Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a church of medieval origin with major phases spanning from the 12th century to the 15th century. The nave and transepts are constructed from coursed shelly limestone rubble, while the other parts are built in ashlar. All roofs are lead-covered.

The main body of the church comprises a 4-bay aisled nave with clerestory, north and south transepts with an east aisle to the north transept, a 4-bay chancel with a north chapel, a south porch, and a west tower.

The west tower is the most prominent architectural feature. It stands four stages high with a triple-chamfered plinth, angle buttresses, and moulded string-courses. The third stage displays a 2-light window with Perpendicular tracery beneath a segmental head with a stepped hood-mould. The belfry opening above is 3-light with Perpendicular tracery and a transom, also under a stepped hood-mould. The tower is crowned with a crenellated parapet decorated with 8 crocketed pinnacles. The west entrance consists of a double-leaf boarded door in a 4-centred opening with continuous mouldings and hood-mould, flanked by a tall pointed 5-light window with Perpendicular tracery under a hood-mould featuring grotesques at the stops and apex.

The south aisle windows comprise one square-headed 2-light and two pointed 2-light examples, all with Perpendicular tracery. The clerestory carries flat-headed 2-light windows with Perpendicular tracery on both the north and south sides. The south elevation includes a pointed 3-order entrance door with nook-shafts, round abaci, and filleted roll mouldings to the outer two orders, with a hood-mould featuring foliage stops.

The south transept has been rebuilt with diagonal buttresses and carries a 19th-century 4-light south window with Perpendicular tracery. The east wall displays two pointed windows: a 2-light example with Y-tracery and a 3-light with a brattished transom. The transept has a low parapet and low-pitch roof.

The north transept contains pointed windows with Perpendicular tracery throughout, except for a 13th-century lancet to the west wall. The walls of the south transept follow the same general treatment, with windows reflecting the Perpendicular style.

The chancel features a double-chamfered plinth and a buttress with offsets. Three pointed 2-light windows with transoms and Perpendicular tracery are set beneath hood-moulds. The priests' door is pointed with double-chamfered mouldings and a similar hood-mould.

The south porch was rebuilt in the 19th century using original materials.

Interior

The interior is dominated by a lofty pointed tower arch with a broad capital-band carved with grotesque heads and foliage. Similar though lower arches spring from the piers of the embracing aisles.

The north arcade is late 12th-century work, comprised of cylindrical piers with capitals carved in wide variety with human, animal, and foliage subjects, supporting pointed double-chamfered arches under a continuous hood-mould with grotesque stops. The south arcade dates to the early 13th century and follows a similar arrangement with cylindrical piers, capitals, and abaci supporting double-chamfered arches under a continuous hood-mould with beak-head stops. Similar arcades serve the chancel north chapel and the east side of the north transept, the latter incorporating some nail-head ornament.

The north nave aisle preserves one late medieval roof truss at its west end, characterised by a heavily cambered arch-braced tie-beam.

A late 12th-century font, now reset in the 19th century on a central column with four black shelly marble columnettes, occupies the nave.

Memorials and Fittings

The chancel north chapel contains a black marble triptych wall memorial with an incised recumbent figure and mourning family, commemorating Thomas Dolman, died 1589. To the north transept north wall is an alabaster wall memorial with a lengthy inscription to Robert Sothebie, died 1594, set in a decorated surround flanked by columns. An early 16th-century carved wooden altarpiece occupies the chancel south wall.

A 14th-century churchyard cross stands beneath the west tower.