Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This Grade I listed church in Driffield has origins predating the Norman Conquest, with the nave and clerestory dating from the 12th century, early 13th-century aisles and chancel, and a 15th-century west tower. The north aisle was rebuilt and a north chancel chapel added in 1880 by the architect G G Scott.

The church comprises a west tower, a four-bay aisled nave with south porch, and a three-bay chancel with north chapel. The building is constructed in ashlar with lead and slate roofs.

The west tower stands approximately 34 metres high in three stages, with a moulded plinth and string-courses marking the first and belfry stages. Angle-buttresses feature ogee-headed canopied niches, panels with blank cusped tracery, and crocketed gablets at upper levels. The south elevation has a pointed window with Y-tracery under a hood-mould with carved stops. The belfry openings comprise three transomed lights with Perpendicular tracery under hood-moulds with stops and crocketed ogee gablets. A battlemented parapet with traceried panels and eight crocketed pinnacles crowns the tower. The west elevation displays a west door with continuous shallow roll moulding under a crocketed ogee label with foliated finial, flanked by heraldic shields. A pointed four-light west window under a crocketed ogee hood-mould with foliated finial is similarly flanked by small heraldic shields. A niche with moulded base and crocketed canopy on the first floor sits beneath a carved panel with angels carrying a heraldic shield.

The nave has a chamfered plinth and buttresses with two offsets and grotesques. Two four-light square-headed windows with Curvilinear tracery are set in double-chamfered surrounds. The south aisle west window is four-light with Curvilinear tracery under a hood-mould with stops depicting monarchs' heads, beneath a raised coped gable. An early 13th-century south door of three orders features colonnettes and keel mouldings under a hood-mould with dog-tooth ornament and stops: a Paschal lamb to the right and a beast head to the left. The nave clerestory throughout retains 12th-century round-headed windows. A plain corbel table runs along the wall. A pointed two-light window with Perpendicular tracery sits under a hood-mould and is set within a raised coped gable with cross finial.

The chancel has a low chamfered plinth, shallow buttresses with crocketed pinnacles, and a sill band. A round-headed priest's door of two orders features 19th-century attached shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and keel-moulings, with an outer order of palmette ornament. Two square-headed two-light windows with Perpendicular tracery sit under labels with stops depicting human and beast heads. The parapet has moulded coping. A five-light east window with Perpendicular tracery stands beneath a segmental arch and label with beast-stops, within a raised gable with moulded coping and cross finial.

The interior contains north and south arcades of circa 1200 featuring water-holding bases, round piers and abaci, and round-headed double-chamfered arches. A roll-moulded string runs along the north and south walls beneath the clerestory sills. The font dates from circa 1180 and is goblet-shaped with four colonnettes bearing waterleaf capitals. A 14th-century chancel arch has a pointed double-chamfered head dying into responds, and a 14th-century piscina with cusped ogee head is set on the chancel south wall. The chancel north chapel contains an interesting collection of 12th-century architectural fragments.