Church Of All Hallows

Church of All Hallows

The parish church at Seaton is of early 12th-century origin, with the south doorway and shafts of the chancel arch surviving from that period. The north aisle and nave arcade date from the late 12th century, while the south aisle and its arcade are similar but slightly later. The chancel was built in the 13th century, and the late 13th-century west tower and spire were added. A south porch followed in the 14th century.

The church underwent extensive restoration in 1874–75 by N.M. Fawcett of Cambridge, during which a clerestory was added, the aisles were refenestrated, and the building was thoroughly restored.

The exterior is of coursed limestone rubble with the chancel banded with ironstone and slate roofs. The three-stage west tower has angle buttresses and a broach spire with three tiers of lucarnes. The bell-chamber contains tall two-light traceried openings with shafts, much restored. Below these are cusped round windows to north and south, and a tall narrow west window with traceried lights.

The nave features a moulded parapet and a 19th-century three-bay clerestory with cusped roundels. The aisles also have moulded parapets and three bays of 19th-century rectangular windows, each of three cusped lights. A similar window serves the organ chamber at the east end of the north aisle. The north aisle retains its original west window with two traceried lights and an arched door. The south aisle retains a cusped lancet at its west end and an original three-light east window with cusped intersecting tracery.

The south doorway is notable for its fine roll mouldings and billet moulding to the arch, with jambs featuring pairs of slender shafts, richly carved capitals and friezes, and moulded bases. The south porch has a good moulded two-centred arch flanked by traceried pilaster buttresses with carved stops to the inner label, and ogee-traceried windows in its sides.

The chancel has a moulded parapet, keeled sill string, remains of dripmould, and gabled buttresses. Three bays of good arched windows each have a pair of arched lights, a blind cusped roundel, and banded ironstone jambs. A large 19th-century three-light east window retains original outer shafts and jambs. The south door features a double hollow-chamfered surround with carved head stops to the hoodmould.

The interior is distinguished by a tower arch with triple hollow-chamfered mouldings and half-quatrefoil shafts to the jambs. The nave contains fine three-bay arcades with richly moulded semi-circular arches on cylindrical piers. The south piers and one north pier have moulded capitals with a narrow band of nailhead; the other north piers have waterleaf capitals. Two arches on the north side are of banded ironstone and limestone. An arched niche with rebate for a door appears in the southeast pier.

The south aisle contains a west window seat incorporating panels and balusters from a former font, each panel carved with a raised stone cross. Two tomb recesses and two piscinae, one cusped, are set into the south wall of the aisle.

The chancel arch has roll mouldings and good early 12th-century shafts with carved capitals and frieze, above which is a semi-circular arched window. The chancel itself features fine 13th-century window shafts, a 19th-century arch to the vestry, an aumbry in the north wall, cusped aumbries flanking the altar, and a fine group comprising a piscina and triple sedilia with trefoil arches in the south wall.

Roofs throughout date to the 19th century. Most fittings are late 19th-century, with the exception of an octagonal stone basin formerly serving as a font, a chest with iron straps in the porch, and early to mid-18th-century altar rails with dropped wooden balusters. The east window contains stained glass by Heaton, Butler and Bayne. Monuments are few; the most notable are a medieval effigy in the south aisle and a memorial tablet of 1852 to the Monckton family.