Church of All Saints is a Grade I listed building in the Breckland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 16 July 1958. A Victorian Church.

Church of All Saints

WRENN ID
lesser-arch-cedar
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
Breckland
Constituency
Mid Norfolk MP: George Freeman (Con)
Country
England
Date first listed
16 July 1958
Type
Church
Period
Victorian
Address
Church of All Saints, Besthorpe
OS grid reference
TM 065 956
Coordinates
52.51932, 1.04332
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of All Saints is a parish church dating back to around 1320, with subsequent alterations and a major restoration in 1876 and 1883. Constructed primarily of flint with ashlar dressings, it features slate roofing. The building comprises a west tower, a nave, transepts, and a chancel.

The three-stage west tower stands on a high plinth, with buttresses transitioning from rectangular to diagonal in the second stage. A two-light cusped Y-shaped window illuminates the west face. North and south windows of similar design were blocked with knapped flint around 1450 during repairs. Circular, cusped ringing chamber windows, partially blocked, likely date to the 15th century, based on the arched windows visible internally, suggesting original intentions. The belfry stage features restored two-light Y-shaped windows below the parapet. A gabled south porch showcases chamfered and hollow exterior mouldings, with remnants of the apex cross plinth. The jambs are finely moulded, and the side lights are rectangular and splayed. A 19th-century Y-shaped window with piled trefoils is located on the nave.

The south transept has a continuous string course below the windows, extending along the nave and chancel. Angle buttresses support two-light cusped Y-shaped windows to the east and west, the latter now blocked by the tower. The south window consists of three lights with mouchette tracery. The high, gabled roof is notable. The chancel sides are punctuated by three three-light intersecting cusped windows, with a flat buttress between the eastern pair. A low priest's door is positioned on the south side, and angle buttresses frame a five-light mouchette east window, dating to 1876, beneath a low, coped parapet. A string course runs around the north side as well. A two-light Y-traceried window with piled trefoils sits in the east wall of the north transept, alongside a three-light intersecting north window and a north nave window mirroring the south side. A gabled, 19th-century vestry with angle buttresses and a two-light window with Y tracery and piled trefoils is also present.

Inside, a double-chamfered tower arch supports the structure, and the rere arches over the north and south doors are stilled. All windows feature internal shafting. The transept arches rest on polygonal responds with capitals, with chamfered arches and hollows beneath hoods terminating in head stops. The south transept includes a wall niche on either side of the east window, featuring rising buttresses and ogee or straight gables with crockets and finials. A piscina is also found in the south wall, and a statutory niche is located on the south-east pier. The chancel arch is hollow chamfered. The chancel sedilia and piscina are arranged in a continuous six-gabled range, with cusped ogee arches and ogeed trefoils filling the spandrels, accompanied by crockets and finials.

A tomb of Sir William Drury, dating to 1640 and attributed to Gerard Christmas, is located on the chancel’s north wall. The altar pedestal incorporates a predella with alabaster carvings depicting two of Drury’s children alongside a skull. Sir William reclines on a rolled-up mat, separated by a pair of Tuscan columns from his wife kneeling to the left and three children kneeling to the right, all figures sculpted in alabaster. A semi-circular niche above the effigy displays an inscription and an achievement with a coat of arms in a shield. Architraves project left and right to meet the columns, terminating in oval medallions with laurel surrounds. The roofs are 19th-century, scissor-braced, and fragments of 15th-century glass remain. A chancel screen was added in 1931.

Local climate

Church of All Saints sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 85% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 98% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 31 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 63% of listed buildings. Of these, 16 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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