Church of St Ethelbert and All Saints, Belchamp Otten (EHER 8522)

Church. 1130 Nave. 13th century chancel with some late 14th century re-building. Late 14th century south porch with 15th century arch. Late 15th century bell turret possibly with 17th and 19th century repairs. 19th century north Porch. Of flint rubble, at one time cement rendered, with dressings of limestone and clunch.

Monument description derived from merging EHER 8522 and 27739. Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: All Saints' Church [NAT]. <1> Parish Church of St Ethelbert and All Saints stands in the village. The walls are of flint rubble, partly covered with cement; the dressings are of limestone and clunch; the roofs are tiled. The nave was built about 1130. The present chancel was built probably in the 13th century. Late in the 14th century the chancel-arch, with the east and north walls of the chancel, was rebuilt and the south porch was added. Late in the 15th or early in the 16th century a bell-turret was built. The church was restored in the 19th century, when the north vestry was added and the Bell-turret rebuilt. The 12th century south doorway is interesting. Condition good. <2> The nave is Norman, see the south doorway. It has two orders of columns with beaded spiral bards, decorated scalloped capitals and zigzag ornament in the arch. The windows are perpendicular. 19th century belfry on two posts with cross beams and arched braces. Early 19th century box pews and north-west gallery. Pulpit, simple with some blank arcading, about 1600. Communion rail with twisted balusters, about 1700. Plate, cup and paten of 1567. <3> Glass: 14th century bordered heads to north-east and south-east windows. Font: 15th century octagonal, quatrefoil panelled bowl with crenelated rim. The stem panelled two lights with quatrefoils over. Moulded base. Pulpit: late 16th century oak octagonal with the upper panels enriched with arcades. <4> 12th century and later. Contains an unrecorded 12th century grave slab decorated with double omega and cross noted by E. Sellers in 1968. <5> 1988. Watching brief. Watching brief report recording the finding of a medieval stone coffin containing two sets of skeletal remains. Coffin is lidless Barnack stone. Found outside the north-west corner of the church by workman digging a drainage trench. <6> See also: <7> <8>