Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church dating back to the 14th century, with significant additions and restoration in the 19th century. It is constructed of coursed squared gritstone with gritstone dressings, covered by a Welsh-slate roof with stone-coped gables. Moulded coped parapets are present on the nave.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave, and a chancel. The west tower features a two-light west window with cusped arches under a square head, set in a chamfered surround. Lower bell openings with two lights in chamfered square surrounds are on the south side, with matching openings on the other three sides. A moulded string course and battlemented parapet top the tower. The nave’s south side has three bays with diagonal buttresses and one intermediate buttress. A steeply gabled 19th-century south porch features a heavy moulded arch on stumpy half columns. A 2-light 14th-century window, with a stepped and wave-moulded surround, a square head and 19th-century tracery, is positioned to the left. Two more similar windows are on the right. The chancel incorporates two similar windows flanking a chamfered priests’ doorway and was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. Diagonal buttresses are located at the east end of the chancel, fronted by a three-light east window with an almost triangular head and wave-moulded surround, containing trefoiled lancets and trefoils. The north wall of the chancel lacks windows, while the north wall of the nave features two entirely 19th-century windows with roll-moulded surrounds. Two 12th-century beakheads are set into the walls of the south porch. A steeply pointed south doorway, with continuous wave moulding, is accessed via a 19th-century plank door with iron strap hinges.

Inside, the tower arch consists of two moulded orders, the inner order dying into the imposts. A 19th-century double chamfered chancel arch has a hoodmould on both sides, with foliage stops. The chancel roof is boarded with cusping and a quatrefoil frieze, while the nave roof features tie beams and arched trusses on corbels. A 12th-century circular font, with intersecting arcading, stands on a 19th-century octagonal base. A Decorated piscina and triple sedilia are decorated with cusped tracery. A 19th-century stone reredos, in the form of a Gothic arcade, is also present. Painted texts flank the east window, situated above corbels.

Monuments include three tablets on the north wall of the chancel, commemorating Valentine Stead (died 1765), Ann Stead (died 1810), and Francis Newdigate (died 1762). A 19th-century rood screen, in a Decorated style, features a foliage frieze and cresting. Stained glass is found in the chancel windows, a south nave window from 1910, and a north nave window from 1909, the latter an ‘Arts and Crafts’ design of 1910 by Bernard Sleigh of Birmingham. A painted hatchment is above the chancel arch.