All Saints' Church is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in the village of

Icklingham Icklingham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is located about north-west of Bury St Edmunds, south-east of Mildenhall and south-west of Thetford in Norfolk. The village is on the A110 ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands in the highest point in the village, adjacent to the A1101 road between Mildenhall and

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

. This was formerly the ancient trackway of Icknield Way, and Icklingham is close to an important junction on this trackway.

History

A Roman Christian graveyard exists in Icklingham, and a

baptismal font A baptismal font is an article of church furniture used for baptism. Aspersion and affusion fonts The fonts of many Christian denominations are for baptisms using a non-immersive method, such as aspersion (sprinkling) or affusion (pouring). ...

was found on the same site. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and is visible in the British Museum. Some of the fabric in the nave is

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

dating from the 11th or 12th century. The church was almost completely rebuilt in the 14th century, a time of great prosperity in the area. A south porch was added in the 15th century. The church has been unused for over 100 years, and its

benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

has been united with that of St James, the other church in the village. It was declared redundant in the 1970s. Since passing into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust, its roof has been re-thatched in the traditional manner.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in flint rubble with freestone dressings. The roof is thatched. Its plan consists of a four-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

nave with a south aisle and a south porch, a chancel, and a southwest tower. The tower is in three stages with a plain parapet and gargoyles, and has diagonal buttresses. In the lowest stage is a simple blocked doorway with a

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top. It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance. Instances of this architectural element are typical of Gothic church edifices of the earliest period. Lancet wi ...

above it. In the middle stage is a circular window on the west side. The top stage contains large bell openings with Y- tracery on each side. The north nave wall contains the Norman fabric, which includes large areas of coursed flint walling and two blocked lancet windows. It also contains a doorway and 14th-century windows, and there are similar windows on the north and south walls of the chancel. The north wall of the chancel contains a doorway, and the east window has three lights. The east window of the south aisle has five lights, flanked by canopied niches. The niches show traces of colour, suggesting that they were originally painted. Its south wall contains a three-light window, and under the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

is a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

decorated with ball flowers. The porch has a pilastered doorway and two-light windows on each side. The south doorway into the church dates from the 14th century.

Interior

The south arcade has four bays carried on octagonal

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

with moulded

capitals Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

. On the north and south walls is a cornice carved with a frieze containing a variety of motifs. There is a trefoil-headed piscina in the south wall of the aisle, and another in the south wall of the chancel. Also in the chancel is a double aumbry. The chancel also contains many 14th-century mosaic tiles with line-impressed decorations, dating from the 14th century. The rood screen is still partly present, and there is a door and stairs to the previous rood loft. The limestone

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

dates from the 14th century. It is carried on five columns, and its octagonal bowl is carved with different tracery on each face. The

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

is also octagonal; it dates from the 17th century. Some of the stained glass dates from the 14th century. The pews are carved with poppyheads and date from between the 15th and the 17th centuries. There is a

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

of three bells. Two of these were cast between 1424 and 1513 by Brasyers of Norwich, and the other in 1608 by John Draper of Thetford.

References

External links