Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Preston, Main Street

This parish church is a Grade I listed building of major architectural importance, with significant medieval fabric spanning from the 13th century onwards.

The Church of All Saints displays a complex building history. The north arcade dates from the 13th century, while the south arcade is 14th century. The north aisle, north chapel and tower are 15th century, with the south aisle and clerestory dating to the 15th and early 16th centuries. The building underwent major restoration work around 1800, with the south door rebuilt in 1828 and the chancel restored in 1879. Further restorations between 1880 and 1882 included re-roofing, additional restorations occurred around 1900, the roof was renewed in 1964 and the tower in 1982.

The church is constructed in limestone ashlar to the tower and north aisle, quarry-faced ashlar to the chancel, with reused ashlar, rubble and cobbles to the south aisle and clerestory. The nave east gable is rendered. The roof is slate over the chancel and lead over the remainder.

The building comprises a west tower, a four-bay aisled nave with north and south doors, and a two-bay chancel with a north chapel, now serving as the organ chamber and vestry.

The four-stage tower is particularly notable. It sits on a moulded plinth with angle buttresses featuring offsets and crocketed ogee gablets, which continue as diagonal buttresses to the upper belfry section. Moulded string courses divide the stages. The first stage has a pointed moulded door with crocketed ogee hoodmould bearing head stops and a pair of blank shields in relief above. The second stage features trefoiled ogee niches to the buttresses with brattished corbels and octapartite ribbed canopies with crocketed ogee hoods. A pointed four-light west window displays Perpendicular tracery with a moulded transom and ogee hoodmould, which continues as a string course supporting a niche containing a worn seated figure holding a shield. The niche itself has carved paterae to the corbel, a sexpartite ribbed canopy, a moulded arch with carved spandrels, a moulded string course and a tall crocketed pinnacle. The third stage has ogee-headed slit lights to north and south, with clock faces on each side. The fourth stage contains twin pointed three-light Perpendicular-traceried belfry openings with continuous hoodmoulds and a central shaft rising between the windows to a moulded string course. Gargoyles are positioned at the angles, except the south-west corner. A coped parapet features chamfered round-headed openings and eight crocketed pinnacles, the south-west example being restored, with ogee gablets to the shafts.

The south aisle has a partly-restored moulded plinth, angle buttresses and buttresses between bays with offsets. A partly-restored pointed door of two orders with hollow chamfers and wave mouldings is set in the south wall, with a small niche above containing a worn finial in relief and a shield panel to the right. Three four-centred-arched three-light windows with trefoiled lights and incised spandrels illuminate the aisle, with a similar east window. A triangular-headed three-light Perpendicular-traceried west window is also present. The wall includes a moulded string course and coped embattled parapet. The south wall incorporates reused masonry, including sections of a keeled shaft to the first bay and a moulded arch to the second bay.

The north aisle and north chapel feature a partly-restored moulded plinth, angle buttresses and buttresses between bays with offsets, and a moulded sill string course. A pointed door of two filleted orders with flanking buttress shafts supports the hoodmould. A pair of square-headed two-light windows with trefoiled ogee lights illuminates the aisle, along with a single 19th or 20th century three-light window of similar design and an original three-light west window of the same type. The chapel section to the east has partly-restored four-centred-arched traceried north and east windows, with a small Tudor-arched chamfered north door. A restored string course and coped embattled parapet are present, with rainwater heads dated 1882.

The nave clerestory contains four-centred-arched three-light windows with trefoiled lights and incised spandrels, set below an embattled parapet with pierced merlons and continuous ridge coping. The coped east gable has been restored.

The chancel's south side has a chamfered round-headed door, a single lancet, a pair of 19th century trefoiled lancets and a restored 15th to 16th century square-headed two-light window with trefoiled lights and incised spandrels. A 14th to 15th century pointed five-light transomed east window with Perpendicular tracery and restored mullions is flanked by two 19th century pointed chamfered niches. The gable is coped with a cross finial.

The interior is extensively detailed. The north arcade features pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers and responds with plain moulded capitals, water-holding bases and square pedestals. The south arcade has pointed double-chamfered arches with an inner plain and outer hollow chamfers on short quatrefoil piers with hollow chamfers between the foils, plain moulded capitals and tall plain stepped bases. A tall double hollow-chamfered tower arch spans the width, with a continuous outer chamfer and inner chamfered responds bearing moulded bases and capitals with rustic-foliate relief carving. A pointed double-chamfered chancel arch on responds has restored moulded capitals and plain moulded bases, with a restored hoodmould retaining an original head stop to the south. The chancel displays a two-bay north arcade of pointed double-chamfered arches on an octagonal pier with plain moulded capital and base, and corbelled responds with worn rustic carvings of angels holding shields.

The church contains an important series of monuments. Floor slabs in the north aisle, mostly dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries, include a black marble slab to Dame Eleanora Oxenden of 1728 featuring a roundel with relief carving of a hatchment and crest supported by fronds, and another to Raphe Johnson (died 1590) and his wife Alice (died 1610) with marginal inscription and later inscriptions to the Burnsall Family. Wall tablets in the north aisle commemorate John Beatson (1798) with a scrolled base and urn; Joseph Whisker (1819) with an oval tablet bearing an inscribed verse and gilded winged angel above; David Burnsall (1793) and Robert Young (1795), both with oval tablets; John Ford Acey (1857) with a draped urn by W D Keyworth of Hull; and Mary Flint Heslewood (1858) with a relief of a kneeling mourner, also by Keyworth. In the chancel are a black marble floor slab to Thomas Helme, Proctor, of 1718 recording bequests; a wall tablet to John Stephenson (1802) with a grey marble obelisk; and a plain tablet to Reverend John Dixon (1828).

A 15th century octagonal font displays bold foliate carvings to the underside, with an octagonal shaft and base. An original heavy oak south door, now stored in the vestry, features moulded ribs, an ogee-headed wicket, wrought-iron strap hinges and box locks. A display case in the south aisle contains slightly worn fragments of fine 15th century Nottingham alabaster relief carvings, probably originally part of an Easter sepulchre or altar-piece, depicting soldiers, worshippers and other figures. These fragments were discovered during the 1880 restorations, buried near the pulpit.