Church Of All Saints

SOUTH ELMHAM ALL SAINTS CHURCH LANE TM 38 SW ALL SAINTS & ST. NICHOLAS (OFF)

4/21 Church of All Saints

1.9.53

• I

Former parish church, now in the care of the Redundant Churches Board. C12 and C14 with some C15 and C17 features, considerably restored in 1870. Continuous nave and chancel; south aisle and south porch; round west tower. In random flint with freestone dressings and lead roof. On the north side, 3 single-light round-headed Norman windows with deep internal splays; 2 C14 single-light cusped windows, and 2 C13 2-light windows with cusped plate tracery. 3 Y-tracery windows to the south aisle, which extends the full length of the nave and chancel. 3-light east window with intersecting tracery. North doorway removed, and opening blocked. The small round west tower is in 3 stages, the top stage rebuilt, with battlemented top. In the lowest stage the rubble flint is coursed, and there is a Norman west window with deep inner splay. Small, round-headed windows to the second stage. The south porch is basically medieval, with a facade of flint and stone chequer work, but heavily Victorianised. Simple Victorian Romanesque south doorway. Interior with a C14 arcade between the south aisle and the body of the church: in that part of the arcade beside the chancel, the arches have been pushed up into a stilted form. Piscina in chancel in much restored Early English style: recesses to each side of it, that on the east, with a drain, is almost to ground level. C12 font with large square bowl decorated with shallow blank arches, central column, and 4 small outer colonettes on a rectangular scalloped base. At the back of the nave, 2 small C15 benches with poppyheads and animals on the arm-rests. These were formerly in the porch, and are very weathered. The remaining nave benches have poppyheads only: some C15, and some good C19 reproduction. Above the door to the tower stair, in the north- west corner of the nave, a C15 stone panel with shield and elaborate leaf surround in high relief. A wide door to the tower arch is made of elaborately carved Jacobean panels, with some later replacements. The remaining interior fittings are Victorian. C15 roof to the nave in 5 bays, with arched braces and high cambered collars. The chancel roof, much restored in C19, has arched-braced collars and moulded purlins and appears basically C17.

Listing NGR: TM3296882802