Church of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a building with origins from the 12th century, largely rebuilt in 1872 by G.E. Street using old materials. It is of group value, reflecting its significant architectural and historical importance. The church is constructed from coursed rubble with ashlar dressings, and has pantiled roofs. The layout consists of a two-stage west tower, a three-bay nave with a south porch and north and south transepts, and a two-bay chancel.

The west tower features a low, chamfered plinth. The bell stage has an ogee-headed lancet window beneath a string course, and a two-light pointed belfry opening with cusped tracery. A string course with gargoyles is topped by a crenellated parapet with crocketed corner finials. The west side has a two-light pointed window with curvilinear tracery under a hoodmould. A polygonal stair turret, lit by lancets and topped with a corbelled hipped roof, is located on the south-east corner.

The nave’s south side has a three-light pointed window with Perpendicular tracery and a hoodmould with face stops. The south door is round-headed, dating from the late 12th century and composed of two orders: the inner order is roll-moulded on moulded imposts with attached shafts and stiff-leaf capitals; the outer order is hollow-chamfered on hollow-chamfered jambs, the whole under a hoodmould with face stops. The south porch has a pointed opening of three moulded arches under a hoodmould, and a crenellated parapet. The north elevation of the nave has a two-light square-headed window to the west and a three-light pointed window with Perpendicular tracery to the east, both under hoodmoulds with face stops. The south transept has a two-light pointed window with Perpendicular tracery, and a similar north window is on the north transept. Crenellated parapets run along the nave.

The chancel features a central round-headed priest’s door with continuous roll-moulding. To the left is a two-light pointed window with Geometrical tracery, and to the right, a lancet with an inner trefoil light. The east window is a three-light pointed window with plate tracery under a hoodmould with monarch stops. The north vestry has a north window of three lights under a segmental head and hoodmould with face stops. A projection in the re-entrant angle with the chancel contains a pointed door with a continuous shallow moulding under a hoodmould. Side-wall stacks rise to an octagonal flue with a crenellated cap on the east wall of the vestry. Raised coped gables are present throughout the church; the chancel gable has a cross finial.

Inside, a double-chamfered pointed tower arch dies into responds. Late 12th-century pointed double-chamfered arches, on quirk-and-hollow-chamfered imposts, lead to the north and south transepts. A font from the early 13th century is goblet-shaped, supported by four colonnettes with nailhead decoration. In the south transept’s east wall is a memorial brass set within a rectangular moulded stone panel, bearing an inscription and a coat of arms, commemorating Antony Smethley, Lord of Brantingham, who died in 1578.