All Saints, Lessingham
A church half a mile from its village, but it seems further because there is no direct vehicular approach. Instead, you head out on the road towards East Ruston and then cut back on a narrow lane that takes you up to the lonely churchyard. There are no neighbours other than that tower of Happisburgh church and its neighbouring lighthouse across the fields. And as you come closer you can see that it is rather acrisp looking-little church, because for all its apparent 14th Century appearance it underwent a major rebuilding by Diocesan architect Herbert Green in the 1890s. Photographs of the church before the restoration show it as pretty much a complete ruin, with only the chancel in use. Green restored the whole building, allowing the congregation to move back into the nave, and so it was with some irony that the chancel was severely damaged by a storm in October 1961. It was decided to block off the chancel arch and make the ruin of the chancel safe, leaving a tower and trimly thatched nave with what is effectively a walled garden on the site of the chancel.
The church is always open. You step into a pleasant, well-kept, much-loved and welcoming village church.
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