East Meon - Church of All Saints

East Meon The Church of All Saints is Norman and three of the great doors are 12^th century, the nave and vaulted chancel are superb and on the chancel floor is an ancient brass to Nicholas Caerwent who died in 1381. The red brick tower was added in 1658.

'The Cathedral of North Hampshire', replaced a Saxon church on the same site and the Saxon font remains from that period. The east end of the Nave dates to 1170. The original bell tower was poorly designed for the weight of the bells it housed and by 1657 the whole tower had to be dismantled to prevent its total collapse. In 1659 a new brick tower, modelled on St Matthews in Battersea, was erected at the NE corner of the original structure.

Among notable interior features are an early brass of 1370, the dogtooth mouldings of the chancel arch and the imposing arcades and foliate capitals of the Nave. To date All Saints has undergone two major restorations, the first in 1847 by the architect Benjamin Ferrey and the second in 1871 under the guidance of Sir George Gilbert Scott. There have been reported sightings of the ghosts of Parliamentarian soldiers, including a mounted Roundhead in full battle dress, in the churchyard,