Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A parish church in the village of Mackworth, on the north side of Lower Road. The building was constructed in the early 14th century, with extensions in the late 14th and 15th centuries, and underwent restoration in 1851. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with sandstone dressings and has Welsh slate roofs with stone coped gables; the aisle roofs are hidden behind parapets. The plan comprises a west tower, an aisled nave, a south porch, a chancel with a north vestry, and a moulded stone plinth.

The west tower has two unequal stages divided by a chamfered string course. Angle buttresses with five set-offs are linked by pilaster strips to the battlemented parapet. The ground stage contains only arrow slits and a cross-loop window to each face below the string course, possibly for defensive reasons. A lozenge clock face to the south is dated 1872. The bell stage has tall 2-light bell openings to all four sides, with a transom and cusped ogee lights under a flat arch, set within a segment-headed opening with moulded surround. A recessed stone spire crowns the tower with one tier of lucarnes.

The south aisle has a 3-light west window with Perpendicular style tracery. The south porch shares its west wall with the aisle; at their junction is a buttress incorporating a stair turret. The porch is two-storeyed with a shallow gable and has a plain 2-light recessed and chamfered mullion window to the west and a single-light window above. To the east is another single-light window. Diagonal buttresses flank the porch. The entrance features a pointed arched doorway with double chamfered moulding and a trellis pattern door. Above is a sundial with gnomon. The south aisle has two 3-light windows under flat arches with cusped ogee tracery set in deep chamfered surrounds, separated by a buttress and diagonal buttress. A 3-light east window has Perpendicular tracery.

The chancel has a 19th-century ballflower eaves cornice. Two bays are divided by gableted buttresses, the eastern one with a crocketed pinnacle. Two 2-light windows in Decorated style have hoodmoulds with foliage stops. A priest's doorway with two wave mouldings and a frieze of ballflower has a hoodmould with headstops; all these details appear 19th-century in their present form. The 4-light east window has Decorated tracery and is flanked by gableted and pinnacled angle buttresses.

The north side has a lean-to vestry of 1851 with a chimney stack and a 2-light and a 3-light window with trefoil motifs. The north aisle has three bays divided by buttresses. Two 3-light windows match those on the south side, and in the west bay is a plain single chamfered blocked doorway. Three small 2-light clerestory windows light the nave. The north aisle west window, dating to circa 1300, has Y-tracery. Five scratch dials are cut into buttresses.

Interior

The nave has three-bay arcades with octagonal piers and abaci, arches of two orders. A similar chancel arch dies into the imposts. A doorway to the tower has provisions for barring it. In the south aisle is a Decorated tomb recess with moulded arch and a piscina at the east end. The chancel contains early 14th-century sedilia and piscina, both re-cut in the 19th century. In the north aisle at the east end are two 14th-century canopied niches for saints; a broad double niche is on the north wall. The font is a rich Decorated style octagonal piece of circa 1870, with nodding ogee arches around the bowl.

Monuments include a tomb chest to Edward Mundy, died 1607, in the south aisle, with an alabaster effigy and children along the front of the chest. A Gothic tablet to Richard French, died 1801, by Hall of Derby, is in the north aisle. An 18th-century cartouche and two further tablets are also present.

The late Victorian chancel is sumptuously decorated. The reredos, of 1878, is made of Derbyshire alabaster with inlay of various stones, featuring abstract patterns and traceried gables either side of the east window with floral motifs. It is said to copy in part a reredos in a church in Pavia. Alabaster standard candlesticks of 1902 flank the altar, with angels on twisted columns. Communion rails of 1893 are of white alabaster with Blue John and other inlay, copied from a balustrade in Rome. A rich tiled floor lines the chancel. A carved canopy over the vestry door, of 1886, features angel corbels supporting a richly carved marble and alabaster crocketed ogee arch with flanking twisted colonnettes, surmounted by three winged angels. Wall tablets in marble and alabaster commemorate Father Noel Mundy and Emily Mundy, died 1903 and 1929 respectively, arranged as paired circular tablets either side of a cross. 19th-century choir stalls are present. The pulpit of 1896 is of Derbyshire alabaster and green Irish marble on a Dorset marble base. The lectern of 1903 by Charles Lomas of Derby is carved from a single block of Chellaston alabaster, with a vine climbing the stem and ending in leaves and grapes below the bible support. The east window of 1851 is stained glass depicting figures of saints in a style characteristic of its date.