Description

TL 76 SW
6/47

GAZELEY
THE STREET
Church of All Saints

7.5.54

I
Church, medieval. Nave, chancel, north and south aisles, south
porch and west tower. Flint rubble with areas of rendering to
the porch and chancel. Freestone dressings, parapet gables and
crenellated parapets. Roofs plaintiled to chancel and porch,
slated to nave and vestry, and flat to tower and aisles. A
substantial early C14 church with late C15 alterations. Chancel
an unusual east window with 3 lights below a cusped trefoil; in
the reveals blank arched panels and an inner arch. 2-light
windows to north and south, the western pair with a transome and
lowered cills. Fine piscina integral with a double window-seat
sedilia; between the seats is an armrest in the form of a crude
lion couchant. On the north wall is a projecting aumbry with
crocketed canopy. Nave: moulded arched doorways to north and
south (the priest's door is similar). 4-bay nave arcades with
quatrefoil piers; the chancel arch and tower arch are broad and
similar in type. Tower: C14, but the upper level partly rebuilt
1884 with 3-light west window and 2-light belfry openings. On
the east face are weatherings for 2 previous nave roofs, and the
sanctus bell opening is now above the nave roof. The west
doorway is also C14. The late C15 work includes raising or
rebuilding of aisle walls for large 3-light windows and of nave
walls for new clerestory. Complete reroofing was carried out:
the chancel roof is in 7 cants with boarding and moulded ribs,
incorporating a large selection of angels, human faces, animals
and foliage. The nave roof is in 4 bays with arch-braced tie-
beams, arch-braced principals (both having traceried spandrels)
and carved pendant bosses. The aisle roofs have principals on
carved corbels of clunch. The C15 porch has a pilastered
doorway, 2-light side windows, stone seats and a gargoyle. Over
the doorway is a sundial. The vestry was added C15; the doorway
from chancel has its original plank door. Octagonal C14 font of
limestone with simple tracery in panels on the bowl and stem.
The screen is mainly late C16 with tracery at the heads, complete
up to the rood-beam, but much restored and incorporating earlier
work at low level. Octagonal pulpit, c.1500, with sunk traceried
panels between buttresses; heavily restored C19. Some good C15
pews: 2 sets of 4 at rear of nave, having buttresses, traceried
ends and backs. 2 long stall-fronts, each with 8 fine traceried
panels. 2 further poppy-head benches have traceried backs, one
having the damaged lettering, "SALAMON SAYET". In the south
aisle is a fine mid C16 Purbeck marble alter tomb with
buttresses, cresting, traceried front, and indents for brasses
now gone. In the chancel is a wall monument to Edmund Heigham
and his wife, d.1604 and 1599. Also in the chancel 11 floor
slabs, mostly of marble, one possibly C15 having had extensive
brasses, the others mainly C17 and C18. In the nave and aisles
are 11 floor slabs, mainly C16-C18. On the north chancel wall is
a consecration cross. Some good C15/C16 figures and canopy-work
in stained glass in the aisle and clerestory windows.

Listing NGR: TL7193264164

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17542620

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)