Church of All Saints

Details

HOLLESLEY (off) FOX HILL TM 34 SE (East side) 11/121 Church of All Saints 16/3/66 GV II* Church. Early C13, mid C15 and c.1886. Rubble and knapped flint, with ashlar dressings and slate roof. West tower, nave with north aisle and chancel. Tower: west front: slightly projecting plinth with arcade of cusped lancets in flushwork, most of the flint has been replaced by bricks. Diagonal buttresses with ashlar dressings to their inner angles with 2 x 2 panels if flushwork to their outer faces dying back into the corners of the tower after offsets. Central Perpendicular ground floor doorway with ashlar surround which has double-ogee and billet mouldings. Ashlar spandrels above bearing coats of arms, now heavily weathered. The door is of C20 date and has 4 canopied panels containing staff-motifs and Perpendicular tracery motifs above with bands of decoration to the stiles. String course to top of the doorway. Above this is a small vacant niche with cusped trefoil head. Above this a 3- light Perpendicular window with cinquefoil heads to the lights and plate tracery. A stone band extends across the tower at the level of the first offset above which is a trefoil-headed opening with square hoodmould. Circular clock face above that of C18 or early-C19 date. Band between clock stage and belfry which has a 2-light early-Perpendicular opening with ogee heads to the lights and a quatrefoil to the apex. String course below the level of the parapet which has stepped battlements and an arcade of flushwork lancets also incorporating a circle with 4 mouchettes and the crowned initial. M. Shafts of corner pinnacles now reduced in height. South face: similar save for the absence of a door, lower window and clock face. Cusped lancet placed slightly to left of centre and at right is the canted staircase turret which has a rectangular lancet and quatrefoil-light to its south western face. Within the flushwork arcade to the outer face of the right hand buttress is a reset piscina. North face: bare to its lower stages but with a similar belfry opening. The parapet has a shield with chequer motif to left. East face: abuts the nave to its lower body but has a similar belfry opening and parapet, the parapet flushwork being little altered. Nave: south face: 4 bays, those 3 at right divided by buttresses with one further buttress at extreme right. Doorway to left with hollow chamfer and hoodmould. Left hand window of 2 lights with Y-tracery of C19 date possibly following an earlier model. Two Perpendicular windows to right of this with 2 ogee-headed lights and mouchettes and quatrefoil to the apex. North face: aisle has rubble walling of c.1886 with paired lancets in ashlar surrounds divided by buttresses. Chancel: lower ridge but the walls are flush with those of the nave. South face: 2 windows, similar to those at right of nave on this side. Between them is a buttress with 2 offsets and panels of flushwork tracery to its outer face. Immediately to its left is a priest's door with wave moulded surround of C19 date but with a hoodmould perhaps of an earlier date. North face: similar save for the absence of a priest's door. East face: diagonal buttresses, with flushwork panels to the outer faces. Central 3-light Perpendicular window with cinquefoil heads. Interior: Roof of C19 date having common rafters with arch braces and collars springing from a cornice with double row of brattishing. Octagonal C15 font with octagonal column with buttresses to the corners. Square flowers and gargoyles below the bowl which has recessed panels holding shields and roses against cusped background. Tower arch with wave mouldings and semi-octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The arcade to the north aisle dates in part from an earlier aisle. Four arches with central octagonal plan flanked by circular piers, all having moulded capitals and bases. Fragments of the earlier arcade have been mixed in with C19 copies to form this reconstruction. The central column has a wholly new capital and much renewed stone to the shaft. The lateral piers less altered. C17 pulpit of oak set on C19 base of ashlar having 3 tiers of decorated panels and a reading desk. Decorated piscina in nave south wall with cusped head. Eight C15 benches survive with poppyhead finials and animal pinnacles to the arm rests. These have been closely followed in the design of a further 32 pews this century. Chancel: divided from the nave by a truss with cusped arch braces. Roof similar to that of the nave. Dividing the chancel from the nave are the lower dado panels of a mid-C15 screen . Three panels to each side of the central opening with miniature buttresses, ogee heads to the arches and tracery above with a hollow chamfered sill above, renewed boards behind tracery panels. Sources: Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Suffolk, 1977. H. Munro Cautley, Suffolk churches, 1982.

Listing NGR: TM3535244328

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

285487

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Munro Cautley, H, Suffolk Churches and their Treasures, (1937)
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk, (1974)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.