About All Saints Church

From the Reformation to the Mid 19th Century

With the reformation in the mid 16th century came new liturgical requirements, which changed the interior decor of churches. Services were now in English rather than Latin, and old visual aids were no longer necessary, so a great deal of colour and craftmanship was destroyed. Among many other changes during this time, the Chantry Chapels were suppressed, roods were taken down, Queen Elizabeth I ordered that stone alters should be replaced by wooden tables, and the wall paintings were replaced by godly texts in English.

Several remaining items of pre-Reformation craftsmanship which had survived, did not escape the eagle eye of William Dowsing, the Puritan inspector of churches for the destruction of 'superstitious' images and inscriptions, who had lived in nearby Laxfield.

The 18th and early 19th century saw our churches furnished for the plain and Prayer Book worship of the Established Church. The people sat (according to their various stations and classes) in tall, square, box-pews. Towering above these was the 3-decker pulpit, where the parson preached form the top deck, read the service from the middle deck, and in the lower deck sat the Parish Clerk, who kept his eye on the congregation and led them in responses and the amen.

In 1823 the reverend William White became Vicar of Stradbroke. He was concerned about the dilapidated state of the church at that time and especially the poor seating. About 1824 he restored the building and had new box-pews made. This was of course well before the Victorian period and the Gothic Revival, so his pew scheme was in accordance with the 18th century fashion of box-pews gathered around the pulpit.