Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church dating from the 11th century and later, substantially restored in 1898. The building is constructed of galletted knapped flint with stone dressings under plain tiles, comprising a tower, nave and chancel in one structure, with a north porch and south-west addition.

The unbuttressed west tower rises in three stages, finished with an embattled parapet and string course, and is topped by four 19th-century crocketted pinnacles. A south-west stair turret with a small blocked brick archway at its base adjoins the tower. The west window contains two lights with panel tracery under a hood mould, and above it is a single cusp-headed slit. The bell openings are cusped. At the north-west nave quoin, some long and short work in stone is visible.

The north porch features a wide four-centred treble chamfered arch, with a restored roof dating from 1900. Above the arch is an ogee-headed niche, flanked by two narrow-headed return openings. The north doorway is a two-centred arch with continuous double hollow chamfered mouldings beneath a deep roll hood mould, with a stoup recess to the left. The door itself is ledged and battened with a wooden lock and latticed bracing to the rear. The north facade shows one nave window of three segmental-headed lights beneath a square head, and two 11th-century double-splayed small round-headed windows positioned above the porch and to the north chancel, their arches containing radiating thin bricks. The chancel features a brick eaves dentil cornice, with an east window of three irregular pointed lights.

The south facade displays galletted coursed flint, with the chancel set back some 15 metres. The chancel south wall contains two windows of two lights each—one Decorated and one renewed with a segmental arch. Two nave windows of two and three segmental-headed lights without tracery feature ovolo-moulded mullions and hollow chamfered surrounds. A gabled single-storey south-west extension in pebble flint with stone dressings, under a pantile roof and topped by a cross on the gable apex, contains a wide two-light window with a square head and a memorial plaque to the 1914-18 war dead.

Interior

The nave contains a 19th-century boarded roof with ties and collars. A two-bay south arcade, now blocked, features octagonal piers and caps with moulded equilateral arches. A tall tower arch with a pointed segmental head dominates the space. The octagonal stone font has a moulded base on an octagonal stem. A tortoise stone from around 1900 stands in the north-west nave. Two notable marble slabs are present: one under the tower with an indent for a kneeling lady dating from around 1525 with her civilian husband beside her, and an incised slab on the west wall under the tower commemorating Anne, wife of Sir Clement Heigham, showing a figure kneeling at a prie-dieu, with two shields of arms and an inscription framed with strapwork, dated 1590.

The chancel is roofed in 19th-century boarded construction supported by braced posts. A four-centred arched doorway on the north gives access to the screen stair, with three steps remaining. Black letter text appears on the east wall. The chancel contains a mahogany-cased organ dated 1812. Fourteen 15th-century poppy heads have been incorporated into the chancel bench and stall ends.

A 13th-century piscina spans two arches across the arris of the south window's rear arch, featuring a central round pier with deep roll mouldings to capital and base, hollow chamfers to two pointed arches, and bar-stopped jambs.

A large monument on the chancel south wall dates from 1593. It comprises a chest tomb beneath a four-centred arch with reeded pilasters to the jambs capped by urns. The spandrels are carved with crests—a horse's head to the left and a wyvern to the right. A blank inscription cartouche sits over the arch centre, surrounded by the motto "Soyez sage et simple". Heraldic shields appear in three panels on the chest below the slab, separated by Ionic pilasters.