Church of All Saints

Details

TQ59NE
723-1/5/315

DODDINGHURST
CHURCH LANE (north side)
Church of All Saints

(Formerly Listed as: BRENTWOOD, CHURCH LANE, Doddinghurst Church of All Saints)

20/02/67

GV
I
Church.C13, C14, C16 and walls largely rebuilt or refaced 1886-1887, except north wall of nave. Flint rubble with limestone dressings, peg-tiled roof. Simple nave and narrower chancel with north vestry. Timber-framed belfry tower c1400 within west end of nave and long C16 timber-framed porch to south door.

EXTERIOR: the nave, south wall, west to east blocked lancet window, C13 doorway of clunch with two centred arch with dog tooth ornament on the soffit and deep mouldings - outer hood mould renewed in oolite together with lower part of jambs with bases, C19 boarded door. C16 timber-framed porch to door, two bays deep with ten upper lights, lower plank and muntin construction below rail and in gable, restored 1887. Window perpendicular style, square frame with three cusped lights with ogee heads and circles with quatrefoils in spandrels.

Chancel south wall, west to east, three simple lancet windows. Nave north wall, west to east, three simple lancet windows, west one blocked. North vestry, window, perpendicular style, three lights in two centred arch, super mullions. Chancel east wall, three tall lancet windows.

Belfry tower with vertical boarding rising from nave roof, small wooden shingled spire. The nave roof is of two bays with a large central crown post, square section with square central fillets on each face - curved braces rise directly from the fillet (no capital) to the soulaces.

The roof is unusual in that there is a ridge piece as well as a collar purlin and alternate roof trusses have a second upper collar supporting a king strut that traps the ridge piece to the apex. Dating of roof relies purely on crown post section (of long date range in Essex) and hollow chamfers on flying cornice plate. Also, unusual fillet on underside of collar purlin (like the crown post). Nave roof terminates correctly against the belfry tower and must be contemporary or later than the tower.

Belfry tower of the Essex type - massive lower stage of six posts, internal cross framing on north and south with curved 'X' bracing in panels, corner posts with jowls clasping arched braces to tie-beams. Second stage - four corner posts. Three sub-stages, central stage north and south scissor braced, upper stage with bell frame. Timber-framing altered, probably when late medieval traceried windows inserted into older openings. Small spire rising from pyramidal roof with central armature on a tie-beam. Date of tower uncertain but consistent use of curved braces and lack of side lapped joints in favour of mortice and tenons implies a date after the C13.

Roof relates to tower and probably both roughly contemporary and within the C14. Timber porch has mouldings of perpendicular form, cymas and hollows of mullions typical of early-mid-C16. North wall of nave shows variation in pebble coursing where building pauses occurred creating a series of 'lifts'. Basal course contains much indurated conglomerate. It also occurs sporadically at the top of the first lift at about one metre. This material is normally found in the east of Essex and in walls not later in date than the Norman period, i.e.pre-1200.

INTERIOR of church all C19 except wooden rood figures of Christ, the Virgin and St John, C19 imports, probably German C16. Font of upper greensand with mica flecks, octagonal, faces have quatrefoils in circles with central leaf and fleuron motifs. One panel with a 'green man'. Pedestal with panelled tracery,early Perpendicular perhaps contemporary with the tower and the nave roof of the C14.

The Church and the Priests House (qv) form a group.

Listing NGR: TQ5892099001

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

373601

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
An Inventory of Essex Central and South West, (1921), 56
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Essex, (1965), 161
Hewett, C A, Church Carpentry A Study Based on Essex Examples, (1982), 22, 57-58
Hewett, C A, The Timber Belfries of Essex in Archaeological Journal, (1962), 119

End of official list entry

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