Church Of All Saints With Anchorage Attached

Church of All Saints with Anchorage Attached, York

This Grade I listed church and its attached anchorage stands on the west side of North Street in York. The building represents a complex architectural history spanning from the 12th century to the 20th century.

The church comprises a 12th-century nave with parts of the north and south arcades dating to the early 13th century. The east end was rebuilt and chancel chapels added in the early 14th century. The aisles were widened to incorporate the chancel chapels in the early 15th century, and the nave and aisles were extended westwards with a tower and spire added in the later 15th century. The chancel and chancel aisles were reroofed in the late 15th century, and a weathervane was added to the spire in the 18th century. Major restorations were undertaken by JB and W Atkinson between 1866 and 1867, during which the south aisle was rebuilt and a porch and vestry were added. A further restoration in 1908 by E Ridsdale Tate involved reconstruction of the anchorage. Peter Marshall, Architects, carried out additional restoration in 1991.

The church is constructed of magnesian limestone ashlar and squared rubble stone, with incised coffin lids incorporated into the fabric. A small area of red brick in random bond appears at the west end of the north side. The roof is tiled with stone coped gables. The anchorage is of shuttered concrete with planted timber-framing and concrete infilling, with a roof partly tiled, partly concrete, and partly asphalt.

The plan comprises a seven-bay aisled nave and continuous chancel with an embraced tower to the west, south porch, and vestry. The anchorage is attached to the south-west corner.

The exterior features a triple-gabled east end with the centre part flanked by dwarf buttresses and the south gable on a chamfered plinth. Each gable has a pointed window of three foiled lights, the centre one with Decorated tracery and the outer ones with reticulated tracery. A small niche with a four-centred head is located to the north of the north window. The north side is partly on a chamfered plinth with three weathered buttresses, largely restored. An entrance in the sixth bay from the east is set in a chamfered two-centred doorway with plain hoodmould. The easternmost window is pointed with reticulated tracery, reset from the east end window with the head cut back by later re-roofing. Remaining windows are square-headed, of two or three cinquefoiled lights in renewed hollow-chamfered surrounds. The rebuilt south side incorporates several large fragments of incised coffin lids. Windows here are of three cinquefoiled lights with chamfered surrounds and mullions beneath square heads and hoodmoulds. The porch is entered from the east side through a two-centred chamfered doorway beneath a coved hoodmould.

At the west end stands a three-stage tower and spire flanked by gabled ends of the north and south aisles. The tower's ground stage is square on plan; the upper stages are octagonal with weathering at the base of alternate faces forming bases of slim buttresses. An openwork parapet at the base of the octagonal spire is surmounted by an 18th-century brass weathercock. On the tower's ground stage, the west window is of three cinquefoiled lights in a two-centred head with an ogee-arched trefoil-headed niche above. The second and third stages have windows to each cardinal face: those on the second stage are of two lights in a flattened two-centred head; those on the third stage are transomed, of two lights. West windows to the north and south aisles are two-centred, of three cinquefoiled lights with one tier of panel tracery. Much window tracery throughout the church has been renewed.

The anchorage is one-and-a-half storeys with one bay to the north front and a pent half bay to the west. A twentieth-century board door entrance is located to the south of the pent bay. The full bay is raised on an arch-braced concrete deck, jettied on the north side with a four-light oriel window and coved eaves surmounted by embattled cresting. The half bay has single-light windows to the north and west with bargeboarded eaves. All windows are trefoil-headed square lattice casements, those in the oriel with carved panel tracery and risers carved with roses and foliage.

The interior of the chancel features double-chamfered jambs to the east window which are original, incorporating a carved demifigure at each side at the springing point of the inner chamfer. In the chancel north wall is a square-headed aumbry of paired trefoil-headed niches. In the south-east corner, two bays of 12th-century wall arcade survive, of trefoil-headed niches on attached shafts with bell capitals in two-centred arches separated by a continuous band of dogtooth moulding. The north and south arcades feature two-centred arches, either single or double chamfered, with piers and responds mainly octagonal. The easterly piers have square abaci with hollow-chamfered undersides; the westerly have octagonal capitals and square abaci with crudely broached angle stops.

Three piers are of earlier date. One in the north arcade is a monolithic Roman column shaft reused with a roll-moulded base and square abacus, hollow-chamfered on the underside. A second pier in the north arcade is cylindrical with a necking, bell capital carved with nailhead moulding, and a chamfered round abacus on a double roll-moulded base. In the south arcade, one pier is cylindrical with a necking, hollow-chamfered capital, and square abacus on a water-holding double roll-moulded base. The third pier from the east in the north arcade has a tonsured demifigure corbel supporting a polygonal shelf on its west face. The tower arches are hollow-chamfered and die into octagonal and half-octagonal piers and responds on square bases with crude broach stops. In the north wall beneath the tower is a small pointed chamfered doorway leading to a newel stair, corbelled out over the north-west corner. The south doorway within the porch is a pointed arch of one continuous order, roll-moulded on each side of a band of nailhead moulding. The west wall of the south aisle contains two square chamfered openings, one blocked, which connect with the former anchorage.

The roofs of the chancel and three eastern bays of the north and south aisles comprise six trusses of arch-braced moulded principals on angel-corbelled hammerbeams with moulded collars and purlins and carved bosses. Wall plates are finished with embattled cresting. In the north aisle, three corbels, wall posts, and a chamfered wall plate survive from an earlier roof.

The church contains a notable collection of medieval stained glass, mostly from the 15th century, outside York Minster. Fittings include chancel screens by E Ridsdale Tate dated to 1906, a hexagonal pulpit with painted decoration dated Anno Domini 1675, and a medieval octagonal bowl font on an octagonal stem with moulded foot. Eighteenth-century Benefaction, Commandment, Credence, and Mayoral Boards are present. Sculpture includes a carved female head with traces of paint by the tower's south pier and a round stoup on a square block. Carvings include a misericorde in the chancel carved with a pelican in piety and the monogram and arms of John Gilyot, Rector 1467–72/3, and an image of King David playing the harp, possibly from an 18th-century reredos.

Monuments include a cartouche to John Etty, died 1709, on the south aisle wall. Floor slabs record John Stoddart, Rector (inducted March 1593), Joan Stoddart (died 1599), James, son of Thomas Pennyman (died 1699), Esther, his wife (died 1745), and a black marble floor slab to Joshua Witton (died 1674). Brasses include a black lettered plate to William Stockton (died 1471) and Robert Colynson (died 1458), both Lord Mayors of York, and to Isabella, widow of Robert Colynson and second wife of William Stockton, set in the floor slab to John Wardall. A plate inscribed to Thomas Clerk (died 1482) and his wife Margaret is set in a marble floor slab with Evangelists' symbols, one of which is missing. Wall plates commemorate Thomas Askwith (died 1609) and his wife Anne, and Charles Townley (died 1712).