Hutton

All Saints was locked with a keyholder listed but as it looked to me a Victorian church I moved on and apart from the brass and the screen I don't think I missed much.

I've recently discovered that it made a gruesome national media appearance in September 2013. The Mirror reported thus:

Man cuts off testicles with scissors before storming into church where wedding was about to take place

A man cut off his own testicles with scissors before storming into a church where a wedding was about to take place.

The vicar and florist were making final preparations for the ceremony at All Saints Church, in Hutton, Essex, when the blood-soaked man staggered in.

The Rev Bob Wallace said wedding guests were stopped from entering the church after the man castrated himself outside.
  
He said: "We were able to call an ambulance to get him the help he needed.

"I don't want to elaborate on the incident, I'm more concerned that he is now getting the appropriate treatment."

Stunned friends of the couple said they arrived to find a police car outside following the incident, which happened around 12.25pm on Saturday September 14.

One told the Brentwood Weekly News: "There was blood all over the floor just outside the church. When I went in there, it was like someone had been murdered. There was blood everywhere.

"When I went in the church, I saw something on the floor which I could only describe as flesh, which I thought was part of his arm but that was one of his testicles."

Essex Police were called and the wedding was able to go ahead half an hour later.

A spokesman said: "A man with mental health problems was found in the church with serious injuries.

"He was taken to hospital to be treated. The man was later referred for a mental health assessment."

Is this a jilted John or just proof that TOWIE doesn't always hold true?

ALL SAINTS. Rebuilt by G. E. Street in 1873. A small church and not one of Street’s masterpieces. Of the medieval church the nave arcades with quatrefoil piers, moulded capitals and arches of one wave and one hollow-chamfer mouldings survive - typical C14 work. The chancel arch, and the nave roof belong to the same date. The bell-turret is also medieval, but probably of the C15. It stands on six posts, the distance between the first being much wider than between the others. Tall braces from N and S and trellis strutting from W to E. - LECTERN etc., metalwork in the typical Street style. - PLATE. Cover of 1567; Paten on Foot probably of 1648. - BRASS. Knight and Lady of c. 1525.

HUTTON. It lies on the road from Brentwood to Billericay, but its delightful church is down a lane, by the limes in which the rooks have a village all their own. So thoroughly was the church restored last century that little remains of its medieval walls, but most of the wooden porch of the 14th century has been replaced on new dwarf walls. The beam over the outer arch is carved with trefoils, richly traceried heads make beautiful the four windows in the sides, and there is a bargeboard of great beauty. The roof of the nave is as old as Parliament, and is continued over the tiny aisles, resting on the original clustered columns. A brass of about 1525 shows an unknown man in armour with his wife and their 16 children. The church also has a splendid modern screen with oak statues of St George, Joan of Arc, Sir Thomas More, and Bishop Fisher. Another imposing piece of craftsmanship is the high font cover, with a relief of a woman clinging to a rock; it is a memorial to a Mrs Hamilton who perished in a wreck.

Simon K -

Although Hutton makes up a good quarter of the Brentwood urban area, the church is, like that of Shenfield, a rural church, just outside the town on the Hutton Hall estate.

 

It was rebuilt by the great George Street in the 1860s, and it is as if he had heard an Essex church described to him, but had never actually seen one. It's not quite right, but it is rather good.

Unfortunately, the custodians are aggressively security conscious - the first welcome was a big sign saying DO NOT LEAVE VALUABLES IN YOUR CAR and THERE HAVE BEEN A NUMBER OF BREAK INS. The lady who answered my phone call was pleasant enough, but obviously had a list of prepared questions about who I was and why I wanted to see inside. She took 20 minutes to come, and when she did she was not alone but had brought a rather assertive colleague with her. However, we all soon got on like a house on fire, and in the end it was difficult to get away from them. They were obviously so proud of their church and pleased that anyone wanted to see it. 

And it is splendid inside. Street had it furnished in the style of All Saints Margaret Street with murals and medieval-style woodwork, and the glass by Clayton & Bell is of the highest quality. I liked it a lot and it seemed a great shame that more people were not able to see it.

Flickr.