Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church dating back to the 14th century, with significant alterations and a complete re-roofing in the 18th century. It is constructed of coursed flint and brick, with a black glazed pantile roof. The church includes a north-west tower and vestry, a nave (originally a south aisle), and an apse, with a south porch.

The tower’s east half is of medieval flint construction, while the west half was rebuilt in brick in 1744, as evidenced by a plaque on the south side. It has a brick parapet and bell openings on all four sides set within honeycombed brick, and features two large stepped buttresses in brick to the west. A medieval gargoyle is incorporated into a low flint lean-to with pantiles on the west side, and a buttress of undressed flint is located south of the tower. The west wall of the nave is constructed of galletted coursed flint with a brick parapet, containing a two-light window from the early 14th century with a trefoil. The nave’s walls are of coursed flint, with rebuilt brick eaves having a dentil cornice. There are two windows on each side, each of three lights with plain heads featuring renewed mullions and removed tracery. Two slanting brick buttresses were added to the north side in the 18th century, alongside a 1925 brick and flint buttress on the south wall. The brick east gable is surmounted by a cross.

The apse was constructed in 1925 of pebble flint with brick dressings and a lean-to roof of black glazed pantiles. It has two narrow, round-headed lights, and the east window from 1876 – a two-light window in a 14th-century style with a trefoil and foliage label stops – was repositioned within the apse. The porch has a plain rendered brick arch, a brick gable with a cross, and quoins of alternating narrow bricks and flints. The south door has a deep, continuous ogee moulding under a hood mould. The vestry, east of the tower, is of rendered flint with a lean-to roof of black glazed pantiles. The present nave has a blocked and partially glazed north doorway, featuring a hollow chamfered continuous moulding and a deeply rolled hood mould.

Inside, the west gallery is supported by earlier moulded joists. A large rendered round-headed arch leads to the vestry, possibly dating back to the 18th century, and a tall, plain tower arch connects to the vestry. There is one medieval bench with mutilated poppy heads, a late 17th/early 18th century communion table (with a renewed top), and communion rails incorporating thin 18th-century barley sugar balusters. Chancel fittings date from 1876, and a single medieval encaustic tile is located by the door.