13 November 2005. The Rector of All Saints, Reverend Philip Meader gives some historical background: "In the 7th Century the Anglo Saxon villagers built their first church on the spot and this little rustic building stood for 500 years, until it was replaced in precisely 1199 by Robert de Welles and Harry de Raynes with a great Norman nave and chancel. The tower later added to the church, is not Victorian, but was built in 1510, by the Capel family the Earls of Essex, who lived in Rayne Hall, next to the church. Sir Giles jousted in feats of arms as a knight of Henry VIII in France and this country and his father, who built the tower, was Lord Mayor of London. King Harry would often visit the area to hunt with the Capels and no doubt attended services at the church. During the civil war, Cromwell's General Fairfax and the Capels did battle in the graveyard of the church. "In the 1840's the church building had become dangerous, the main body of the church was knocked down and the present building erected along with additions in Victorian and Edwardian years."