All Saints Church, Willian, Herts, UK - Medieval Churches on Waymarking.com

The parish church of All Saints, standing to the south of the village, is built of flint, mixed in places with freestone, and consists of a chancel, nave, west tower and south porch. The chancel and nave date from the earlier part of the 12th century. About 1430 the west tower was added, outside the west wall of the nave; this wall was then taken down and the nave lengthened by about 4 ft. to join the tower, the east diagonal buttresses of the tower being built against the quoins of the nave. A south porch was added in the 15th century, and the chancel was remodelled and probably lengthened in the early part of the 19th century.

In the east wall of the chancel is reset a 15th-century window of three lights containing 17th-century glass with heraldic panels. In the south wall are a doorway with a 12th-century rear-arch and modern external stonework and a late 14th-century two-light window with a square head. The chancel arch is of about 1430.

The north wall of the nave has two windows, the easternmost being of the 15th century. There is only one window in the south wall, of the 15th century, and of similar type to that in the north wall, but of three lights.

The tower arch is of similar character to the chancel arch and is also of about 1430. The west tower, into which it opens, is of two stages, with diagonal buttresses, and has a stair turret on the north-east and an embattled parapet. In each face of the belfry stage is a two-light window. The stair-turret rises above the parapet and is also embattled. The south porch is old, probably of the 15th century, and has a dropped two-centred entrance archway of two orders.

The walls of the nave externally show the uncut small flints, in wide-jointed courses, of 12th-century work. Some of the courses are set in herring-bone pattern, and mixed with the flint are some large blocks of freestone, one of them being a piece of 12th-century moulding re-used in the 15th century when the walls were raised. The masonry of the tower is also small, and has been much faced with cement.

There are the remains, in the chancel archway, of a rood screen of the 15th century, which has been restored with plaster. It is of three bays, the centre being the entrance way, with a four-centred arch, and the side bays similar but traceried. The central doors have been removed to the porch. Set against the south chancel wall are the remains of another similar screen restored with plaster. The stalls in the chancel are good work of the late 15th century, with carved standards, one being an elephant's head, and one the head of St. John the Baptist in a charger.

Building Materials: Stone

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