Church of All Saints

All Saints’ Church stands on the northern edge of East Meon, a Hampshire village set against the green slopes of the South Downs. Built close to the hillside, the church has no north aisle because the ground would not allow it. Most of the building dates from the Norman period, with a south chapel and aisle added in the 13th century. The tower, begun around 1150, carries a lead-covered spire that can be seen from the South Downs Way. Inside, a massive Tournai font from the 1130s–40s shows Flemish carvings of Adam and Eve and the Temptation. Critics have praised the church highly. Nikolaus Pevsner called it one of the most thrilling village churches in Hampshire. John Betjeman described it as a boldly massed church set above the village against a green down. Simon Jenkins wrote that few Saxon foundations in the Meon valley remain as satisfying as East Meon. The church’s original plan was a cross, 110 feet long and 62 feet wide, marked by Romanesque arches. The font, a gift from Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, is one of only three others in Hampshire. Visitors find a building shaped by centuries of change. The south chapel’s east window and reredos were designed by Sir Ninian Comper in the 20th century. The chancel shows the arms of Prior Hinton and the Priory of St Swithun from a late 15th-century rebuilding. The north transept once served as a Sunday school for 160 children before moving to new premises in 1845. Comper’s 1906–22 work brought in a perpendicular east window, altar, and chancel screen. A 1983 organ by Peter Wells and a Millennium embroidery made by forty hands in 2008 add to the interior. Outside, the church hall built in 2000 completes the modern facilities.