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 former village of Vange, now part of the town of Basildon,

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church stands to the south of the town of Basildon, just north of the

A13 road This is a list of roads designated A13. Roads entries are sorted in the countries alphabetical order. * ''A13 highway (Australia)'' may refer to: ** South Australian route A13, including Main South Road and Victor Harbor Road * A13 motorway (Aust ...

History

All Saints church in London Road, Vange, is thought to date from around 1328 and believed to be the oldest surviving church in Basildon, and additions have been made since that time. The last major change was in 1837 when the west wall was rebuilt and a gallery was added, In the late 1890s the church underwent a further restoration which was completed in May 1896. In 1890 the box pews were replaced by benches. The interior, once lit by oil lamps, was later wired for light after electricity was installed to provide heating in 1931. On 4 July 1955 the church, along with a number of others buildings in the Basildon area, became a listed building on the government departments' Ministry of Works list of buildings of historic interest. As of today it is now a designated a Grade II* listed building. In the 1950s the population of Vange began to increase as the new housing estates of Basildon new town began to take shape. The location of the church, its size and condition were considered inadequate and a new church called St. Chad's was built in Timberlog Lane (now Clay Hill Road) which opened in 1958. Services, though greatly reduced, did continue at All Saints, as did marriages and funeral services but by the 1990s it was evident that the church, if it was to survive would need to undergo important renovation work. The last service was held in 1994 and All Saints of Vange was made redundant on 14 February 1996 and

vested In law, vesting is the point in time when the rights and interests arising from legal ownership of a property is acquired by some person. Vesting creates an immediately secured right of present or future deployment. One has a vested right to an ...

in th
Churches Conservation Trust
in January 2003. Repairs were necessary because the structure of the church had deteriorated over the years, and in more recent years it had been vandalised. These were undertaken in two phases. In the first phase, starting in April 2004, the building was stabilised and made weatherproof. The second phase has included repairs to the interior of the church, replacing doors and windows, dealing with cracks in the walls, rebuilding the stairway leading to the

rood A rood or rood cross, sometimes known as a triumphal cross, is a cross or crucifix, especially the large crucifix set above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church. Alternatively, it is a large sculpture or painting of the crucifixion ...

loft, conserving the wall paintings, repairing the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

ceiling and removing the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

ceiling, and restoring the

bellcote A bellcote, bell-cote or bell-cot is a small framework and shelter for one or more bells. Bellcotes are most common in church architecture but are also seen on institutions such as schools. The bellcote may be carried on brackets projecting from ...

Architecture

The church is constructed in ragstone and

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

, with a tiled roof. Its plan is simple, consisting only of a nave and chancel, with a bellcote at the west end. The bellcote is constructed in timber, with

weatherboarding Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

and a shingled pyramidal roof. In the south wall of the nave are the remains of a

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 ...

window, and a 15th-century door. In both the north and south walls of the nave are windows dating from the 15th century The 12th-century

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 ...

consists of a square bowl supported by five columns, decorated with chevrons on one side. In the chancel are 17th-century wall monuments.

Church Features.

Norman Chancel Arch. When entering the chancel you are faced with the original 900 year old Chancel Arch, which has been heavily repaired over the centuries, with each generation leaving their mark. It measures 3.75 feet thick or 1.1 meters, above this repairs were done in the 13th and 14th centuries. 12th Century Font. All Saints Vange Font

In the nave sits proudly
12th century Font made of stone
in Purbeck Marble, the bowl is lead lined, with 17th century graffiti internally in the zig zag pattern known as Wigglework and externally in the v formations. Rood Stairs. The nave also has a rood set in the south wall, which has recently undergone restoration, the stone stairs would have originally had a screen set on the upper level, there may have also been flooring laid on the upper oak beams creating a loft space, the Rood screen was destroyed in the Reformation. Medieval Last Judgement Painting. In the chancel on the south wall a small section of medieval painting from the 13th century is still visible and was unearthed during restorations in 1904, the painting is of the Doom or the Last Judgement, from the Book of Revelation by John, being destroyed around 1540. Memorials. In the chancel, three fine plaques hang on the North wall, two dating to the 17th century and one in the early 19th century.+

External features

The churchyard contains the

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

of five soldiers and two

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

sailors of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

References

External links