The Church of All Saints East Tuddenham Norfolk
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The Church of All Saints East Tuddenham Norfolk Fig.1. General view from south-south-east Conservation-based Research and Analysis Report Hundred: Mitford Deanery: Hingham NHER: 7314 Stephen Heywood FSA Historic Buildings Officer Norfolk Historic Environment Service Norfolk County Council April 2013 1 Introduction This report accompanies the investigative stage of grant–aided repairs to the nave and chancel roofs of the church of All Saints. It involves a history of the development of the church with special reference to the roofs. The church has an unusual plan with a west tower at the south west corner of a wide, aisleless nave. It has a substantial chancel with a small modern vestry on its north side. On the south side it has an elegant porch and there was a chapel to the north east of the nave (Fig. 2). The church is of flint with ashlar dressings and roofs of pantiles. Fig. 2. Plan by Herbert J Green. 1897 Fig.3. Ladbrooke’s lithograph circa 1820 2 Exterior The earliest surviving feature of the church is the exceptional south doorway of early 13th century date. The arch is two-centred with a deeply cut repeated leaf motif forming a hood mould. The doorway has a pair of engaged nook shafts on water-holding bases and an unusual form of stiff-leaf capitals. The arch has a nibbed angle roll intercepted by baton brisé, chevron derived, lozenges (fig. 4). The door itself is medieval with a quatrefoil motif along its base and some early metalwork. Fig.4. South doorway 3 The south wall has a large panel-traceried window of four lights with a smaller one, of three lights and of a different design, to its west (Fig. 1). The east wall of the nave next to the chancel has some clear remains of a former chancel arch (fig. 5). The springing of the arch Fig. 5. South east wall of nave. can be see with voussoirs formed of medieval brick and the area of the former opening is recessed. This indicates that, formerly, the nave was of a more normal width and that the added west tower was closer to the axis of the church. The use of brick in the former chancel arch suggests that this was later than the late 12th-century doorway and that it represents a lengthening or remodelling of a later medieval date. The whole of the northern half of the church and the chancel are medieval additions of the mid 14th century. The very wide span of the nave was covered by a roof of a shallower pitch than at present, as revealed by the surviving offset in the roof space. A new roof of such a shallow pitch suggests the possibility of the building having had parapets. The simple tower has diagonal buttresses at the west corners only and is only very slightly narrower than the surviving south wall of the earlier nave. It has Y-traceried bell openings and just two windows on the south elevation: a stone-dressed tall lancet with tri-lobe head to the ground floor and a smaller loop to the first floor with a tri-lobe head and a stone 4 transenna forming a geometric pattern. Between the windows is a stone sun dial dated 1984 (figs 6 & 7). Fig. 7. Detail of upper floor window Fig. 6. South elevation of tower The west wall of the nave has a simple 2-light Y-traceried window in the centre and high up, next the tower, another window on the nave axis. This is blocked but reveals the remains of quite elaborate Decorated tracery. Fi g. 8. West wall of nave 5 The north wall of the nave is divided by buttresses into three bays and has just one original but blocked window in the westernmost bay along with the plain-chamfered north doorway (fig.8). The two openings are surmounted by a relieving arch and the window has a further relieving arch. The door itself is of medieval date. The middle bay has a large panel-traceried window and the easternmost bay has a blocked archway of a former chapel. The Fig. 8 North wall of nave form the north west blocking contains a panel-traceried window with four-centred head. There is no sign of the other walls of the chapel with both side walls obscured by the later buttresses. Immediately adjacent to the archway is a simple piscina and immediately east of this, the rood stair existed of which one jamb of the entrance survives (fig. 9). Access to the rood stair must have been from within the chapel, accommodated in its south east corner (fig. 10). The chancel north wall has a fine 3-light 14th-century window with a large quatrefoil vessica. This dates the chancel to the mid 14th century. There is a modern vestry with a flat roof of copper over a facetted plan (fig. 11). The east window is a post medieval replacement in Portland stone yet of convincing simple panel tracery (fig. 12). There are two restored panel- traceried windows to the south. Ladbrooke shows the outline of one window without any tracery which probably means that it was blocked (figs.1 & 2). 6 Fig. 9. Former chapel with piscina and jamb of rood stair doorway. Fig. 11. North wall of chancel Fig. 10. Detail of rood stair 7 Fig. 12. East window Porch The porch was an ambitious project with fine flush work and sculpture. John Teny left money towards the building of the porch in 1458 and in 1502 money for ‘soleryng’ church porch. Does ‘soleryng’ refer to soldering the leadwork? The porch has diagonal buttresses flanking a moulded two-centred entrance arch forming spandrels with a very well preserved representation of the Annunciation with the angel in the eastern spandrel and the Virgin with her lily pot to the west (figs. 13, 14 & 16). The ribbon held by the angel had the words painted on them and the Holy Spirit with rays heads for the Virgin. Figs 13 and 14. The Annunciation Directly above is a flush work inscription of crowned letters of the highest quality (fig. 15). They read: 8 GLORIA TIBI TR The TR is thought to be the first letters of TRINITAS. For some reason the inscription praises the Trinity. Was this an earlier dedication? fig.15. The flushwork inscription The shallow gable of the porch has a central niche with a cusped head surmounted by a small crocketted ogee arch. There are flanking blind cusped window recesses. The buttresses are surmounted by crocketted finials and the plinth is decorated with flush work arcading (fig. 16). The interior of the porch has a plaster ceiling in the shape of a domical or cloister vault. Fig. 16 The porch 9 Interior Fig. 17. Interior looking west The tower has a simple tower arch with the mouldings of the arch dying into the plain responds. The ringing chamber is tall with no further intermediate floor before reaching the bell chamber which has a four-pit frame with access through a central square aperture. The frame has interesting bracing of two braces converging to a single mortise (fig. 18). There is one bell in situ and another small bell. Fig. 18. Detail of bell frame 10 The roof structure is a shallow pyramid with radiating rafters and one principal (Fig.19). Fig. 19. Tower roof The wide nave, wide enough for a nave and aisle has a north wall with an internal batter, no doubt to better deal with lateral pressure of roof. However, any spreading which might have occurred is greatly exaggerated visually by the batter. The only surviving evidence of medieval roofs are the wall posts in each corner of the chancel. From the wall posts are the remains of truncated braces (fig. 20). The braces do not continue into the roof space, as observed on opening up. The facetted chancel ceiling with moulded timber ribs occupies the shape of the simple collared roof structure and is fixed to ceiling joists just below the collars. Fig. 20. Chancel arch from east showing wall posts 11 The nave roof with its impressive span forming a plaster vault of three centres in section received a faculty in 1779 to install a coved plaster ceiling with handsome cornices. Also the faculty specifies ‘blue Holland tiles’ for the covering. Most of the existing pantiles on the nave and chancel roofs are of the un-glazed blue black type and almost certainly the tiles referred to in the faculty (Fig. 21). This is a rare instance of being able to date the tiles from the documentary evidence and as un-glazed pantiles are relatively unusual it would be fair to assume a late 18th-century date for their use more generally. Also it is interesting that they are still seen as Dutch in the 1770s and begs the question of whether or not the tiles were imported. Also of interest is that the faculty continues with the comment that the nave will be covered with blue Holland tile as the chancel is ‘already covered with the same’. Ladbrooke shows both roofs of pantile in the 1820s (fig.3). Fig. 21. Blue Holland tiles on north nave roof. The roof structure is of principal rafters linked with low collars and braced with solid soulaces and sharply curved braces at wall plate level producing the coving which was so admired in the late 18th century.1 The collars supported king posts with struts. At the springings of the vault there are bold cornices as directed in the faculty.