Church Of All Hallows

The Church of All Hallows is a building of significant historical interest, with origins dating back to the 7th century. The core of the church comprises an Early 12th-century nave, a late 12th-century tower (later heightened), a north aisle also from the late 12th century, and a 13th-century chancel. A 14th-century porch was added at a later stage. The church is constructed of ashlar, coursed squared rubble, and coursed rubble, all covered by lead roofs.

The church's west tower is two stages high, featuring a chamfered string course and later buttresses with offsets. A blocked west door retains nook shafts, scallop capitals, quirk and chamfer imposts ornamented with saltire crosses, and a round arch with chevrons. Two-light, square-headed belfry openings with four-centred heads under a hoodmould are present, topped by a crenellated parapet decorated with grotesques and gargoyles. The nave, with its three bays and north aisle, has two square-headed, two-light windows with Decorated tracery to the east, and a slit window to the west. A round-headed south door, originally with nook shafts and decorated capitals, features a roll-moulded impost to the east and a chevron ornament on the arch. The south porch has a pointed arch supported on hollow-chamfered imposts. Inside the nave is a two-bay principal rafter roof with cambered tie-beams, king-posts braced to ridge pieces, and side purlins.

The chancel contains four lancet windows, a square-headed low-side window to the west, and a three-light, square-headed east window with Decorated tracery. The interior tower chamber has a blocked small door to the north wall, with a massive fish-scale ornamented lintel and blank tympanum. Remaining are traces of two round-head openings to the original west wall of the Early 12th-century nave, along with a 12th-century ladder leading to the ringing chamber. The pointed tower arch consists of three chamfered arches with pyramid stops on hollow-chamfered imposts and chamfered responds, also with pyramid stops. The north arcade incorporates cylindrical piers on spurred bases, octagonal abaci with nail-head detailing, and round arches of two square orders with a squint to the chancel. The nave roof, likely from the early 16th century and restored in 1923, has five low-pitch principal rafter trusses with tie-beams featuring ovolo chamfers, king-posts with moulded braces to the ridge-piece, and moulded side purlins.

Two fonts are of note: one is a damaged hexagonal font, possibly from the 12th century that was recovered from a farmyard around 1850; the other, dating to 1530, consists of an octagonal basin on an octagonal pillar, richly ornamented with a lengthy inscription recording the names of the donors. Local historical tradition suggests the church occupies the site of a pagan temple ritually defiled and burned by the high priest Coifi following his conversion to Christianity by Paulinus in AD 627, as recounted by Venerable Bede.