Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church with origins in the 14th century. The chancel and nave date to the 14th century, with 15th-century repairs to their upper parts. The south aisle was added in the 15th century, and the south tower, which incorporates the south porch, is also 14th century. A north aisle was added circa 1863 with a porch at the western re-entrant angle, and a 19th-century north chapel was subsequently built. The exterior is constructed of flint rubble, septaria, and ashlar with 15th-century and later red brick and stone dressings. The roofs are of grey slate and lead.

The chancel has a stuccoed east wall with angle buttresses and a depressed gable topped with a cross finial. The east window has four cinquefoiled lights with tracery above, set within a chamfered two-centred arch with a label featuring king and queen stops. A band below the window continues through the south wall, which is built of rubble and red brick with a parapet that continues into the nave. The south wall also features gargoyles below the band. The south window has three cinquefoiled ogee lights with tracery above, a four-centred head, and a label.

The south aisle's south wall is largely stuccoed with a red brick parapet and red brick east wall. The wall has a plinth and angle and central buttresses. Three windows with buttresses between them are each of three cinquefoiled ogee lights with tracery, four-centred heads, and labels. The easternmost window is taller with different tracery and is now blocked. A blocked doorway to the west of the windows has a stop-chamfered two-centred arch and label. The east wall window, added in the 19th century, has four cinquefoiled ogee lights above and below a transom, a four-centred head, and a label.

The south-west tower rises in three stages with a band to each stage. The parapet is raised at the angles, and a north-western polygonal crenellated stair turret rises above the parapet. Gargoyles sit below the parapet. Each face of the bell chamber contains a window of two cinquefoiled lights with two-centred heads, two-centred arches, and labels. The second stage has small single-light windows on the south, east, and west faces with cinquefoiled two-centred arches and labels. The ground floor windows on the western and eastern faces have two cinquefoiled lights above and below a transom, a moulded two-centred arch, and foliate stops to the label. The plinth features flint flushwork. The south doorway has a moulded two-centred arch with semi-octagonal jamb shafts and moulded capitals. Above the doorway is a niche with a cinquefoiled two-centred head. The fabric surrounding the doorway and below the niche is of septaria rubble rather than flint and brick rubble.

The nave's west wall was formerly gabled and built of stone rubble but has been raised with red brick to a depressed gable with corner buttresses. The wall has a plastered dado with three disc dials below the window. The west window is of red brick with four lights, two-centred heads, and Y-tracery, set within a two-centred head with a stone label featuring head stops. A band below the window extends across the wall. The north wall of the nave has a lower area of rubble and an upper area of red brick with a parapet. Adjacent to the north aisle is a blocked red brick window of two round-headed lights with a square head and label, partly concealed by the north aisle. Below this window is an angled porch with a pointed roof of stone tiles, featuring a moulded two-centred arched doorway with a label and foliate stops.

The 19th-century north aisle has a north wall with four buttresses and three-light windows with roundels and two-centred arched heads between them. A band below the windows continues through the west wall window, which has two lights with Y-tracery and a moulded two-centred arch.

The north chapel's east wall contains a bowed trefoil light with a label that extends over a two-centred arch doorway. The north wall has a two-light window under a square head.

The west porch contains a tierceron vault with moulded ribs and foliate bosses to a central octagon, angel heads at the wall apices, wall shafts with moulded bases, and moulded and crenellated capitals. The inner doorway has a moulded and stop-chamfered two-centred arch, with a door of five nailed boards and four strap hinges. The floor is of square brick. The chancel and nave are undivided.

The nave roof spans eight bays with heavy chamfered tie-beams and pegged solid brackets from wall posts to tie-beams. The king posts are very short and chamfered, with a chamfered ridge board, chamfered side purlins, and plain wall plates. A 19th-century coloured tiled floor runs throughout the interior.

The chancel contains a 19th-century stone reredos of five trefoiled arches with cusped roundels above and three flanking trefoiled arches to each side. Nineteenth-century altar rails feature wooden posts, foliate brackets, and a moulded rail. The south wall has double piscinae with two trefoiled arches, a blank quatrefoil above, a two-centred head, and two octagonal drains. Adjacent to the west is double sedilia with two trefoiled arches, a moulded central shaft, moulded two-centred heads, and cills at two levels. To the west of the sedilia is a blocked archway with a sunk segmental head; the label extends through the south, east, and north walls of the chancel. A disc dial sits to the west of this archway.

The north wall has a north doorway with a trefoiled inner arch and moulded two-centred outer arch, each resting on shafts with moulded capitals and bases and a label with foliate stops. An oval wall plaque above the north door commemorates Trapnell and Cobbold, 1773-1835. A north wall piscina has a moulded trefoiled arch, moulded capitals and bases to the jab shafts, and a round drain. A brass chandelier has been converted to ten electric lights. Nineteenth-century choir stalls occupy the chancel. An arch-braced lean-to roof extends to the north vestry.

The nave contains a 19th-century stone octagonal pulpit with a moulded and crenellated rim, carved roundels to each panel, trefoiled panels to the base, a moulded soffit, and a stem of attached shafts with splayed bases. A stone lectern with similar decoration sits nearby. Nineteenth and early 20th-century pews feature carved roundels to end panels. A floor slab commemorates Reverend Martin Nunn, 1781. At the west end of the nave, a band extends from the south aisle above a sunk chamfered segmental-headed doorway and the moulded two-centred arch of the stair turret doorway, below the western window, over the segmental-headed north doorway, and terminates at the north aisle with foliate end stops. An octagonal font has carved roundels to each face and a moulded capital and base to its stem; the octagonal base has a step to the west. Disc dials appear on the north and south walls. The south wall displays a framed painting of a Child with Lamb, and a hatchment hangs on the north wall. A blocked splayed square window is visible in the north wall.

The north and south arcades are similar, each of three bays with moulded two-centred arches. The columns have four attached shafts with continuous moulded capitals and bases; the responds have three attached shafts. The north aisle has a lean-to roof of three bays with pierced arched braces to the apex. An organ sits in the north-east corner. A Caernarvon-headed doorway appears in the west wall.

The south aisle has a lean-to roof of four bays with stop-chamfered double purlins and bridging joists. A wall brass commemorates Hannah Rodgers, 1893. A floor slab, partially obscured by a pew, reads "Clench of Holbrook and Elizabeth his wife, April 1659" with a coat of arms over the south-east corner.

A monument to Judge John Clench (1607) and his wife occupies the south aisle, consisting of two table tombs with his set against the wall above hers. Each effigy lies on its side facing forward with its head resting on the left hand. Both wear ruffs and headdress; he wears a cloak over a belted gown, and she wears a belted gown with long sleeves terminating in ruffs. Set back to either side of her effigy are three sons and two daughters, with four sons and six daughters above set further back. Seventeenth-century embellishment surrounds the inscription panel above with flanking and central coats of arms. The inscription panel to the lower tomb relates to Margerie Clench, late wife of Thomas Clench, dated 2 July 1597.

A late 15th-century brass, 31 inches long, depicting a knight in armour, is said to exist in the church. A wall plaque records that Gifford Read (1846-1929) and his wife Augusta Walker left their property at Holbrook House to the Admiralty in Trust for the Navy in memory of its services in the Great War 1914-1918. Both rest in New Zealand. A wall memorial commemorates John Reade of Holbrook House, dated 7 July 1843.