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All Saints

West Horndon

Essex

C15 nave and chancel (mis-aligned and probably over earlier building) with N & S transepts to nave and projecting N chapel to chancel.

Architectural Features

C17 west tower.

C16 chapel to S of chancel and S porch.

Square W tower with W side and upper stage re-built in C17, large diagonal double shouldered corner buttress.

Projecting N chapel has lean-to roof grading into chancel roof, no windows but two large crosses on pedestals in burnt headers, one partly obscured by later memorial plaque.

W of central transept, nave wall blank except for a stone C14 doorway - 2 centred arched head with double chamfer mouldings and hollow moulded label, boarded door, lower section trapped by raised concrete sill cast against door.

Doorway to tower in C17 timber-framed partition.

S doorway of stone, early C16, 2 centred arched head in rectangular surround with label - all moulded, quatrefoils in spandrels with shield and rose, traces of red colour.

Transepts, both have upper galleries - guard rails to nave have early C17 turned balusters, also, evidence of linking rood loft/gallery between.

Chancel roof arched and boarded with moulded ribs in rectangular pattern, carved bosses at intersections of flowers, birds and shields.

W tower has free standing C17 internal timber sub tower to support belfry frame - 4 outer posts braced down to N & S sills.

MONUMENTS: several removed for safe keeping - most notable in church now is of Alice (Cogesale) wife of Sir John Tyrell 1422, incised limestone slab, figure of woman in horned head-dress and fur lined cloak, under vaulted canopy with shafts containing figures of children, "one of the outstanding flat engraved monuments of Europe" now raised on C20 brick platform beneath arcade to S chancel chapel.

Also, in N chapel, indent raised on C20 brick base, marginal inscription partly survives to Sir Thomas Tyrell [1476] and Anne (Marney), his wife.

S chapel, S wall, monument to Sir John Tyrell 1676 and Martha (Washington) his wife 1679, also monument to Sir Charles Tyrell 1714 and Martha his wife 1690 - marble, fluted pilasters, broken pediment.

Excavation then revealed fragments of indurated conglomerate under chancel/S chapel arcade reinforcing plan evidence of probable earlier Saxon/Norman building.

The Church of All Saints forms a group with the stable (qv) and Freman monument (qv), both in the churchyard.