Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Aston-cum-Aughton

A Grade I listed church of mixed medieval periods, principally late 12th-century arcades with 14th and 15th-century work elsewhere, and a chancel rebuilt in the 19th century. The church was restored in 1863 by the architect Hadfield. It is constructed of red sandstone and limestone ashlar with lead and Welsh slate roofs.

The building comprises a west tower, a three-bay aisled nave with a south porch, and a two-bay chancel with a south chapel. The architectural style is predominantly Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic.

The west tower has three stages with a chamfered plinth and moulded band. The lower two stages have diagonal offset buttresses. The west face displays a three-light window with restored Perpendicular tracery beneath a pointed arch with hoodmould. Above this are two string courses and offsets, followed by three-light belfry windows with ashlar aprons, louvres, and panel tracery in pointed arches with hoodmoulds that return as a string course. The parapet is crenellated with crocketed pinnacles. On the north side, a blind ogee window sits beneath a second-stage clock.

The nave's south aisle is separately roofed and has a porch at the first bay with diagonal buttresses flanking a pointed-arched doorway. The doorway has shafted jambs and a hoodmould with busts as hoodstops. Above the doorway is an image niche, with a moulded oversailing course returning as a side cornice decorated with gargoyles and roll-moulded gable copings. The aisle itself has a moulded plinth and buttresses between two-light Decorated windows with square heads and hoodstops. A moulded oversailing course and roll-moulded parapet copings run along its length. At the east end of the aisle is an elaborate three-light tracery window. The nave roof, which is of steeper pitch than the aisle, has its own parapet and east gable copings.

The north aisle has a later bay that overlaps the tower, whilst the other bays feature rubblework raised in ashlar. A north door and square-headed two-light windows with ogee lights and hoodmoulds are present.

The chancel was rebuilt in the 19th century in ashlar limestone. It has a chamfered plinth and moulded band. The south side features a painted priest's door and two two-light windows with simple pointed heads and head-carved hoodstops on a mould dropped from the oversailing course beneath a coped parapet. Angle buttresses flank a three-light east window with mouchettes and head-carved stops to the hoodmould. A lean-to north vestry with an east buttress contains a window of two lancet lights beneath a quatrefoil.

The interior contains a double-chamfered tower arch. The arcades feature cylindrical piers to the west and octagonal piers to the east, both with moulded capitals (the north-west capital has renewed carving). These support double-chamfered round arches with continuous hoodmoulds. The chancel arch has chamfered jambs to a double-chamfered arch, with the inner order carried on corbels.

The 19th-century roofs are of various types. The south aisle, however, retains an earlier roof with corbels and curved brackets supporting cambered tie beams with bosses, chamfered purlins, and a ridge.

A late 14th-century font occupies the nave. Part of its base has been cut away, and it features a reclining man carved at the foot. The top is castellated with tracery motifs. Nearby is a trefoil-headed piscina in the south wall.

The church contains heraldic stained glass at the east end of the south aisle, and an east window by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Wall plaques in the south aisle commemorate Thomas Gray and William Mason (died 1797), executed in Coade stone with portraits in medallions.

The chancel contains several monuments. On the north wall is an alabaster kneeling figure of Lord John Darcy (died 1624) positioned above representations of his three wives, set in a later recess with Corinthian columns and an open pediment. Another plaque to William Mason is also present. On the south wall is a plaque to Sir Francis Fane (died 1680) and his wife Elizabeth (died 1669), featuring a pilasitered surround with a crest above. Three additional plaques commemorate the Alderson family, rectors of the parish in the 19th century.