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All Saints, Ashdon

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Ashdon is one of those fat, lovely villages along the Cambridgeshire border, and its church is an imposing one in a most attractive setting. It sits back from the road, with a grand view of the tower from the west as you climb up to the secretive churchyard. Old cottages front the south side, and the burial area to the west is a riot of dog daisies on an early summer day. The complexity of the building reveals itself as you get closer, although in fact the church was substantially completed in one campaign of the 14th Century. The Tyrell Chapel forms a south aisle to the contemporary chancel, and yet it is taller than the chancel. It was also taller than the nave until the clerestory was raised in the early 16th Century. Even from the outside, the chapel must have sent a clear message locally about the importance of the Tyrrell family. The whole building underwent a substantial restoration in the 1880s by John Alexander, who I hadn't come across before. James Bettley, in his revision of the Buildings of England volume for Essex, tells us that Alexander was from Middlesbrough. You step into an interior of contrasts, for the encaustic tiles and dark benches that Alexander's restoration brought can make the nave seem cluttered, while beyond to the south-east the brick floor of the Tyrrell Chapel is left more or less clear apart from a few modern chairs, accentuating the sense of separation. There is not much here that is as old as the building itself, although there are some survivals in 14th and 15th Century glass in the south aisle, albeit fragmentary. There is typically sober 1880s glass by Clayton & Bell in the east window of the chancel, but apart from the medieval fragments the other windows are clear, which contributes to a seemly, simple feel. The Tyrrell chapel has a large tombchest memorial without effigies to Thomas and Anne Tyrrell which must have come right on the eve of the Reformation. Above it, Sir Richard Tyrell's arms are dated 1566. The plain Perpendicular font has a gaily painted modern cover, but all in all this is a church without any jarring moments or great excitements to distract you from the whole. More than in most country churches, it is the architecture here which speaks loudest of lost glories of the Tyrrells and the long Ashdon generations. Simon Knott, January 2022 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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