Church Of All Saints

TL 98 SE WORDWELL

6/65 Church of All Saints 14.7.55

• I

Parish church, now redundant. C11, restored 1868, by the Rev. E.R. Benyon. Nave and chancel in rubble flint, mainly coursed: C19 bellcote on west wall in kidney flint. Freestone dressings, plaintiled roofs. Each window is different but all in Decorated style. A mid C19 timber south porch. Of north and south doorways, with marked Saxon influence in the decoration. Both have identical form: nook-shafts, capitals with volutes, and a heavy roll-moulding to the arch above, enclosing a carved tympanum. The tympanum over the south doorway is a striking, well-executed design of 2 dogs facing each other, with an intricately interlaced tree of life between them. The tympanum over the blocked north doorway has the decoration facing inwards: this is a strange, crudely-executed design, with 2 figures, one holding up a ring, and a grid-like implement between them. Possibly St. Katherine with her wheel and St. Lawrence with a gridiron. There is a single small figure in the same style on the side of the right hand capital of the south doorway. The inner arches of both doorways are completely plain. The interior of the nave is filled with C15 benches with poppy-heads, the 8 front benches with carved animal figures beside the poppy- heads, and traceried and panelled ends and backs. The fourth bench on the south side is carved with a lively design of wild boars and figures with human faces and animal or grotesque bodies, the latter with pointed caps. Plain, circular Norman font on a heavy, repaired base with a central supporting shaft and 3 outer shafts with damaged carved heads below the bowl. Of chancel arch, with similar decorative treatment to the north and south doorways: nook shafts, volutes to capitals, roll-moulding to west side of arch. In addition, the abaci are carved with an unusual chain-like motif. The remainder of the interior, the whole chancel, the pulpit and the roofs all date from the 1868 restoration. (For details of the interior before 1868 see Munro Cautley, 'Suffolk Churches and their Treasures', p.325).

Listing NGR: TL8280472032