Monument record LXD 032 - Church of All Saints (Med)

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Summary

All Saints Church.

Location

Grid reference Centred TM 2962 7244 (93m by 96m) Centred on
Map sheet TM27SE
Civil Parish LAXFIELD, MID SUFFOLK, SUFFOLK

Map

Type and Period (3)

Full Description

All Saints Church. Status: vicarage. Structure: fine flint panelled tower, stone faced with pinnacles, nave, chancel, vestry and S porch; diocese of St Edmundbury and Ipswich, deanery Hoxne. Date: Listed in Domesday as church plus 43 acres & half plough. Chancel & vestry C19, nave decorated, rest perpendicular (S1-S3).
Cautley states `The close resemblance between the flintwork and panelling of the tower here and that at Eye, and the fact that Eye Priory had the appropriation of Laxfield, make it probable that the same master-mason built both, circa 1480'.
Note: Laxfield Church Tithes record payments of half-silver (an Anglo-Saxon tax) on Shrove Tuesdays, to the Minster Church up until 1840. This may suggest Laxfield was a a Minster Church (needs research). Also note: Laxfield presumably seat of Edric of Laxfield (one of the richest in East Anglia) in 1066.
Further details in (S1)(S2).
2012: Two small evaluation test-pits were excavated within the body of the tower of All Saints Church, Laxfield on the line of proposed new service trenches. Immediately below the existing concrete floor in Trench 1 the remains of an earlier brick floor was uncovered. The bricks were heavily sooted on their upper surface and were interpreted as representing a 19th or early 20th century structure that would have formed the stable base for a stove. Two other similar bases survive in the nave. Below the brick floor in Trench one and immediately below the concrete in Trench 2 a layer of disaggregated lime mortar and flints were recorded. No medieval floor levels were encountered. Judging by the base level of the extant limestone mouldings, particularly in the area of Trench 1, medieval floor levels would have been similar to those of today and, on that basis, are likely to have been replaced rather than built over (S4).
Also Sax coins & finger ring.

Sources/Archives (4)

  • <S1> Bibliographic reference: Pevsner N & Radcliffe E. 1974. The Buildings of England: Suffolk. Pevsner N & Radcliffe E, Suffolk (1975 ed), 328-329.
  • <S2> Bibliographic reference: Cautley H M. 1975. Suffolk Churches. 308 & 325.
  • <S3> (No record type): Suffolk Parishes, A Guide to their Arch & Hist, ms, Laxfield.
  • <S4> Unpublished document: Boulter S. 2012. Archaeological Monitoring Report, All Sainst Church, Laxfield.

Finds (0)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (1)

Record last edited

Feb 5 2013 2:03PM

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