Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church dating from around 1380, with substantial reconstruction and additions by Rogers and Marsden between 1865 and 1868. The building is constructed of chalk, greenstone and ironstone blocks with limestone and chalk ashlar dressings. It has lead roofs with stone coped gables and cross finials, with some slate. The plan comprises a west tower, nave with north and south aisles, south porch and chancel.

The tower is of 14th-century chalk with 19th-century greenstone corners and three-stage angle buttresses. Two-stage greenstone regularly positioned buttresses were added to the tower and nave in 1865–1868. The west face features a pointed window with three cusped ogee-headed lights and 19th-century reticulated tracery beneath a hood mould. Above this is a square cusped plaque containing a blank shield. The north side has a polygonal chalk stair turret to the east with slit lights, and a square cusped plaque to the west with a blank shield. The south side also displays a square cusped plaque with a blank shield. A moulded string course runs above. Single pointed 19th-century windows appear on the west and south sides, each with a cusped pointed head and hood mould. A clock is positioned above on the south side. Bell openings on all four sides have pointed heads with two ogee cusped lights, quatrefoils and hood moulds. Moulded eaves and a parapet crown the tower.

The north aisle's west end is plain. The north side displays three pointed windows, each with two cusped ogee-headed lights, 19th-century vertical tracery and hood moulds. At the east end is a pointed three-light window with cusped heads, reticulated tracery (partially restored in the 19th century) and hood mould. A 15th-century clerestory above contains four windows of three lights each with cusped heads, reticulated tracery and hood moulds. A tall 20th-century chimney stands to the east.

The chancel is of 1865–1868. Its north side has two pointed windows each with two cusped ogee-headed lights featuring mouchettes and hood moulds. The east end displays a large pointed window with three cusped ogee-headed lights, large mouchettes above and hood mould. The south side has two pointed windows each with two cusped ogee-headed lights, quatrefoils and hood moulds.

The east end of the south aisle features a pointed window of three cusped ogee-headed lights with 19th-century reticulated tracery and hood mould. The south side contains three pointed windows, each with two lights with cusped ogee heads featuring mouchettes and hood moulds. Four clerestory windows above have pointed heads with cusped ogee heads, mouchettes and hood moulds.

The south porch is of 19th-century date and has a pointed doorway to the south with a moulded surround and hood mould. The porch interior contains a 14th-century doorway with a pointed head beneath a richly moulded rectangular hood mould. Flanking roundels contain blank shields. Two slender shafts appear on each jamb, and the door is of plank construction.

The interior tower arch dates from around 1380 and has a tall triple-chamfered pointed head with polygonal responds and moulded capitals. The north and south arcades, also of around 1380, each contain four bays with pointed double-chamfered heads, octagonal piers and polygonal responds. The chancel arch, likewise of around 1380, has a pointed double-chamfered head and polygonal responds.

A fine 15th-century rood screen, partially restored in the 19th century, features a central ogee-headed opening flanked by two panels with blind lower sections. Rich tracery including rosettes and narrow traceried buttresses ornaments the screen. Nineteenth-century screens surround the organ in the north-east bay of the nave.

A cusped ogee-headed piscina is set in the south wall of the chancel. A small cusped 14th-century piscina appears in the south wall of the south aisle of the nave. The roof, pews, pulpit, altar rail and lectern are of 19th-century date.

A black and white marble monument commemorates Frederick and Edmund Allenby: Frederick drowned off Mablethorpe in 1815, and Edmund died from exposure and fatigue after climbing Mount Etna in Sicily.

A 19th-century octagonal font with a tall base features traceried panels with a bowl decorated with blind shields. Glass fragments dating from around 1380 survive in the quatrefoil of the north-east aisle window and the south-west window of the chancel. A stone slab in front of the south-east altar of the nave bears an illegible medieval inscription running around its edge.