Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church, principally of the 15th century, built mainly of random flint with stone dressings. The walls of the nave and chancel are plastered, with a slate roof covering the nave and chancel and a lead roof to the south aisle. Plain tiles with crest tiles adorn the north porch. A square, crenellated tower of the 15th century rises at the west end, featuring diagonal buttresses with flushwork decoration. The northwest buttress contains an empty niche in its lower stage, and gargoyles and smaller stone carvings punctuate the string course below the parapet. A one-armed clock face was added to the south side of the tower in 1770 and subsequently restored. The west face has a trefoil-headed niche above the window, framed by a square hood mould with carved shields in the spandrels. Above the west window is an empty niche with a trefoil-headed surround and a square hood mould with carved shields in the spandrels. The north wall of the nave has two renewed windows. The porch, also of the 15th century, displays flushwork on its buttresses and plinth. A niche above the doorway is topped by an ogee arch and contains two stone shields, and it retains its original wooden roof with carved wall plates. Adjacent to the nave doorway is a trefoil-headed stoup. The south aisle was demolished and rebuilt in the 1850s. The chancel, likely from the early 14th century, contains a broad lancet window and a Y-traceried window on each side, both much renewed. A brick Priest’s doorway from the early 16th century is set into the south wall, and a three-light east window dates from the 15th century. The chancel was restored in 1878. The nave features a fine, eight-bay arch-braced roof, largely original but re-framed in the 19th century, with carved wall plates and renewed carved angels at the bases of the wall plates. Bosses are present at the main intersections, along with pendant bosses along the ridge, and further east-west arch braces between principals along the ridge and between the wall posts. A three-bay arcade with circular piers separates the nave from the south aisle. A late 15th-century octagonal font is carved with the Seven Sacraments in rayed panels, and has a square stem and octagonal base, all intricately carved. An arched entrance to the rood loft stairs is visible in the north nave wall, with fleurons and traces of original colouring around the arch head. A plain 13th-century piscina and dropped sedilia are located in the south chancel wall. Fragments of old stained glass are found in the chancel windows. The east window, dated 1915, commemorates the 3rd Earl of Cranbrook. The church is Grade I listed for its surviving medieval fabric.