Church of All Saints

Details

TOLLESHUNT KNIGHTS RECTORY ROAD TL 91 SW (north-east side) 3/93 Church of All Saints 30.12.59 - II*

Parish church, now Greek Orthodox church. C12 origin, with C15 and C19 details. Walls of stone rubble including indurated gravel conglomerate, mainly plastered, repaired with red brick, with limestone dressings. Porch timber framed on red brick plinth in English bond. Roofs of handmade red clay tiles. Nave walls C12. Chancel rebuilt in C13. S porch c.1500. The Chancel has a C19 E window; the E wall is much repaired and buttressed with brick. No apertures are visible in the N wall, although there was formerly a C19 N vestry. The S wall has a C19 doorway and part of a C19 window, blocked on the inside, and a C13 piscina with chamfered and rebated jambs and 2-centred head. C20 partition across the Chancel. The C15 chancel-arch is 2-centred, of 2 hollow-chamfered orders, dying on to the hollow-chamfered responds. The roof is of 14 coupled rafters with soulaces and ashlar-pieces, medieval in origin, but more than half of it is C19 restoration. The Nave has in the N wall 3 windows; the easternmost and westernmost are C19; the middle window is C15, of 2 cinquefoiled lights in a square head with moulded label. W of it is the C15 N doorway, with moulded jambs and 2-centred arch and label. The internal splays are moulded to form half-round shafts with capitals, and 2 hollow-chamfers. The rear-arch is of shallow 4-centred form, with double-ogee moulding. The C15 door-leaf is of V-edged boards, with one strap hinge with incised herringbone pattern, the lower half bricked up externally, and wholly blocked internally. In the S wall are 3 windows similar in date and details to those in the N wall; the middle window is blocked internally, and only the cinquefoiled head and label are visible externally. Between the 2 western windows is the C15 S doorway, with partly restored moulded jambs and 2-centred arch, and moulded label with headstops of 2 bishops, defaced. In the W wall is a C19 window of one light with splays and hollow-chamfered 2-centred rear-arch, possibly C13. At the W end is a C19 brick bellcote. The roof of the Nave is in 3 bays, each of 7 rafter couples with soulaces and ashlar-pieces, medieval; 5 couples at the W end have been renewed in the C19. At the E end, against the chancel-arch, are a hollow-chamfered tiebeam and wall-pieces, with solid knees. The second tiebeam is richly moulded, with hollow-chamfered wall-pieces and solid knees. The third tiebeam is modern; there is not one at the W end. The S porch is of C15 or early C16 origin, much restored in the C19. It retains base walls of early red brick in English bond, with Cl9 stone copings. The roof is of crownpost construction, of which 5 of the 6 rafter couples, the cranked inner tiebeam and short plain crownpost with 2 cranked braces, are original. In the blocked N doorway is a mutilated stone effigy of a man in armour, with bascinet, camail with a series of lappets each with a crescent, surcoat and sword-belt, head on helm, legs and arms missing and figure much defaced, c.1380. P. Morant states that in his time the church had a timber belfry with 2 bells and a shingled spire. (The History and Antiquities of Essex, 1768, I, 394). Of the 2 bells recorded by the RCHM, the one dated 1575 has been stolen; the other, by Miles Graye, 1664, has been removed for safety to the Greek orthodox Monastery, Rectory Road. The font recorded by the RCHM, now broken, is also in store at the Monastery at the time of survey, April 1985.

Listing NGR: TL9269513863

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

353202

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
An Inventory of Essex North East, (1922)
Morant, P, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, (1768), 394

End of official list entry

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