Rayne, Essex

All Saints has a Tudor brick tower with a rebuilt nave and arch which I'm in two minds about - it's either lovely or hideous but I'm torn between the two. Naturally it's locked and naturally no keyholder is listed.

After being in use for more than 600 years, the Norman Nave and Chancel became unsafe and in 1840, shortly after the accession of Queen Victoria, they were replaced by those in use today.  The Tudor Tower was, however, left intact.

The present Church consists of a Tower, Nave, Chancel and Sanctuary with Clergy and Choir Vestries.  The Chancel was restored and the Choir Vestry enlarged to accommodate the Organ in 1867.  The present Sanctuary and Clergy Vestry were added in 1914.  The existing pews and most of the windows date from 1866.

Given the date of the rebuild I rather suspect that most things of interest will have been removed or over restored so perhaps nothing is lost - however Mee seems to indicate otherwise.

ALL SAINTS. 1840 and dull. But an unusually fine Tudor brick tower with blue brick diapering, a quatrefoil frieze at the foot, a blank stepped gable above the W window with a finial on the apex, a castellated frieze below the bell-openings and an embattled top with pinnacles and a curious stepped pinnacle as a roof to the stair turret. - WOODWORK c. 1500. Tracery panels and also a later C16 figure relief, said to be Flemish. - PLATE. Early Elizabethan Cup with embossed stem and foot.

The reredos - which I thought was going to be resplendent - is subdued in the gloomy chancel but to be fair my expectations had been raised by Mee and it's not the worst example of a Victorian rebuild I've seen.

Also I should say that it is now open between 2 and 4pm on Sundays between May and September - or so the notice board claims (I've recently learnt at Great Hallingbury that claims of being open at specified times and actually being open when specified are not the same thing).

RAYNE. Its houses look down on a road where Caesar’s legions marched, one of them a 15th century house with a Tudor chimney. Another Tudor chimney rises above the Old Hall, which has kept fine barns from Cromwell’s century; and in Rayne Hall by the church there are roof beams possibly 600 years old, with other woodwork and many windows from the 16th century. Out of a barn has been fashioned the village club and library, making, with its old oak rafters, one of the best libraries we have seen in Essex. Here, too, stands one of the best brick towers in the county, built about 1500 by a Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Capel. It has a bold turret, pinnacles and battlements, handsome moulding round the doorway, and panels with shields. Sir William was an ancestor of the Earls of Essex, and the family arms are shown at the belfry door. The Capels lived at the hall, and many of them were laid to rest here.There is a heraldic inscription to Lady Catherine of 1572, great-grandmother of that Arthur Capel of Hadham who tried to rescue Charles Stuart from the Isle of Wight and was beheaded shortly after his king, expressing a wish that his heart might be buried in the royal grave. The chief attraction inside this refashioned church is the rare woodwork in the chancel, some of it by Flemish carvers 300 years ago and some older still. The reredos is a triptych, with 15 panels of scenes from the Annunciation to the Ascension; and near the altar is a beautiful traceried cupboard with figures of saints and an angel. The oak sedilia is carved in the same style, with angels under canopies and weird dogs as armrests; and over the vestry door is a vigorous relief of the death of the Madonna. A high-backed bench is rich with Tudor tracery, and has armrests of quaint men in flat-topped hats with books. The kneeling desk in front is carved with heads and an angel with a scroll ; and the work of modern carvers is seen on the panels in the altar rails, where we see Pilate washing his hands. Rather hidden by the altar triptych is an attractive window of our own day, glowing with figures of St Alban, St Edmund, Edward the Confessor, and Charles Stuart. There are two old fonts, a plain l7th century one, and a restored 14th century one with a lovely frieze and symbols of the evangelists. A sacring bell, dated 1520, has been restored to the chancel after an absence of 100 years.
 
Can any village, we wonder, beat the record of the Hance family in this church? One was churchwarden in Restoration England. His son became parish clerk in 1723, and for nearly 200 years the office stayed in the family. Had we been here in the time of the Stuart Pretenders, of Clive in India, of Wolfe at Quebec, of Napoleon, of the first railways, of Queen Victoria and King Edward and the first years of King George the Fifth, we should always have found a Hance as parish clerk of Rayne. The wheel has turned full circle, for though the last of the Hances to be clerk died in 1916, his son was churchwarden when we called.

UPDATE [13/05/12]

After many futile re-visits I finally gained access today and I'm afraid to say that I have to agree with Pevsner:

ALL SAINTS. 1840 and dull. But an unusually fine Tudor brick tower with blue brick diapering, a quatrefoil frieze at the foot, a blank stepped gable above the W window with a finial on the apex, a castellated frieze below the bell-openings and an embattled top with pinnacles and a curious stepped pinnacle as a roof to the stair turret. - WOODWORK c. 1500. Tracery panels and also a later C16 figure relief, said to be Flemish. - PLATE. Early Elizabethan Cup with embossed stem and foot.

The reredos - which I thought was going to be resplendent - is subdued in the gloomy chancel but to be fair my expectations had been raised by Mee and it's not the worst example of a Victorian rebuild I've seen.

Also I should say that it is now open between 2 and 4pm on Sundays between May and September - or so the notice board claims (I've recently learnt at Great Hallingbury that claims of being open at specified times and actually being open when specified are not the same thing).
 
Flickr.