All Saints' Church

Everyone is welcome to enjoy this oasis of calm in a busy world.  The building is for personal prayer or just for being still and quiet knowing that, for many centuries, villagers have done the same and found answers or comfort within these walls – and join us for the Sunday services.  Further information can be found on the church noticeboard and within Parish Magazine.  Everyone is very welcome at All Saints' Church.  For Information on services please contact the Whitewater Benefice Office on admin@moretolife.church or call 01256 703791.

The church of All Saints in a Grade II* listed church in Long Sutton, Hampshire.
All Saints' Church consists of: a chancel (22ft. 9in. by 20ft. 5in.), a nave of the same width (48ft. 5in long); a south chapel (27ft. 5 in. by 13ft. 5in.); a south porch, and a wooden bell-turret set about midway over the nave.  The nave and chancel, in one range without any structural division, the chancel arch being entirely modern, are of early 13th Century date, and the south chapel was added towards the end of the same Century. 

The bell-turret is doubtless Medieval, although difficult to date precisely, and the south porch is modern.   The bell-turret is made of heavy timber framing of plain character, very massive and doubtless ancient;  it may be 15th Century work.  There are three bell. The treble bell is inscribed "hal mari ful of gras", the second bell, "ibe leve in god the father" and the third bell "our fathar wich art in heaven".  All the inscriptions are Gothic capitals and all three bells bear the intials of William Knights, a Reading founding of c.1520.   

The churchyard features three ancient yew trees, considered by early Christians to be symbolic of immortality and the transcendence of death.  The linking of evergreens with immortality goes back far in time.  In England, long before the Christian era, yew trees were planted on pagan temple sites, and they were eventually adopted by the church as "a holy symbol".  In its early stages, Christianty ran parallel to paganism and some of the yew trees that existed in pre-Christian times were incorporated into the new religion and are still alive today.  These yew trees are now enclosed by Christian churches in a similar way to the anicent Druidic groves.

The interior of All Saints’ Church is well proportioned and spacious.
The chancel retains its original windows, tall narrow lancets widely splayed within, and externally chamfered and rebated for a wooden frame. There are two of these in the east wall, and above and between them a circular window of the same date.
There is one lancet in the north wall, and another opposite to it in the south, and at the south-east is a piscina (a stone basin near the altar for draining water used in the Mass) with a moulded ogee head of 14th-Century date.

The chancel arch is two-centred and has plain moulded abaci at the spring; it is only 12 in. thick, and altogether out of keeping with the large and simple detail of the 13th-century work. 

At the east end of the north wall of the nave is another of the original lancet lights, identical in every respect with those in the chancel, and abreast of the bell-turret a window of c. 1340, of two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in flowing tracery over.
The sill of this window appears to have been raised.

The chancel roof is ‘in plaster divided by moulded ribs, which seem to be modern, and the nave has a flat plaster ceiling. The chapel roof is of low pitch and plastered.

The bell-turret is made of heavy timber framing of plain character, very massive and doubtless ancient; it may be 15th-century work. Four large posts stand on the nave floor against the walls, and above is an elaborate system of trussing to the principals.

The font is circular with a plain bowl cut down and scraped, and a heavy circular stem. It is perhaps of 12th-century date. The fittings are modern.

There are three bells. The treble bell is inscribed, ‘hal mari ful of gras’; the second bell, ‘ibe leve in god the father’; the third ell, ‘our fathar wich art in heven.’ All the inscriptions are in Gothic capitals and all three bells bear the initials of William Knight, a Reading founder of c. 1520.  The Plate consists of a chalice of 1570 and a pewter Plate and Flagon.