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This fifteenth flint church is a Grade 1 Listed Building with stone dressings comprising a tall west tower, nave, aisles and a nineteenth century chancel. The first record of the church was in the Domesday Book although it is not necessarily the church that is visible today. The earliest one that can be dated is in the Early English period c.1166-1266, the chancel and possibly the east windows being of this period. The church was almost completely rebuilt in the mid-fifteeenth century on the profits of the cloth industry, and became a vast preaching house after the Reformation.
During the prosperous high farming period of the nineteenth century the most important restoration for over 100 years was undertaken by William Butterfield in the Anglo-catholic style. The rector, Evan Baillie, spent £3,000 of his own money in rebuilding the chancel and putting in new windows before resigned his post and beccoming a teacher at the Church of Our Lady and St Joseph, the Roman Catholic Chapel on Bury Road. His successor was Barrington Mills who proved a strong influence on the village.
The Church of All Saints' is part of the St Edmund Way Benefice which includes the Anglican congregations of six parishes and six places of worship covering Bradfield Combust, Great Whelnetham, Hawstead, Lawshall, Nowton and Stanningfield. Details of services can be viewed in the monthly St Edmund Way magazine or the St Edmund Way website. The incumbent is Reverend Jayne Buckles who lives at Lawshall Rectory.
The Benefice was named after the St Edmund Way Long Distance Path that goes through the parishes making its way to Bury St Edmunds. In centuries past, Pilgrims would walk this path to the Bury St Edmunds Abbey.
References:
1. Lawshall Parish Council, ed. (2006). Lawshall: A Guide to Your Village. Lawshall Parish Council
2. Lawshall Village Appraisal Group, ed. (1991). Lawshall: Past, Present and Future - An Appraisal. Appraisal Group.
3. "Simon's Suffolk Churches - All Saints, Lawshall". The Suffolk Churches Site. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
4. "The St Edmund Way Benefice: What is it?". St Edmund Way Benefice. Retrieved 2012-02-10.