All Saints’ Dovercourt | St Paul’s Parkeston | St Nicholas’ Harwich | St Michael’s Ramsey

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The Foundation

In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the Manor of Dovercourt was held by Ulwin, brother of King Harold.  After the defeat of Harold at the Battle of Hastings, Ulwin forfeited his possessions to Alberic, or Aubry, de Vere who later became Earl of Oxford.  Alberic founded a monastic community at Earls Colne with monks from Abington and included in its endowments the church of Dovercourt.  It is known that Alberic died in 1088 so there must have been a church on the site before then.  Indeed, it is reasonable to suppose that originally there would have been a wooden Saxon church on the site.

 

The Present Building

The present building of All Saints' church dates from the 12th  century when the nave was erected.  The chancel was built In 1420 replacing the former rounded east end of the church.  The chancel arch was replaced by timber in about 1615.  A major restoration was completed in 1897 when the original walls and fine timbered roof with its beautiful truss and king post were revealed.

 

Although the porch Is modern, it has a reset 14th  century archway.  The holy water stoup in the wall was discovered by workmen early in the 1900's.  The massive door is of oak with plain strap hinges and a stock lock of the 17th century.

 

The tower is in three stages, the lower two of the early 15th century and the top of early 19th century brickwork.  In 1993, the tower was stripped of its outer covering of deteriorating Victorian plaster and recovered m originally with a Medieval-style mix of lime and horsehair.  The tower houses two bells, the tenor made In 1380 by William Burford and the bass bell made in Loughborough in 1572 by Robert Mot.  The same firm re-tuned the bell in 1958.  The tower clock was made before 1740 and was repaired in 1959 and in 1994 when the clock face was repainted and re-gilded.  Also, In 1994 the mechanism was adapted to stop the clock chimes from sounding during the night.  Early in 1941, during the Second World War, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, visited Dovercourt and climbed the tower to view anti-invasion defences.

 

In 1987 a new building was constructed to the north of the church with access from the nave by way of a 14th century doorway.  This new building houses a vestry, kitchen, small meeting room and a larger "family room" used for church functions.  On the north wall of the family room hangs a modern tapestry of the Holy Family.

 

The Church Interior

On the north wall of the nave is a memorial recording the names of 136 from the Parish killed in the Great War and 130 in the Second World War.

Over the door to the vestry is a royal coat of arms of George III made during his reign in cast iron by Wallis and Coleman of Colchester and restored in 1981.

On the south wall of the nave, between the porch and the tower, Is a board recording the names of incumbents of the Parish dating from the first known, William Ffrauncke, instituted in 1280, to the present Rector Stephen Hardie instituted in 1992.

 

The font is mid-14th century and was discovered in a nearby farmyard where it had been used as a cattle trough.

 

The Elizabethan poor box, iron-bound and of oak, dates from 1589.

 

The fine beam over the entry to the chancel has Jacobean carving.  It originally supported a Rood, or crucifix, to which many pilgrimages were made.  The rood was destroyed in 1532 by three men from Dedham and one from East Bergholt who disbelieved the miraculous powers with which it was held to be endowed and objected to its veneration.  Three of these men were hanged for their deed, one escaped.

 

A monumental brass of a civilian is fixed to the north wall of the chancel.  Its date is about 1425.

 

In 1995, a sound amplification system was installed in the church.  Plans for continuing restoration work include improvement to the lighting.

 

The Windows

 

The west window is of about 1400.  The stained glass depicting Christ healing the Centurion's Servant was given by Kaiser William, II in 1900 in memory of the soldiers who formed the German legion and died with their British comrades in the Walcheren Expedition 1809-1810.  This joint expedition was fitted out in 1807 to help Austria in her struggle against the French under Napoleon.  The men had been sent to attack Antwerp but contracted fever on the nearby swampy Island of Walcheren.  German and British soldiers who died in Dovercourt are buried together in the churchyard.

 

The 12th century window on the south side of the nave, near the tower, was unblocked in 1958 and re-glazed with a window showing Christ the Good Shepherd.  Similarly, on the north side a 12th century window was unblocked in 1974 and re-glazed with a window showing Christ in blessing and the portcullis from the arms of the ancient Borough of Harwich.

 

Except for the east window which is modern, the other windows date between the mid-14th and 16th centuries.  They all contain late Victorian or Edwardian stained glass depicting various scenes from Our Lord's Life.  To the north of the font Our Lord walking on the waters, to the south the Baptism of Christ.  In the nave on the north Christ blessing the children, on the south the parable of the sheep and goats in one window and the parable of the prodigal son in another by the pulpit.

 

In the chancel on the north side a smaller window showing Naaman cleansed of leprosy and a larger one of the Adoration of the Magi erected to commemorate the restoration of the church and the Dia­mond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897.  South of the chancel are two windows a smaller one by the pulpit showing Christ curing the leper, the other the Adoration of the Angels.  In the sanctuary to the north a window showing the Resurrection, to the south the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the east window the Crucifixion.

 

The Lich-gate

Constructed of English oak the lich-gate was erected in 1899 by Queen Victoria in memory of the British soldiers buried in the churchyard who died from disease contracted during the Walcheren expedition.

 

The Churchyard

At the far end of the churchyard lies buried Captain Charles Fryatt, master of the Great Eastern Railway Steamship "Brussels" executed by the Germans at Bruges on 27th July 1916.  His body was interred here after the state funeral in London at St Paul's Cathedral.  To commemorate him the Fryatt Memorial Hospital was opened in Dovercourt in 1922.  To the north east of the church is the grave of the British and German soldiers who died after the Walcheren expedition.  A little to the north east of this spot are graves of some who were drowned in the shipwreck of the SS Berlin off the Hook of Holland on 21st February 1907.

 

We are grateful to Roland Baxter, a past Churchwarden of this parish, for compiling this guide, and to Christine Jackson for the illustration. August, 1996