Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Thornham

A parish church of varied periods spanning the 13th century to 1877, built of random flint rubble with galletting and finished with slated roofs. The building comprises a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, chancel, and north chancel aisle.

The 15th-century west tower features a traceried plinth with moulded string course, a sound-chamber level string course, and a late 19th-century bell chamber stage with plain parapet. The tower is constructed of knapped flint on its south face. North and south west stone quoined set-off buttresses bear illegible inscriptions (presumably donors' names); the south buttress is dated 1635 and has further inscriptions on its south side. Quatrefoil tracery sound holes and two-light late 19th-century belfry windows pierce the tower.

The nave and aisles are in the Perpendicular style. The south aisle comprises five bays with four three-light 4-centred Perpendicular tracery windows, each with stone drip moulds with label stops; similar windows are placed at the east and west ends. The north aisle follows the same design but lacks drip mould heads. Bays are divided by set-off buttresses. The Perpendicular clerestory is five bays wide with three-light 4-centred arched tracery windows.

The south porch is two storeys high with a knapped flint south face and pebble flint returns. It features set-off angle buttresses, a 4-centred moulded arch with bases and caps, and a three-light tracery window above. A gabled parapet crowns the structure. Two ground-floor 2-light return windows open to north and south. At the angle with the aisle stands a semi-octagonal three-storey parvis staircase tower with a battlemented parapet.

The chancel dates from 1877 and is designed in the Early English style with three bays. Its south face has bar tracery 2-light windows; the east end has stepped lancet 5-light windows. The chancel features a steeply pitched roof and buttresses.

Interior

The south porch contains stone-topped benches on its north and south sides, a Perpendicular niche on the north side of the door, and a damaged holy water stoup. A flat boarded 15th-century ceiling with ribs and bosses covers the space. A 13th-century Early English south door, re-used from an earlier phase, displays two orders of colonnettes with bases and caps and double arches. A 15th-century wooden traceried-headed door with a central ogee-headed traceried wicket has been fitted into this opening.

The five-bay nave arcade combines 13th-century and 15th-century work. Alternate rounded or octagonal piers with moulded bases and capitals support double hollow chamfered arches with label stops featuring carved heads. These arches were heightened in the 15th century by the insertion of octagonal moulded bases.

The 15th-century clerestory stage is crowned by a fine wooden arched braced hammerbeam roof with moulded principals, purlins, and ridge. Ten hammerbeams spring alternately from semi-octagonal wall posts (mounted on carved corbel heads) or from the apex of longitudinal arched braced wall plates.

A 4-centred tower door, decorated with niches and fleurons to its intrados, is inscribed with traces of 16th- or 17th-century lettered texts above.

The north and south aisles feature stone rere-arches to the windows and (on the south side) to the entrance and parvis stairs entrance bays. Delicate octagonal colonnettes with moulded bases and capitals support 4-centred arches. Arched braced 15th-century roofs with moulded principals and battlemented decoration to wall plates on the outer walls cover both aisles.

A 15th-century octagonal stone font with a traceried stem stands in the church. The stem is ornamented with angle colonnettes with bulbous bases and ogee heads; the bowl bears coats of arms with heraldic shields, some retaining polychrome traces. A three-stage stone base was added in 1905.

A fine carved set of 15th-century poppyhead benches with carved arms survives: one on either side at the west end and six at the east.

A panelled pulpit dated 1631 stands on a 19th-century stem.

The rood screen survives as a dado of six lights on either side, divided into two panels with elaborate traceried heads and bases. The screen retains much polychromy and fine painted figures of twelve saints and twelve Old Testament prophets. These figures are dated 1488, and the donors are named as James Miller and Clarice his wife.

The chancel arch, chancel, and furnishings date from 1877 and reflect High Victorian Early English taste, featuring polychrome stone ashlar lining, contemporary tesselated floors, and stalls. The north chancel aisle connects to the chancel via an arch that serves as a vestry entrance.