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All Saints, Purleigh

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I had spent the day pottering around the churches of the Dengie Peninsula, and I was now cycling westwards back to Hatfield Peveril station. James Bettley in the revised Pevsner observes cheerily that the church is well-sited on the top of what is, in these parts, a considerable hill. It certainly is. I could see it like a castle from a mile or so off, and entering the pretty village the road began to climb steeply. I slogged on in low gear into what turned out to be a very pretty village, very atmospheric, and the first village I'd visited all day that I could imagine wanting to live. In the middle of the village is the church. It appears at first sight a large church, entirely East Anglian in style, but built in the Kent fashion from layered flint and greenstone. The early 21st Century extension leading off from the east end of the north aisle is outstanding of its kind, entirely vernacular in style and yet brave and modern, a contrast rather than any attempt to fit in. The Buidlings of England: Essex notes that the tower was restored with American money in 1914 thanks to the fact the George Washington's great-great-grandfather was rector here during the English Civil War. The grand tower is perhaps deceptive, for you step into a neatly aisled church full of light, only a few windows with coloured glass, all of a decent quality by AK Nicholson. There is a pleasing atmosphere of the 18th Century, which brought the pulpit, the altar rails and the holy table now at the back of the church. One imagines the rector of the time beautifying his church in a quiet, undemonstrative manner. The English altar of 1938 that replaced the holy table is also outstanding of its kind. All in all a most harmonious interior. I headed on. The hill that fell away below the church was even steeper, and I was glad I had approached the church from the east rather than from the west. A couple of miles further on brought me to the Chelmsford to Maldon road, and as I crossed it the landscape changed completely, back into the Essex I remembered from bike rides the previous year, the landscape rich and green, with hedgerows and more pretty villages. Simon Knott, April 2013 Follow these journeys as they happen at Last Of England Twitter.

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