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All Saints

All Saints

Purleigh

Essex

Mainly C14, restored in C19.

Architectural Features

Roofed with handmade red clay tiles.

Chancel, Nave, N and S aisles, and W tower, all rebuilt in the C14, beginning at the E end, but the irregular plan suggests an earlier origin, of which some fabric may survive at the W end of the Nave and S aisle.

S porch c.1500.

The C14 E window is of 4 cinquefoiled lights with tracery in a 2-centred head with moulded rear-arch and labels.

In the N wall are 2 C14 windows, each of 2 cinquefoiled lights with a sexfoil in a 2-centred head with wave-moulded rear-arch and moulded labels.

Between them is a C14 tomb-recess, with moulded segmental-pointed arch, the label destroyed.

In the S wall are 2 similar windows, and between them is a C14 doorway with segmental-pointed arch and moulded internal label, blocked.

this is C15, reconstructed in the Cl9.

The Nave has an early C14 N arcade of 3 bays with 2-centred arches of 2 chamfered orders

Below the capitals of the E respond and easternmost pier are carved shields of arms, both cut away for a later screen, now missing.

The N aisle is of septaria and ragstone rubble with some brick and tile, with some yellow bricks in the arch of the E window.

The C14 E window is of 2 cinquefoiled lights with a sexfoil in a 2-centred arch with wave-moulded rear-arch and moulded labels.

the eastern is late C14, much restored, of 3 cinquefoiled ogee lights with tracery in a square head with a moulded label

the western is C15, much restored, of 2 cinquefoiled lights with vertical tracery in a segmental head with moulded rear-arch and label.

Between the windows is the C14 N doorway with jambs and 2-centred arch of 2 orders, one wave-moulded and one chamfered, the rear-arch chamfered.

The C14 door is of V-edged planks, restored at the bottom, with 2 strap-hinges and one extra strap at the top, blocked internally.

The N wall has a late C14 window similar to that in the S aisle, also much restored.

Further W is the C14 S doorway, with jambs and 2-centred arch of 2 wave-moulded orders, with a moulded label with decayed headstops.

The C14 S doors are of V-edged planks restored at the bottom, each leaf having 4 iron straps with incised patterns

one strap includes a domed scutcheon-plate, with a cable-twist ring handle, C14

The W window is C19, except the splays and wave-moulded 2-centred rear-arch, C14.

The W tower is mid-C14, in 4 stages with moulded plinth and strings.

The N, S and W walls of the third stage have each a window of 2 trefoiled ogee lights with tracery in a 2-centred head with moulded label, and the E wall has a pointed opening into the Nave, with rear-arch of rubble, covered in the Nave by an C18 royal arms.

The S porch is of red brick, c.1500.

In the Chancel is a piscina with moulded jambs, cinquefoiled head and quatrefoiled drain, in range with sedilia of 3 bays with moulded jambs and cinquefoiled heads, C14, partly restored.

In the S aisle is a C15 piscina with triangular head and broken drain.

There is in situ C14 glass in the heads of the N and S windows of the Chancel, tabernacle work, borders etc.

The pulpit, c.1700, is hexagonal, the angles enriched with fruit, foliage and tasselled ribbons, with fielded panels and guilloche and foliate borders (one panel with a rose boss), moulded cornice, tapering stem, carved base, and stair with twist-turned balusters.

In the Chancel are brasses (1) to Margaret (Rande), wife of John Freake, rector, 1592, inscription only, (2) to Cecily, widow of Edmund Freake, bishop of Worcester, 1599, inscription only, (3) to John Freake, rector of Purleigh

archdeacon of Norwich, 1604, inscription only.

In the Chancel are floor-slabs (1) to Elizabeth, wife of John Burton, 1624, black marble with shield of arms, (2) to Rev. Thomas Shaw, 1785, and Anna his widow, 1814, black marble, and (3) to Rev. Roger Hayne, 1810, and Elizabeth his widow, 1817, limestone.

There are 6 bells, the third to sixth by Miles Graye, 1636.