All Saints, Hemblington

All Saints is a Grade I parish church on Church Lane, Hemblington, Norfolk, in the Diocese of Norwich.

Overview

Historic England records a twelfth-century west tower and fabric otherwise largely of the early fourteenth century. The walls are flint with limestone and brick dressings and some reset worked stone; roofs are smut pantile, with a conical plain-tiled cap to the round tower. The plan is round west tower, nave, chancel and south porch. The porch has an early sixteenth-century moulded brick entrance arch and flushwork crosses. Chancel south windows of about 1300 have Y-tracery.

There is no chancel arch: a massive timber beam carries the nave’s studwork east gable, flanked by figure niches that retain some original colour. Open rood stairs survive at the north-east of the nave. On the north nave wall is a large and very fine fourteenth-century mural of the life of St Christopher. The fifteenth-century nave roof has arch-braced principals; some common rafters keep painted decoration. The octagonal fifteenth-century font has figure carving around bowl and stem. The Norfolk Heritage Explorer notes wall paintings discovered in 1932.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1051490
• British Listed Buildings: Church of All Saints
• All Saints, Hemblington