About All Saints Church

The Restoration in the 1870s

The Vicar from 1861-1880 was the Reverand J.C. Ryle, who was one of the leading Evangelicals of the second half of the 19th century. He had restored the Helmlingham Church and had preached at the reopening services after restoration of several churches. In 1970, he began to appeal for money to restore Stradbroke Church and issued a tract setting out his needs and asking his friends, admirers, and readers all over the United Kingdom to raise the £2700 which he needed restore his church.

The restoration was a thorough one and much of what we see today in the church dates from that time. In a way this is superficially a largely Victorian church. What was not renewed was carefully cleaned and replaced in many instances. The work was done accurately and sympathetically.

The architect was Richard Makilwaine Phipson, the surveyor to the Diocese of Norwich, who restored many East Anglian churches. The newspaper account of the restoration commented that "Mr Phipson has a horror of doing things by halves", and this is very true of the work here.