Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Saltfleetby

A redundant parish church of mixed periods from the late 12th century through the 19th century, substantially rebuilt and repaired in 1886 by R. J. Withers. The building is constructed of coursed greenstone, limestone and ironstone rubble with limestone ashlar and some red brick and render. The roofs are lead and slate with decorative ridge tiles, stone coped gables and a cross finial.

The church comprises a west tower, nave with south aisle and south porch, and chancel with south-east chapel.

The west tower is a late 12th-century structure that was raised in the 15th century. It has large diagonal buttresses with five stages and a stair turret in the south-east buttress, all added in 1886. Two tall central lancet windows on the west face are placed one above the other with a string course between them. Above these are deeply chamfered 15th-century rectangular windows on the west, north and south sides, with the outlines of blocked 12th-century round-headed bell openings visible on all four sides. The 15th-century bell stage has a pair of pointed openings on each side, each with a bowtell-moulded surround, cusped and barely pointed lights, panel tracery, and hood mould with a central head label stop. Moulded eaves above support projecting corner gargoyles and battlements.

The north side of the nave features a plinth and fragmentary string course. Single late 15th-century windows flank a pointed doorway with moulded surround and plank door, with the outline of a gable visible above. Large rectangular windows, each of three lights with a transom, are placed to either side: the western window has rich triple ogee cusping and panel tracery, while the eastern window has cusped ogee-headed lights and panel tracery.

The north side of the chancel was heavily restored in 1873. A pointed window of circa 1300 to the west has two plate-traceried lancets with an oculus and 19th-century hood mould and label stop heads. A pointed window of circa 1300 to the east features Y tracery and hood mould. The east end has a plinth and angle buttresses, with a large pointed window restored in the 19th century featuring panel tracery, hood mould and large head label stops.

The south side of the chancel has a 19th-century rectangular window with three cusped ogee-headed lights and hood moulds.

The south aisle of the nave has a plinth and regularly placed pilaster buttresses with broader buttresses of 1886 alongside. A pointed 15th-century window to the east has three pointed cusped lights, panel tracery, hood mould and head label stops. A small blocked rectangular opening to the west sits above a pilaster buttress. Two windows of circa 1300 to the west each feature Y tracery, hood mould and head label stops.

The gabled 15th-century porch has two-stage angle buttresses with gabled upper stages. The pointed doorway features jambs of clustered slender shafts with delicate turned capitals, with shields and flower heads in the spandrels. Above runs a fragmentary moulding inscribed 'Situs est sanctum Johis Grantham de Moulton, Pahoni istius Ecclesiae' flanked by shields bearing the emblem of the Passion and a crucifix. The gable above has moulded eaves with small flower head motifs. Inside the porch are benches flanking a pointed 14th-century inner doorway with richly moulded head and jambs, hood mould, and a single head label stop to the west, with a plank door. Two pointed windows of circa 1300 to the west of the porch both have Y tracery, hood moulds and weathered label stops.

West of the south aisle is a pointed window of circa 1300 with Y tracery, hood mould and head label stops and a head at the apex, with a blocked rectangular opening above.

The interior features an early 13th-century tower arch with a low pointed triple-chamfered head and keeled responds with rich stiff-leaf capitals. Fragmentary springers of rib vault are visible in the south-east and north-east corners inside the tower. Two steps lead up into the tower with large stone flags, some bearing illegible medieval inscriptions, and two respond or rib sections lie on the floor. To the east of the tower are two massive buttresses added when the tower was raised in the 15th century.

The north arcade dates from circa 1200 and comprises four bays plus a narrower bay to the west, with double-chamfered pointed heads, round piers with plain moulded capitals and abaci, a western respond supporting the upper wall with a broached and moulded corbel, and an eastern respond with a slender shaft and plain capital.

A broad mid-12th-century chancel arch features a pointed double-chamfered head, semi-circular responds and large scalloped capitals.

A 14th-century screen of five panels with openwork upper panels, each with two lights and rich cusped tracery, separates the nave from the chancel. The lower panels have cusped traceried design with rosettes on the cusps. A similar screen, with slightly simpler tracery, marks the south-east chapel.

The chancel contains a double south arcade with two mid-12th-century bays overlapping with a single 13th-century bay. To the south are two narrow bays with single-chamfered steeply pointed heads with hood mould, a central round pier with scalloped capital, and semi-circular responds with lower sections embedded in rectangular masonry and plain moulded capitals. To the north is a single broad double-chamfered pointed arch blocking a triangular-headed 12th-century opening to the east, with pointed corbelled responds and a 19th-century traceried screen.

The chancel has an aumbry to the north and a piscina to the south, both with triangular heads; the piscina has a quatrefoiled well. A damaged medieval tombstone and 20th-century altar rail are present in the chancel.

The south chapel features a moulded string course with three small grotesque heads running beneath a 14th-century carved stone reredos with a central trefoil-headed panel, a cusped and finalled gable with ornate flanking pinnacles supported on grotesque heads. A rectangular blocked opening stands immediately to the south, and a small head-corbelled shelf is fixed to the south wall. A 16th-century altar table is present, together with a 19th-century altar rail re-using 15th-century poppy head finials. A fragmentary stone on a window ledge is inscribed with a crude sun and the date 1731 WKFCCI.

The nave and south aisle feature fine 15th-century tie beam roofs, repaired in 1611, with cusped purlins, castellated wall plates and ornate bosses. A medieval tombstone in the north-east of the nave bears a barely legible inscription. An ornate Jacobean pulpit with richly carved panels containing round-headed arches and stylised flowers and leaves is located in the nave. A tall early 17th-century pulpit, presented to the church by Oriel College, Oxford, features pedimented panels containing arches in perspective. A fragment of a tombstone on the north-west window ledge of the nave has inlaid brass lettering.

The church contains three bells, one dated 1630 and another 1675. An 18th-century box pew is present.

The font consists of three separate moulded sections: a 13th-century octagonal bowl with large trefoils on each face and the filleted capitals of eight clustered shafts replaced by a cluster of 14th-century filleted pier mouldings, combined with a 15th-century richly carved octagonal base, possibly a bowl set upside down, featuring panel tracery and four large grotesque heads.

Fragments of two late 12th-century capitals on the south window ledge immediately west of the porch display stylised leaves and large beads. Various 18th-century gravestones and a 16th-century chest are also present.