Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A parish church of the 14th century, restored in 1875 and 1876, located on the west side of Stanton in the Street. The building comprises a nave, chancel, south aisle, and south tower, with the tower's ground storey originally a free-standing structure later used as a porch. A small vestry stands to the north of the chancel.

The church is constructed in rubble flint with freestone quoins and dressings; the east chancel wall includes an admixture of stone. Plain-tiled roofs are topped with ornamental crosses at the east and west gables. Angle buttresses project from the west end of the nave.

The windows are a significant feature. The north side of the nave and chancel contains a range of five two-light windows in Decorated style with curvilinear tracery, with two similar windows on the south side of the chancel. The three-light east and west windows, restored in the 19th century, have reticulated tracery. Five small circular clerestory windows with quatrefoil design punctuate the upper wall on the south side of the nave. The south aisle displays a three-light segmental-headed east window with reticulated tracery and two straight-headed two-light windows on the south, beneath a parapet and cornice decorated with ball-flower ornament.

Three buttresses along the north side of the nave bear stone panels with the mutilated remains of medieval inscriptions: the eastern buttress displays the crowned capitals MR (for Maria Regina), and the middle buttress bears the inscription Omn(e)s S(ancti) for All Saints.

The tower was originally 14th-century but collapsed in 1906, leaving only the bottom stage. This surviving stage features a moulded stone base, large diagonal buttresses, a simple doorway with pointed arch and continuous moulding, and a Y-tracery window on the east side. From 1906 to 1956, this stage was roofed over and used as a porch. In 1956, the upper stage was rebuilt to a design by Marshall Sisson and includes a louvred bell-chamber containing four bells reinstated from the previous tower. Three of these bells bear medieval Latin inscriptions, and one is dated 1566. The tower is linked to the western bay of the south aisle in a manner suggesting the aisle is of slightly later date and was constructed around the tower. To the east of the south doorway, an ogee-headed niche has been roughly cut into the tower buttress as a stoup.

Interior features include a high narrow chancel arch with a series of blocked sockets that formerly supported parts of the rood screen and rood. To the south of this arch is the upper door of the stairs to the rood-loft. The north-east corner of the nave contains a piscina, while the chancel has sedilia and an ogee-headed piscina. The south nave arcade comprises four bays with octagonal piers and double chamfered arches. A plain, heavy 16th-century timber roof covers the aisle.

The most notable interior feature is a much-damaged but very fine tomb-recess between the two south windows of the aisle, cusped and subcusped, and surmounted by a high crocketed ogee gable covered in detailed carving. At the west end of the aisle stands a plain octagonal font with a central pier surrounded by eight small shafts on a high octagonal base.

The 19th-century restoration included replacement of the nave and chancel roofs, seating, and pulpit. Further historical details and information on the church's fittings are documented in David Dymond's The Churches of Stanton, Suffolk: A History and Guide.