Description

BARNARDISTON

832/11/1 BARNARDISTON
19-DEC-61 CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS

II*
C13 chancel, but the nave is probably earlier in origin. C14 N door. C15 porch, tower and rood stair turret, and C15 woodwork. C17 pulpit and altar rails. Restored C19 with further work in the early C20.

MATERIALS
Mainly flint rubble with stone dressings. The N side of the nave is rendered, as is part of the E nave gable and a small area of the chancel. Lead roofs to nave and W tower, the chancel and porch have tiled roofs. Interior plastered and painted.

PLAN
Chancel, aisleless nave with NE rood stair, N porch, and W tower.

EXTERIOR
A small church with a substantial tower that stands on high ground, and so can be seen from some distance. The chancel has diagonal NE and SE buttresses and an additional buttress in the middle of the S wall. Chancel has two cusped 2-light windows with square heads in the S wall and a single, similar window in the N wall. Chancel N door is double chamfered and has a pointed head and a hoodmould. The E window is C19 Perpendicular-style of 3 lights with a pointed head. The nave has a parapet of coped ashlar and a lead mansard roof; the scar of an earlier pitched roof is visible against the E wall of the tower. The S nave wall has tall, stepped buttresses and two 2-light C19 windows with Perpendicular style tracery. There is a similar window on the N side. Large NE rood stair turret, square-on-plan with an embattled parapet. Very tall C15 N porch with diagonal buttresses and a tall outer doorway with engaged half shafts. The porch has a C15 E window. The inner N doorway is C14 and has many tiny mouldings. It is set within an architectural frame comprising a square-headed, battlemented frame with carved spandrels and crocketed pinnacles to either side. Above the frame, the steeply pitched scar of the former C14 porch is still visible. To the right of the door in the porch inner W wall is a recess with a sept-foiled pointed head within a square frame with traceried spandrels, probably re-set from the C14 porch. The plank and cover strip inner door is C15 or C16 and has a small, depressed-ogee-headed wicket door on the left. The embattled W tower has diagonal buttresses to NW and SW and a stair turret to the SE. The W and bell stage windows have pointed heads, hood moulds with headstops and Perpendicular tracery, that to the E in the bell stage is smaller and simpler.

INTERIOR
The interior is heavily restored, but retains much medieval woodwork. Very tall double-chamfered tower arch. A tie-beam nave roof with intermediate trusses: the main trusses have curved braces below the tie, supported on moulded stone corbels; there are curved braces above the tie-beam, a moulded ridge, and one tier of moulded purlins; the intermediate trusses are of false hammerbeam design with carved angels; some of the tie beams appear to be medieval, but the rest is C19. Double chamfered chancel arch with octagonal responds with moulded capitals. The former rood door with four-centred head in the NE corner of the nave, and a piscina with a foiled head in a square frame in the SE corner. The C15 screen survives. The chancel has a canted ceiled wagon roof divided into panels by moulded ribs. The moulded wallplate is medieval, and there may be medieval fabric behind the present ceiling.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES
Chancel piscina late C15 or C16 with an almost flat cusped arch and embattled cornice. Dropped sill chancel sedilia. Nave piscina C14 or C15 with a foiled pointed head in a square frame. C15 chancel screen with coved top, and cusped and crocketted ogee arches, repaired in the 1920s, when a new cornice was added. A good set of C15 benches, low with traceried ends and back panels. Two scratch dials to the E of the S door, unusually with Roman numerals. C15 octagonal font with simple quatrefoils on each face, held together by an iron band around the bowl. C17 communion rails with turned balusters. Simple C17 timber polygonal pulpit on a short post, each face divided into two panels with an arch in the upper panel. The hourglass stand survives on the wall above it. Reading desk made up out of two panels formerly part of the pulpit door. The N choir stalls have C17 panelled backs and plainer panelled fronts; the S choir stalls are C19 with blind trefoil-headed panelling. There is graffiti depicting a windmill by the chancel S window. The floors are a mix of bricks and pamments (clay floor tiles). The nave windows have some floral quarries, mostly C19 pr early C20.

HISTORY:
The earliest visible fabric is the C13 work in the chancel, but it is likely that there was a church here earlier. The church underwent substantial rebuilding in the C14 and the lavishness of the N door suggests that considerable money was spent on the church at this time. The unusual position of the priest¿s door on the N may be connected with the position of the rectory on that side. The church was further remodelled and refurnished in the C15, when the tower and rood screen were added. The pulpit and altar rails are evidence of refitting in the C17, and it was repaired and restored in the C19 with further work in the early C20.

SOURCES
Cautley, H M, Suffolk Churches (5th ed, 1982), 220
Mortlock, D P, The Popular Guide to Suffolk Churches, I: West Suffolk (1988), 10-11
Pevsner, N. and Radcliffe, E., The Buildings of England: Suffolk (1974), 85

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The church of All Saints, Barnardiston is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* Excellent medieval fabric, including a fine Decorated N doorway with a C15 or C16 door with wicket.
* Notable medieval fittings including a set of C15 benches and a sympathetically restored C15 screen.
* Good C17 fittings including a simple pulpit, altar rails and choir stalls.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545316

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.

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