Church Of All Hallows

Church of All Hallows, Bardsey-cum-Rigton

The Church of All Hallows is a parish church of considerable importance, primarily notable for its Anglo-Saxon tower, one of the oldest surviving Saxon structures in Yorkshire. The tower dates to between 850–950, with the parapet rebuilt in the early 20th century. The tower was raised in the later 10th century and appears to have been erected over the site of an earlier pre-Conquest west porch, a unique survival in Yorkshire comparable to examples at Monkwearmouth and Corbridge.

The church comprises a west tower, aisled nave with clerestorey, south porch, north and south chapels, and chancel. The tower is unusually slender in proportion to the rest of the building and is embraced by the aisles, giving the west front a distinctive appearance as though the tower rises from a gable.

The north aisle dates to c.1100–1125 (Norman period), while the south aisle is Transitional work of c.1175–1200. Both aisles were widened in the 14th century, with Perpendicular windows inserted in the 15th century. The chancel is early 14th century. A north chapel, much restored around 1520 and now serving as the vicar's vestry, originally adjoins the aisle. The south chapel was built as a Bayley family pew around 1724 and now serves as the choir vestry. The roof was raised in the 19th century, and the entire church underwent restoration in 1909 by Charles R. Chorley and Son of Leeds.

The church is constructed of red sandstone coursed rubble for the tower and aisles, with hammer-dressed gritstone for the clerestorey, chancel, and south transept. Ashlar is used for the porch and dressings to restored windows. The roofs are of stone slate.

The tower's exterior displays notable Anglo-Saxon features. Long and short work is evident on the west face, with eight courses of large dressed quoins. The masonry has been disturbed by the insertion of a two-light Perpendicular window, flanked by similar windows set in the west end of the aisles, with 12th-century lancets positioned between the tower. Earlier roof lines of the aisles remain clearly discernible, and a steeply-pitched gable on the tower indicates the presence of the original pre-Conquest porch. The west and north faces of the tower contain small lights under lancets and inserted two-light Perpendicular belfry windows, with a clock-face to the north. The south face retains two 12th-century two-light baluster belfry windows. The east face shows traces of herringbone masonry. An embattled parapet with corbel table (restored) crowns the tower.

The nave comprises three bays. A gabled porch, set in the first bay, protects a repositioned fine-carved Norman south doorway with three orders: the outer order features beakhead ornament and chevron decoration, with a plain inner order, carried on two engaged columns with decorated capitals and moulded impost. The aisles, with offset buttresses, and the clerestorey feature two-light windows. The north doorway has a pointed arch. The north chapel is a single bay, an extension of the aisle with a buttress between. The south chapel, set at right angles, has a coped gable flush with the aisle and an offset buttress. At its apex is a stone carved with five blind trefoils and a gable stack. Its right return contains a two-light window (restored). The lower single-bay chancel has angle buttresses and a three-light east window with round-headed lights and Y-tracery filled with mouchettes. To the south is a priest's door to the left of an original 14th-century two-light window with cusped lights in a deeply-chamfered surround.

Interior features include the tower base, which contains a round-arched doorway with a stilted-arched window above on both north and south faces. The original four angles of the pre-Conquest nave remain, with projecting corners displaying large dressed quoins to the west and half-columns on tall square bases with varying capitals. The western tower-arch has been enlarged to align with the chancel arch and shows three discernible roof lines: a flat roof and two steeply-pitched roof lines preceding the present slightly flatter-pitched roof.

The north arcade comprises short cylindrical columns with scalloped capitals and round-arched arcading. The south arcade is taller, with bell-shaped capitals featuring curled-leaf corners and pointed arches with hoodmoulds. In the chancel, a north Tudor arch is blocked by an organ inserted around 1867 (replaced 1934), with a small cusped light to its left. The south wall of the chancel contains two 14th-century pointed-arched windows with a lower cusped light. The sanctuary features three-niche sedilia with ogee lintels of 19th-century character, and a 15th-century piscina with a trefoil-cusped arch.

The church contains several notable memorials. In the chancel is a carved stone tablet to Charles Lister (c.1684) decorated with winged-head angel spandrels, a memorial to Richard Capstick comprising a flat obelisk marble tablet by J. Parker (c.1685), and a good wall tablet to Elizabeth Thorpe, wife of Baron Thorpe (c.1666), featuring a strapwork cartouche with broken pediment and heraldic lozenge. Two funeral tablets commemorate the Lane-Fox family of Bramham. The tower base displays two upright medieval grave slabs, one decorated with a cross. A Royal Coat of Arms (c.1819) and a Benefactions board are located in the south chapel. A 19th-century king-post roof of heavy scantling covers the interior.

The tower is visually prominent within the village and possesses a remarkable appearance, being curiously thin in proportion to the rest of the church. It represents probably the oldest Saxon work in Yorkshire and stands as the only surviving example in the county of clear evidence for a west porch predating the tower's construction.