Rockland All Saints, Norfolk

All Saints, locked, keyholder listed, is in the middle of nowhere so I was unsurprised to find it locked. It should, however, be pointed out that whilst the keyholder's telephone number is listed on the notice board, the area code is not thus effectively rendering it locked no keyholder listed. I don't think I missed much.

ALL SAINTS. Unbuttressed W tower, late C13, with Dec top. Nave and chancel, the nave with Anglo-Saxon quoins and herringbone laying of the flints. - FONT. Norman, square, damaged. - BENCH ENDS. Some original poppy-heads. - PLATE. Norwich-made Chalice, 1567-8. -  MONUMENT.Anglo-Saxon coffin-lid with a cross near the top connected by a staff to another cross near the foot. Two interlace panels between.

ROCKLAND ALL SAINTS. Above this neat and orderly village at the foot of the hill is the plain little church of All Saints. Near it is the ruined tower of the old church dedicated to St Andrew. Much of All Saints, with its square tower, is 500 years old, but the herringbone masonry in the north wall, and long-and-short work at some of the corners of the building are Saxon. The treasure of the church is sheltered inside, a tapering Saxon coffin stone with a cross-head at each end and plaitwork between them. It has a curious history, for it was found in two parts last century after having been used as a headstone for John Mansfield, whose initials are now worn away. There is the cracked bowl of a Norman font once buried in the churchyard, a few old poppyhead pews, and an Elizabethan chalice. Very quaint is a quatrefoil window in the sanctuary, set back in the thick wall as if at the end of a telescope.

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