Church Of All Saints

SHEEPY SK30 SW MAIN STREET, SHEEPY MAGNA (West side) 3/88 Church of All Saints 11.6.66

GV II*

Parish Church. C15 Tower and Chancel, nave of 1789, but with windows and north aisle mid Victorian. Ashlar, Welsh slate roofs. West tower, nave with north aisle and chancel. The west tower is of 3 stages with angle buttresses capped by gargoyles and an enbattled parapet. Giant arch to west filled in with paired lancets and wide 4 light Perpendicular style windows above, all Victorian, while at the foot is a low tomb recess containing a worn flatly carved effigy, probably of C14. Squared original window in the second stage and tall slender paired lights to bell chamber above. Plain chamfered north doorway in gabled porch, 2 light windows with quatrefoils to buttressed aisle. Small chancel with 3 light east window and small priest's door to south. Tall south nave wall and series of 4 mid-Victorian windows, paired lights with lean flowing tracery forming quatrefoils. Inside, north arcade of 4 bays, cylindrical shafts supporting double chamfered arches, in a stripped down interpretation of the Decorated style. Tower arch springs high, with screen and gallery in mid Victorian spikey woodwork. Wide roof with king post trusses to nave. Wide chancel arch springing from corbels. Fittings all mid-Victorian, including the reredos behind the altar, a stone relief of the Last Supper. Font may however be medieval; octagonal, each facet has a blank shield in high relief. Stained glass; the south nave windows form a linked series; the eastern pair of the work of Burne Jones for Morris arid Company, 1879. To the east Moses-and David with smaller scenes below depicting the birth of Christ and the Adoration of the Magi, then Peter and Paul above the Miracle of the Fishes. Both windows have a backcloth of lavish foliage and fruit, oaks and roses etc. with stylised landscapes behind the narrative scenes, and angels in the quatrefoils. The 2 western windows are of 1897 and are by Kempe; he used a similar idiom, of principal figures above a narrative, here Daniel and Stephen with the raising of Lazarus, and Isiah and John over the Baptism. Kempe's backgrounds are more abstract, though the little landscapes are fuller.

Listing NGR: SK3261201321