MATERIALS: Mainly ragstone rubble with some flint and ironstone, and some Roman brick in the chancel
S nave chapel is C16 brick.
Chancel has N and S chapels and N vestry EXTERIOR The large W tower was rebuilt in 1802 following the collapse of the earlier tower of unknown medieval date in 1800.
The remains of round-headed windows, presumably of the late C12, were discovered, and removed, when the E wall was rebuilt during the later C19 restorations.
The chancel was given new windows, now heavily restored, in the C15.
The chancel chapels and the two-story NE vestry are C14 in origin,
also have C15 windows.
There is a C16 window in the upper story of the vestry, which is probably an addition of that date, and has a plain parapet and low pitched roof.
The exterior of the N and S nave aisles may also be C13 in origin, as the S door and parts of the N door are of that date, and the lack of buttresses also points to a C13 origin, contemporary with the C13 arcades internally.
The aisles were given new windows in C14.
The N and S porches were added C.1400.
Small, projecting chapels were added to the E end of both aisles in the early C16.
That on the N is very shallow, while that on the S is larger and was built of brick as a chantry for William Carpenter, vicar until 1526.
Also in the C16, the clerestory was rebuilt and embattled parapets were added to the nave, aisles and chapels and vestry.
INTERIOR The chancel arch was entirely rebuilt in 1879 and is C15 in style with many tiny mouldings on polygonal shafts with moulded capitals, and a hood mould with foliate stops.
The arches from the aisles to the N and S chancel chapels were also rebuilt in the C19 in a C15 style.
The 2-bay arcades to the N and S chancel chapels are C14 in origin
were reworked in the C15 and heavily restored in the C19.
The door to the N vestry has a C14 door.
The 5 bay nave arcades are C13 in origin and have chamfered orders on round piers with moulded capitals.
A blocked window in the nave S wall above the first pier of the S arcade may be the remains of a C13 clerestory.
There is a wide C16 arch into the shallow N nave chapel and a narrower arch into the S nave chapel.
The nave roof is low pitched with cared bosses and stands on demi-figures of angles.
Of C15 origins, it was restored in the C18 and C19, and again in the C20.
The aisles have restored C15 roofs.
An early C13 piscina was reset in a new niche in the chancel in the C19.
A few surviving C15 benches with poppyheads.
The largely C19 choir stalls have some early C16 poppy heads
late C17 or C18 openwork panels to the fronts.
Pulpit of 1885, eagle lectern of 1895.
Constance Berners, 1524
Edward Bell and wife, 1576, and Rose Pinchon, 1592, all made in London, and all restored in 1993 following the fire in the N chapel.
Also Edward Hunt, d. 1606, and Edward Bowland and wife, d. 1609 and 1616, and a number of others.
A version of another monument by Stone in Southwark cathedral, it is an allegory on man's resurrection as a crop sown, reaped, and renewed by God.
A female figure within a broken pediment stands on sheaves of wheat and reaches up towards the Sun of Righteousness in the centre, with two seated angels wearing reapers hats at the sides.
an alabaster wall cartouche with scrolls and arms to Elizabeth Knightbridge, d. 1658
Except for the arms of William of Wykeham, dated 1619 in the N vestry, the glass is largely C19 and C20.
S aisle Ion Pace, 1899 and C C Powell of 1902 as a memorial to Queen Victoria.
Fragment of wall painting of St George uncovered above N nave door.
The N vestry door is C14.
The church was given to Bermondsey abbey in 1143,
then in 1204 to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Rome, a papal foundation for English pilgrims to Rome.
By the mid C13 a cell of the hospital chaplains was established in Writtle, which probably helps to explain the size and grandeur of the C13 work on the church.
The earliest fabric is late C12, but the very irregular setting out of the building suggests that it was built around an older church.
It was greatly extended in the C13, when the aisles were added.
The chancel had also reached its present extent by the early C13.
The aisles were remodelled and given new windows in the C14, when the chancel chapels were added and the N vestry built.
More new windows were installed in the C15, when the rood stair turret was built and the chancel arch rebuilt.
In the late C14 all alien priories (English cells of foreign monasteries) were dissolved and Writtle was bought in 1399 by William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, as part of his foundation of New College, Oxford.
Some of the early C15 work on the chancel may be attributable to the college, but the nave was the responsibility of the parishioners.
In the early C16, small chantry chapels were added to both aisles, the clerestory raised and rebuilt, the parapets added and the upper part of the vestry built.
C17 refurnishing is recorded, and work was also done on the roofs in this period.
The medieval tower collapsed in 1800 and was rebuilt in 1802-3, a project paid for and directed by a parishioner, Henry Lambirth.
The church was heavily restored in the later C19, including the removal of most of the C17 and C18 furnishings and the rebuilding of much of the fabric, including work on the nave by Frederic Chancellor in 1878-9 and on the chancel by A W Blomfield in 1885-6.
The tower was remodelled in 1924, including the refashioning of all of the windows and the W door to make them more medieval in appearance.
The harsh restoration of the C19, which saw the replacement of much medieval fabric, was not untypical of the period, but the medievalising of the early C19 W tower in 1924 is unusually late for such a drastic change.
SOURCES Buildings of England: Essex , 858-9 RCHME: Essex (II) 271-5 George D C, The Church of All Saints, Writtle, Essex: Its History, Architecture
remodelling of the C14-C16 and an early C19 tower, heavily restored in the C19 and C20. * An intricate history and development, reflected in its fabric, connecting the parish with significant orders and patrons in the middle ages. * Some good fittings including C15 benches and restored C15 roofs. * For its monuments, including a series of fine C16 London brasses, an especially fine allegorical monument by Nicholas Stone, and another (albeit altered) by Sir Henry Cheere.