Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church with origins in the 11th century, substantially developed in the 13th and 14th centuries, with a 15th-century clerestory and tower. It was restored in 1889. The building is constructed of rubble and ashlar sandstone with sandstone dressings, featuring a deep moulded plinth to the tower and moulded sill bands to all walls except the south aisle. The roofs are shallow pitched and leaded, hidden behind embattled parapets with ridgeback copings and coved eaves bands to the nave and aisles. The chancel has a steeply pitched slate roof with stone coped east gable topped by a ridge cross.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave with north and south aisles, a large chancel, and a south porch.

The west tower is two storeys tall with full-height stepped clasping buttresses to all four corners. It has projecting embattled parapets with ridgeback copings, gargoyles, and a tall recessed octagonal stone spire above. The first stage contains a pointed moulded west door and slit windows with moulded surrounds to north and south. Above the door is a large circular clock face to the north and a diamond-shaped niche (formerly for a clock face) to the west. A moulded string course runs above these openings, followed by flat-headed 2-light louvred bell openings to all sides with ogee-headed lights and pierced spandrels in moulded surrounds. The spire has cusped ogee-headed lucarnes to four sides.

The north aisle has full-height stepped buttresses between all openings and at either end. Its west wall contains a unusual 3-light panel tracery window with a pointed top cut off by the parapets. The north elevation displays three 3-light pointed windows with triple stepped lancets. Between the western windows is the north door, mostly renewed but retaining its pointed moulded arch on nook shafts (now missing), with string courses at impost level and to the top of the arch, plus two vertical strings between and a 19th-century lantern above. The east window to the aisle is similar to the northern ones. Above are four 15th-century flat-headed 2-light clerestory windows with cusped double-lobe-headed lights in deeply chamfered surrounds.

The chancel to the east is built of rubble and has two 13th-century Y-tracery pointed windows to the west and a 16th-century flat-headed 2-light window with cusped semi-circular-headed lights to the east. The east elevation has full-height stepped clasping buttresses and a central 5-light pointed window with 19th-century tracery. The south chancel elevation contains a 3-light 16th-century window to the east (similar to the northern window) and a cusped-headed doorcase with relieving arch above to the west. Beyond to the west is a 19th-century Y-tracery window with a 13th-century external tomb niche below it. At the western end of the chancel is a full-height 15th-century chapel with a 4-light panel-traceried four-centred arched window to the front and a similar 2-light window to the side.

The south aisle has a 3-light pointed east window with reticulated tracery and three similar windows to the south elevation. Low clasping buttresses occupy either corner of the aisle. Between two western windows is the south porch, which has a double-chamfered doorcase and blocked flat-headed 2-light windows to either side. The west elevation of the aisle has a single lancet, and above are four 15th-century clerestory windows similar to those on the north.

Interior

The interior contains a wide nave with a late 13th-century arcade to the north and south, comprising tall double-chamfered pointed arches on octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases. The eastern responds consist of three clustered shafts. A simple 11th-century semicircular-headed chancel arch with moulded impost band separates the nave from the chancel. A small 15th-century pointed doorcase provides access into the tower. The chancel roof is 19th-century, while the nave and aisle roofs date to the 15th century, though all have been considerably restored. The nave has central carved bosses to its tie beams.

The chancel features the unusual element of a stone screen at the east end behind the altar, with a simple chamfered pointed doorcase and studded oak door to the north side. Inserted into the eastern jambs of windows just west of the screen are cusped-headed niches with corbels to the base, likely contemporary with the screen and therefore 13th-century. Below the north window are two plain alms cupboards with wooden doors. At the base of the southern window is a simple piscina with a stone drain through the wall. The chancel also contains a handsome Perpendicular oak screen and choir stalls with a panelled base, cusped tracery to open panels above, and crenellated tops. The stalls are of similar design with panelled fronts and backs, each with crenellated tops and bench ends with blind cusped panelling. An early 20th-century carved and gilded reredos is inserted into one of the southern chancel windows alongside a large 19th-century organ.

The nave contains a fine octagonal oak pulpit with a pendented tester, dated 1636, and some robust 16th-century oak pews from which 20th-century copies have been made for the rest of the church. Both the north and south aisles have pointed cusped piscinas at their east ends and each contains parts of another Perpendicular screen of similar design to that in the chancel. The south aisle has a crude octagonal stone font with a wooden cover of indeterminate date.

Monuments and Memorials

The church contains numerous fine monuments. Two 15th-century monuments to the Bothe family are located in the chancel. Against the north wall is the tomb of Roger Bothe, who died in 1467. This has a base decorated with blind quatrefoils, over which sits an ogee-headed canopy with crocketed pinnacles. The back wall is panelled, and the top of the base holds small brasses of Roger Bothe, his wife, and their eleven children. Set in the bay-window-like chapel to the south side of the chancel is the tomb chest of John Bothe, who died in 1496. This features a full-size effigy on top of a base decorated with blind quatrefoils. The top of the window has a panelled vault with painted shields. Also in the chancel is an early 18th-century wall memorial to Walter Colette with achievement above and skull below, plus two mid-19th-century slate and white marble wall memorials. Below the chancel arch is another tomb chest with a similar base to the others and a polished marble top with brasses to Robert Bothe and family, who died in 1478. Adjacent to the north is an early 19th-century wall memorial with a slate obelisk above a marble urn.

The south aisle contains two small brass memorials: one to Edward Edmonson, who died in 1589, and another from circa 1937. Two early 19th-century marble wall memorials are above, along with one from circa 1852 to the Trowell family. At the west end of the aisle is a slate plaque to John Trowell, who died in 1766. The north aisle has two re-set 13th-century effigies and a stone slab with brasses to Richard Shylton, who died in 1510. There is also a wall war memorial and an enamelled brass plaque commemorating the restoration of the church in 1889.

Stained Glass and Other Fittings

The north and south aisles have late 19th-century stained-glass east windows, as does the east window to the south side of the chancel. A circa 1950 stained-glass window is located in the south aisle, and a war memorial stained-glass window is in the north aisle. The tower contains a large hatchment dated 1767.