All Saints Church, Little Somborne

All Saints Church stands in the quiet hamlet of Little Somborne, Hampshire, about six kilometres southeast of Stockbridge. Built of flint rubble with stone dressings, its walls are rendered and colourwashed under a tiled roof. The church has a simple plan: a single range of nave and chancel with a small bellcote at the west end. Anglo-Saxon traces remain in a pilaster strip of Binstead stone from the Isle of Wight. The building is listed Grade II* and cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. The church’s history is recorded in the Domesday Book and shows changes from the 12th to the 17th centuries. In 1170 the chancel was removed, the nave extended eastward, and a tiny new chancel added. By the 17th century the chancel arch was filled in and a window inserted. Inside, plaster has been stripped from the walls and flagstones laid over part of the floor. A 19th-century font stands near the round-headed niche south of the chancel arch. The churchyard holds the grave of Thomas Sopwith, the aviator, aircraft maker and yachtsman who died in 1989. Two lancet windows in the north wall and a 14th-century west window with trefoil heads light the plain interior. Square-headed windows and a blocked Norman doorway punctuate the walls, while a quatrefoil window sits above the west window. The small scale and uncluttered lines give the building a calm, reflective presence.