Description

TG 0511
12/54

MATTISHALL,
CHURCH PLAIN

Church of All Saints

30.05.60

GV

I

Parish church. Medieval and later. Flint with ashlar and some brick
dressings. Lead roofs. West tower; aisled nave with north and south porches;
chancel with south chapel.

Late C14 west tower. Angle buttresses with
gabled copings becoming diagonal buttresses at bell stage. Moulded west
doorway with a large 3-light window above with embattled transom. Narrow cross
loops at intermediate stage and an east window just above nave roof ridge.
2-light bell openings with super mullions flanking the soufflets. Crenellated
parapet with blind tracery and crocketted corner pinnacles. Short leaded
spire with cupola and weather vane dated 1640. Pair of 2-light Decorated
west windows to aisles. Three restored 3-light Perpendicular windows to south
and three Perpendicular 3-light windows to north, two beneath 4-centred arches
and one beneath a 3-centred arch. 3-light north aisle east window in
Decorated style with extravagant mouchettes. North porch with blocked
entrance, 2-light traceried side windows, diagonal buttresses with flushwork,
three statue niches above entrance with double and triple ogee arches, carved
angels to entrance spandrels and crenellated parapet with flushwork. Heavily
restored south porch. Polygonal angle buttresses with crocketted cupolas,
renewed flushwork and a niche above entrance. Nine 2-light clerestorey windows
(including one in east gable) with restored tracery. Chancel south chapel
of galletted flint with three 3-light Perpendicular windows and a priest's door.
Three 3-light Perpendicular chancel windows with exceptionally narrow tracery
bars. Embattled transoms to central lights. Restored 5-light Perpendicular
east window.

Four-bay arcades with narrower westernmost bay. Narrow
Perpendicular piers with opposing half shafts to east and west applied to
a narrow section of projecting masonry which carries uninterrupted the outer
orders of the arcades Shallow arch mouldings, tall facetted bases and
polygonal bell capitals. Massive moulded tower arch with a pair of semicircular
responds. Chancel arch in the same manner as the arcades. Aisle walls with
plain-chamfered interconnecting rere-arches. South aisle roof mainly
Victorian but retains some mutilated medieval wall-post carvings and four carved
stone wall-post corbels. Late-medieval hammer-beam roof to nave. The hammers
are finely carved, representing angels, saints and possibly donors. All
the heads and some figures are renewed. The hammers support arched braces
rather than struts. Arched braces also across the ridge. Single set of
moulded butt-purlins and a moulded ridge piece. Common rafters boarded over
in three easternmost bays with two surviving painted scenes. Four arch-braced ties,
dated in paintwork to 1617, inserted. Ogee moulded chamfers and painted
geometric patterns. North aisle roof contemporary with nave roof with
similar, yet mutilated, carvings. Chancel south chapel with a 3-centred
moulded arch to west and an exceedingly wide 3-centred arch to north.
Rere-arches with shafts on south wall. Simple piscina. Chancel with cusped
piscina. Surviving dado panels to chancel screen with very elaborate blind
tracery and a pair of painted saints to each panel. Partially renewed screen
to south chapel. C18 or C19 polygonal - pulpit in Jacobean style with a tester
decorated with marquetry.

Listing NGR: TG0533911066

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534996

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey