Please visit the following website for detailed information on the history of Hempstead All Saints

http://www.hempstead-norfolk.co.uk/church.html

Here is an extract from the website managed by Jonathan Neville

Hempstead church is a Grade ll listed building, originally dated as late Saxon or Saxo-Norman but was almost entirely demolished and then rebuilt slightly to the south around the year 1300. The new church included the original Saxon tower, a Norman doorway and another doorway built in the 1200s. The chancel was then rebuilt in 1475 and the south porch was constructed in 1500s. The nave windows were replaced in the 1600s. The original and much taller church tower collapsed between 1728-1743 and was then rebuilt as a much lower construction in 1744. Somewhat unusually, the apse, which was added in 1925, has a thatched roof, which was rethatched in 2019. The chancel was built in 1930 funded by public subscription. The original tower contained three bells but the present, lower tower now contains one bell. The register is said to date from 1558.

A Saxon-Norman church with west tower, and perhaps a slightly later Norman south doorway stood to the north of the present building. It was mostly demolished, after it had received a new north doorway in the 13th Century, and the present church erected around 1300, perhaps following an attempt to make a nave with two aisles had failed.

The Chancel was rebuilt in 1471-5 on documentary evidence. The south porch was added c1550. The Chancel was demolished at an unknown date pre 1830; the western half of the tower collapsed and was rebuilt in 1744; the nave windows were replaced probably around the 17th Century. Various alterations took place in the 19th Century and the apse was added in 1925.

Edwin J. Rose, Norfolk Archaeological Unit - 29th November 1985