Church Of All Saints

WETHERINGSETT-CUM-BROCKFORD CHURCH STREET TM 16 NW 3/119 Church of All Saints 29.7.55

GV I Parish church. Medieval, restored 1850's. Aisled nave, chancel, west tower, south porch, north vestry (formerly a chapel). Flint rubble with stone dressings. Slated roofs to nave and chancel, the aisle roofs leaded. Good C15 square tower: 4-stage angle buttresses with chequer flushwork, the 4 against the west corner containing empty cusped image niches. Plain embattled parapet. West face has large open arch with continuous mouldings and mask label stops. Above is an image niche with cusped ogee head. Small trefoil- headed windows at ringing chamber level. 2-light belfry openings. West end of nave has good moulded doorway with mask label stops. Cusped niche above. C13 4-bay aisles with much-renewed 3-light Perpendicular-style windows; south aisle has C14 west window with reticulated tracery. Both aisles retain C13 doorways, each with one order of colonnettes and a moulded 2-centred arch. South doorway has repaired medieval door. C15 porch, faced in knapped flint; flushwork-panelled parapet with square corner pinnacles and central gable. Much-renewed moulded entrance arch, enriched with crowns and shields, with a coat of arms at the apex; fleuron-enriched hoodmould on lion corbels. Original arched-braced roof, the main components moulded. Late C15 clerestorey with a range of 8 closely-set 3-light windows with buttresses between; the windows are shafted internally. Chancel much restored: Perpendicular-style windows of 2 lights to sides and 4 lights to east; moulded Priest's doorway. Interior. C13 4-bay arcades and chancel arch. 8-bay nave roof renewed 1828: flat embattled tie beams with pierced panelling above; pierced braces from tie beams to shafted wallposts. Panelled chancel ceiling of 1850's. Aisle roofs probably C15 but considerably restored. Stairs to rood loft (south east nave) and parclose loft (south aisle). Much renewed C13 triple sedilia has enriched trefoil arches and Purbeck marble shafts; flanking mask corbels, one probably original. In vestry, much mutilated remains of an unusual double angle piscina with leaf ornament, probably C13. Octagonal font bowl, said to be of c.1660, the panels simply carved, mainly with shields. Older base, perhaps C13, with 8 engaged shafts. Poppyhead benches, some with C15 ends, the majority C19. 2 C15 misericords in sanctuary. Other furnishings mid-late C19. Several C17-C18 ledger slabs, especially to members of the Sheppard family.

Listing NGR: TM1273266845