Parish Church Of All Saints

Parish Church of All Saints

This is a parish church in Great Oakley, dating from the 12th century with significant additions in the 14th and 18th centuries, and restoration work carried out in the 19th century.

The chancel and nave are constructed of pebble and flint rubble with limestone dressings. The western tower is built of septaria and red brick in English bond, whilst the south porch is of red brick in Flemish bond. The roofs are covered with handmade red clay tiles. The nave dates to the 12th century and was lengthened at an unknown date. The chancel is of the early 14th century. The western tower was rebuilt in 1766, though it originally dated to the late 15th century. The south porch was constructed around 1800.

The chancel contains an early 15th-century east window of four cinquefoiled ogee lights with vertical tracery, set within a four-centred head with a moulded label and headstops, and a hollow-moulded rear-arch. High in the east gable, above interior ceiling height, is a small opening with chamfered jambs and a two-centred head.

The north wall of the chancel has two windows. The eastern window is 14th-century (restored) and consists of one trefoiled light with hollow-chamfered jambs and two-centred head, with a chamfered segmental-pointed rear-arch. The western window is also 14th-century, featuring two trefoiled ogee lights with a segmental-pointed head, moulded label and defaced headstops; the jambs, sill, mullions and rear-arch are all hollow-moulded, and the sill is carried down to form a seat. It has an old wrought iron grill. East of the windows is a blocked doorway, formerly to a vestry, with hollow-moulded jambs with broach stops and a Tudor head, enriched with carved crowns, defaced angels, heads in foliage and two shields of arms. A fragment of 12th-century chevron ornament is embedded in the rubble externally. Internally there are two small plain rectangular recesses, one east of the doorway and one between the windows.

The south wall of the chancel contains three windows. The eastern is 19th-century except for its 14th-century chamfered segmental-pointed rear-arch and splays, which are cut back and mitred to form a seat below; the stone seat has shallow indents, partly obscured by plaster. The middle window is 14th-century, comprising one trefoiled light with recessed spandrels, chamfered jambs and a two-centred arch with moulded label (restored), and a chamfered segmental-pointed rear-arch. The western window is externally similar to its northern counterpart, but internally more richly moulded, with a chamfered segmental rear-arch; the plain-chamfered sill is carried down to form a seat, and the mullion has been restored. Between the two western windows is a 14th-century doorway with chamfered jambs and a two-centred head, with a plain timber lintel.

The late 14th-century chancel-arch is two-centred, of two chamfered orders, the outer continuous and the inner resting on semi-octagonal shafts with moulded capitals.

The nave north wall contains three windows. The easternmost is 14th-century, with two trefoiled ogee lights with a segmental-pointed head and moulded label with defaced headstops (partly restored). The middle window is 19th-century except for its 14th-century splays and chamfered two-centred rear-arch. The western window is 16th-century brick, featuring three four-centred lights within a four-centred head, with recessed spandrels, moulded label and a shallow pointed rear-arch; it is partly restored. Between the two western windows is a blocked 12th-century window of one round-headed light; the east jamb of a similar window remains further east. Below the blocked window is the blocked 14th-century north doorway with jambs and a two-centred head chamfered in two orders, and a chamfered segmental rear-arch. At the east end of the wall is a 15th-century rood-stair; the lower doorway has hollow-moulded jambs and a two-centred head carved with square flowers; the upper doorway is blocked with brick and plastered over.

The nave south wall contains three windows. The two eastern are 19th-century except for their 14th-century splays and chamfered segmental-pointed rear-arches. The western window is 14th-century (restored), comprising two trefoiled lights with tracery in a segmental-pointed head with moulded label, decayed headstops and a chamfered segmental-pointed rear-arch. East of it is the 14th-century south doorway, with jambs and a two-centred arch chamfered in two orders, with moulded label and defaced headstops. At the southwest corner is a diagonal buttress of late 15th-century brick, with moulded offsets.

The roofs of the chancel and nave are boarded in seven cants and may have been rebuilt in the 19th century.

The western tower has north and south walls mainly of exposed septaria rubble, the east wall plastered, and the west wall of red brick in English bond, replacing a late 15th-century tower. The late 15th-century tower-arch is two-centred, with two chamfered orders on the east side; the outer order is continuous, terminating in broach stops; the inner order has moulded bases. The west side has five chamfered orders. The northwest and southwest corners have plain pilaster strips. The bell-chamber is timber framed and weatherboarded, with slatted round-headed openings to the north, south and west. The roof is pyramidal.

The south porch is plain, with a semi-elliptical outer arch.

The church contains several important fittings. There are two piscinae: one in the chancel is double with moulded jambs, mullion and two-centred heads under an ogee arch, the internal and external mouldings terminating in ball stops, with an octofoiled drain (14th-century); the other is in the south wall of the nave, with wave-moulded jambs and a two-centred head, and an octofoiled drain (14th-century). In the south porch is a stoup with a 14th-century trefoiled head, the remainder blocked. The 12th-century font is of Purbeck marble, with a tapering square bowl, each face bearing five round-headed panels and a moulded lower edge; the stem and angle-shafts have been renewed.

Floor-slabs include: in the chancel, one to Elizabeth (Cole) Drake dated 1706 and one to Rev. Richard Drake dated 1738, both in black marble; in the nave, one to John Townson dated 1802 in black marble, and one to Sara, daughter of Thomas Savell, dated 1619, in white marble. The chancel contains indents, partly covered by the altar-base: one of a figure of a woman under a canopy with three shields and marginal inscription (15th-century), and one of a foliated cross enclosing a shield with marginal inscription (late 14th-century), plus two others which are indistinct. In the southwest window of the chancel are fragments of late 14th-century glass, mainly of tabernacle work.