All Saints Church, South Elmham on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
All Saints Church is a
redundant
Redundancy or redundant may refer to:
Language
* Redundancy (linguistics), information that is expressed more than once
Engineering and computer science
* Data redundancy, database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more table ...
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
church in the village of
All Saints' South Elmham, one of a group of villages jointly known as
The Saints, in
Suffolk
Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
, England. It is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...
as a designated Grade I
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
,
and is under the care of the
Churches Conservation Trust
The Churches Conservation Trust is a registered charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk in England. The charity cares for over 350 churches of architectural, cultural and historic significance, which have been transferred in ...
.
The church stands in an isolated position at the end of a lane adjacent to the
moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...
ed Church Farm.
[ It is one of around 40 ]round-tower church
Round-tower churches are a type of church found mainly in England, mostly in East Anglia; of about 185 surviving examples in the country, 124 are in Norfolk, 38 in Suffolk, six in Essex, three in Sussex and two each in Cambridgeshire and Berks ...
es in Suffolk.
History
All Saints is included in the district of South
Elmham. "This district includes nine parishes and forms a subdivision of the
Hundred of Wangford, anciently called the liberty, manor, or township of South
Elmham. It was granted by Sigebert igeberht King of the East Angles [Anglia">nglia.html" ;"title="igeberht King of the East Angles igeberht King of the East Angles Felix the Burgundian,
his first bishop, who fixed his Episcopal see">see at Dunwich">nglia to Felix of Burgundy">Felix the Burgundian,
his first bishop, who fixed his Episcopal see">see at Dunwich in 630 A.D.."Saxon
The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...
times, All Saints being one of them.
During the reign of Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
the seat was seized in
exchange for other lands. In the
Cotton Manuscripts, Nero C. ix, is an
indenture">Cotton manuscript">Cotton Manuscripts, Nero C. ix, is an
Edward North, Esq., Treasurer of the Court of
Augmentations, dated 4 December 1540, where in exchange for land in the county
of
Buckingham
Buckingham ( ) is a market town in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire, which had a population of 12,890 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census. The town lies approximately west of ...
, North was given rights to the
manor as well as the The Saints, Suffolk">parish
churches of Saint James, Saint Peter, Saint Margarette, Saint Nicholas and All
Saints of South Elmham. The land was possessed from the thirty-second year of
the reign of Henry VII until the reign of King James I by the North family. It
was then conveyed t
Sir John Tasburgh Knight, 20 May 1613, the manor with
the rectories and all the demesnes. The descendants of Sir John retained the
lordship of South Elmham until the male line died out and it was passed to the
Wybornes. The estate was then purchased about 1753 b
William Adair, Esq
All Saints dates from the 12th century.
The south
aisle
An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...
was added in about 1250, or slightly earlier.
Further additions and alterations took place in the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries. The church was "
considerably restored" in 1870.
The churchyard is currently cared for by the
Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) describes itself as the county's "nature charity – the only organisation dedicated wholly to safeguarding Suffolk's wildlife and countryside." It is a registered charity, and its headquarters is at Brooke House i ...
.
All Saints was frequently called All-Hallows. It was consolidated with the parish of St. Nicholas on December 8, 1737, totaling 1620 acres. The population of All Saints, in 1841, was 224 persons.
Architecture
Exterior
The church is constructed in
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. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...
with Freestone (masonry), freestone dressings, and has a lead roof. Its plan consists of a continuous nave and chancel, with a south aisle which runs along the whole length of the nave and chancel, a south porch, and a west tower. The tower is on three stages, and is round in cross-section up to its summit.
[ At one time the top stage was octagonal, but in 1846 it had been "recently removed".][ In the bottom stage is a west Norman architecture, Norman window, and in the middle stage are small round-headed windows. In the top stage the bell openings are also round-headed and have louver, louvres. The parapet is battlemented. Along the north wall of the body of the church are three single-light Norman windows, three 13th-century two-light windows, two 14th-century single-light windows, and a blocked doorway.][ The 14th-century windows contain Perpendicular Gothic, Perpendicular tracery.][ The east window has three lights. On the south wall of the aisle are three windows with Y-tracery. The porch dates from the Middle Ages, medieval period, but the south doorway is Romanesque Revival architecture, Romanesque Revival from the Victorian era.][
]
Interior
The arcade (architecture), arcade between the nave and the south aisle dates from the 14th century. In the chancel is a piscina in Early English Gothic, Early English style which has been much restored. The baptismal font, font dates from the 12th century. It consists of a large square bowl carved with blank arches, supported by a central column and four smaller columns, standing on a rectangular base. There is a variety of benches. Two of these date from the 15th century, are carved with Poppyhead (carving), poppyheads and animals. They were originally in the porch, and consequently are Weathering, weathered. Others, also dating from the 15th century, are carved with poppyheads only, and the rest are 19th-century reproductions.[ The single-manual (music), manual organ is at the east end of the south aisle. It was built in 1884 By Eustace Ingram.]
See also
*List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in the East of England
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:South Elmham, All Saints Church
Grade I listed churches in Suffolk
Church of England church buildings in Suffolk
English churches with Norman architecture
English Gothic architecture in Suffolk
Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust
Waveney District
Round-tower churches