Laxfield, Suffolk, England

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Construction of All Saints church in Laxfield began sometime in the fourteenth century although the Domesday Book records the existence of a previous village church during Saxon times. The emergence of Laxfield as an important market town during the thirteenth century would have prompted the need for a larger and more splendid church.

[All Saints, Size = 24,393 bytes] Many East Anglian churches of this time period had round towers but a new, square tower was constructed in the fifteenth century to replace the old round one. Once the tower was completed, members of the parish left money for the purchase of bells. A total of six were eventually hung in the tower. Two of the current bells are original and date from the mid 1400s. Two others are also pre-Reformation but were recast in 1873. The other two are of more modern origin.

The Fiske family is associated with Laxfield. There is a reference in the will of John Fiske (1513) of a legacy of ten shillings "to each of the 4 orders of Friars gathering in the town of Laxfield."

Sources

This information was taken from a short guide and history of All Saints Church, Laxfield, written by Ronald Marchant in October 1994 who was the Vicar of Laxfield from 1959 to 1992. A museum detailing village life can be found across the street from the church and is open during the summer.
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