Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church dating from the late 14th century, with the spire rebuilt in 1776. The nave and chancel were heavily restored between 1861 and 1862, and a south aisle was added at that time.

The church is built in coursed squared stone with stone dressings. It has a chamfered plinth and a continuous moulded sill stringcourse. The steeply pitched roofs are covered in plain tiles with diaper work and crested ridge tiles. Stone-coped gables with ridge crosses rise above the nave and chancel east gables. A chamfered eaves band runs around the building.

The plan consists of a nave with a south aisle, a lower chancel, and a large western tower. The tower rises in three stages. It has a deep moulded plinth and stepped buttresses to all corners. The buttresses to the western corners are angled and carry gablets to the third stage and to the top. The south-east corner features a slightly advanced staircase projection with slit windows running up to the bell stage. The first stage is larger than the upper two stages and is marked with a chamfered band at its top. It contains a pointed window of 19th-century geometric tracery with two lights to the west. The second stage has trefoil-headed lancets to north and south. The bell stage features tall pointed cusped Y-tracery louvred openings with returned hoodmoulds on all sides. Above rises a broached stone spire with Y-traceried gableted lucarnes on four sides, a moulded stringcourse, and four further gableted lucarnes with trefoil-headed openings near the top on different sides.

The north elevation of the nave contains three pointed windows of two lights with geometric tracery. A north vestry to the east has a Caernarvon-arched western door, a two-light flat-headed north window with trefoil-headed lights, and an east window of similar design with a high relieving arch of alternating red and yellow stone above. Angle buttresses flank both corners. The north chancel elevation has a two-light window similar to those in the nave. The east elevation has a similar three-light window flanked by clasping buttresses, with a small trefoil window set high in the gable above.

The south chancel elevation displays two similar two-light windows; the eastern one is partly filled in at the base and decorated with relief designs. The south aisle has a two-light window to the east and two wider three-light pointed windows of geometric tracery to the south. Stepped buttresses are positioned between the windows and at each corner of the aisle. All windows to the nave, aisle, and chancel are provided with hoodmoulds featuring nail-head stops. Those windows that are not the north nave windows have pointed relieving arches of alternating red and yellow stones. At the west end of the aisle stands an advanced gabled doorcase with a ridge cross crowning the stone-coped gable. The doorcase itself is richly moulded with a pointed arch and features contrasting red stone nookshafts and a hoodmould with foliage stops.

The interior contains a three-bay arcade of 1861 with double-chamfered pointed arches resting on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. A wide chamfered pointed chancel arch of 19th-century date, with a soffit mould supported on column corbels with stiff-leaf capitals and a hoodmould, separates the nave from the chancel. The tower is entered beneath a low pointed arch with triple chamfering that dies into splayed jambs; this arch has a hoodmould with foliage stops. The chancel contains a moulded four-centred arch leading into the organ bay. Both nave and chancel have 19th-century arched braced roofs on stiff-leaf corbels, and both retain a continuous sill stringcourse.

The chancel is panelled up to sill height with Minton tiles and contains a marble reredos with inlaid semi-precious stones. A small trefoil-headed piscina with hood and a simple sedilla at the base of the eastern window are present. Mid-19th-century brass altar rails and choir stalls, along with an organ of similar date, furnish the chancel. The nave contains pews of similar date with inset quatrefoils to the bench ends. An octagonal stone pulpit with cusped-headed orange marble panels to each side and a polished black marble column supporting the lectern stands in the nave. Beneath the tower sits an octagonal granite font resting on a central pier with four colonnettes; each side of the bowl is decorated with inset quatrefoils. A broken original stone font is positioned nearby on the floor.

Three memorials stand in the chancel. These include an enamelled brass plaque to Lady Law, who funded the church restoration; a simple white marble wall memorial to Charles Colville, who died in 1886; and a Gothic aediculated memorial to George Colville dating to around 1860. Four brass wall plaques from the early 20th century are mounted in the nave, two commemorating First World War victims.

Most windows contain clear glass. The east window features brightly coloured stained glass inscribed "J B Capronnier Buxelles Fecit 1862". The north chancel window contains stained glass given in memory of Alice Colville, made by Ward and Hughes. The east window of the south aisle holds glass by Christopher Webb dating to around 1962. The west window contains mid-19th-century stained glass.