Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Church, partly ruinous. Dates from the 14th and 15th centuries with alterations of 1838 and late 1960s. 19th-century work by Chantrell, 20th-century work by G G Pace. Constructed in ashlar sandstone, partly rendered, with some 20th-century brick; Welsh slate roofs. The building follows a cruciform plan with a ruined aisled nave, north and south porches, and a 20th-century inserted nave; north and south transepts restored in the 19th century; a crossing tower with octagon; and a ruined aisled chancel with a 19th-century inserted sanctuary. The architectural style combines Decorated and Perpendicular Gothic.

The south aisle of the nave has four bays. In the second bay stands a porch with buttresses flanking a continuously-moulded pointed-arched opening with hoodmould; the buttresses offset halfway up at the level of the doorway, with coping to the flat roof. To the first bay is a buttress on the left and a pointed window opening; the bays to the right of the porch have been lost. The south clerestorey of the nave contains four windows of paired trefoiled lights with continuous hoodmould. At the west end of the nave, buttresses flank a wide four-centred arched doorway which breaks up into the sill of a large formerly Perpendicular window, once with hoodmould; a two-light opening to the roof space above. The north nave clerestorey is similar to the south. The north nave aisle has, in the second bay from the west, a two-storey porch not projecting much from the wall, with a double-chamfered continuously-moulded pointed-arched doorway, barrel-vaulted portal, and continuously-moulded inner doorway with rolls to the pointed arch; a single light on the first floor; and a window flanked by stepped buttresses.

The north transept, with rendered north side, has stepped buttresses flanking a pointed doorway with hoodmould; above this is a three-light mullioned and transomed pointed window. The south transept dates from the early 19th century; on the south side, stepped buttresses flank a pointed doorway with hoodmould, with a five-light Perpendicular window above, and two two-light windows to the east and west.

The central tower has, at each side of the belfry stage, paired windows of two trefoiled lights each, with a quatrefoil in a pointed arch above and hoodmoulds, the openings being deeply undercut. A pierced parapet sits above with corner pinnacles. The octagon features smaller paired tre-foiled lights with hoodmould to the cardinal points, and a crenellated parapet above the band with one pinnacle to the north. The west face of the belfry has, at the base of the openings, a clock face in an ogee crocketed canopy, with about two blind quatrefoils flanked by blind gablets; a clock face also faces east.

The chancel spans three bays. The south chapel has a central doorway flanked by windows with reticulated tracery; the east window was Perpendicular. Little remains of the rest of the chancel, although a fragment of the south arcade western respond appears to be 12th century.

Interior: The nave has arcades with octagonal piers and double-chamfered pointed arches. On the inside of the north wall is tracery of a large Perpendicular window, probably from the west window. In the two eastern bays is a brick 20th-century inserted nave with five medieval heads set high up and board-marked concrete eaves; Victorian pews are inside it. In the south chancel aisle is an ogee-headed tomb niche. The north wall also has a tomb recess. The chancel has a 19th-century inserted sanctuary of canted plan, inside which is blind arcading below windows.