor is laid with 19th-century coloured tiles. Nineteenth-century stained glass fills the windows, and altar rails with turned balusters likely rest on older top rails. A 19th-century east window has capitals and bases to jamb shafts. A brass floor slab from Shopland Church commemorates Thomas Stapel, 1371, Serjeant-at-arms, shown in armour with sword, pointed bascinet and comail, though the knee-cops and legs are missing. Indents mark where marginal inscriptions once were, and a crocketed canopy and shields remain. Two additional floor slabs commemorate Sarah Nott 1753 and Mary Scratton 1830–1877. A blocked two-centred arch on the south wall carries a memorial to C. Tyrell MDCXCV above it. A small Bible box from Shopland Church is preserved here. Medieval painting survives on the splays of the 12th-century north window.

An alabaster and coloured marble wall monument depicting a mourning woman, urn and willow dates to 1771 and commemorates Chester Moor Hall of Sutton Hall, maker of the first achromatic telescope. A black and white wall monument honours John White of Rochford 1797. An aumbry with a chamfered two-centred head is set into the wall. Medieval painting appears on the 12th-century round-headed chancel arch, which has two orders—the inner plain, the outer roll-moulded—with responds each carrying a flat half-round attached shaft with moulded bases and restored capitals. Moulded abaci are carried around the imposts.

The nave contains a simple stage octagonal pulpit. A 15th-century seven-cant roof of three bays features moulded wall plates and four-armed crown posts with moulded capitals and bases. The 14th or 15th-century timber bell turret at the west end has four outer and four inner posts with arched braces to both lower and upper portal-frames. The south door is of a rare type, of which only five are known in Essex. It is assembled with counter-rebates, and its top and base appear to have been cut off. Similar doors exist at Castle Hedingham and Elmstead Churches. This door faced south in 1869. One bell, said to be by John Clifton 1638, hangs here. Two hatchments and one coat of arms are displayed.

A circa 1817 organ from Shopland Church by Gray was installed; one row of pipes was revoiced in 1850. The 13th-century font is square with five narrow two-centred arches on each face. Nineteenth or 20th-century central and angle shafts with moulded capitals and bases were added; it stands on a square base with an octagonal plinth and floor slab. A poor box with end bands and barrel interior lid survives. A monument to Lieutenant William Burchell, killed aboard the ship Royal Oak at Chesapeake on 9 August 1814, is mounted on the north wall.