Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a Grade I listed parish church of mixed dates spanning the 12th century through to the 19th century, with the majority of the structure built in the late 14th to early 15th centuries (c.1380-1400), with late 17th-century elements and minor repairs carried out in 1865-66.

The exterior is constructed of squared greenstone rubble for the tower with coursed limestone rubble for the main walls, finished with limestone dressings and some 17th-century brick patching. The roofs are lead-covered.

The plan comprises a western tower of four stages, a nave with clerestory, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a chancel. The tower, built of squared greenstone rubble with substantial brick patching, features chamfered string courses, stepped corner buttresses, and a battlemented parapet with corner gargoyles and an unusual lead-covered central crocketed pinnacle. The belfry stage has three light louvred openings with panelled tracery, while the third stage has small ogee-headed lights on the south and west sides. The west door has a continuously moulded surround, hood and human head stops. Above it sits a four light window with cusped ogee heads, panel tracery and moulded surround, a design repeated throughout the church.

The north aisle has a battlemented parapet with large gargoyles and corbels, including a two light west window, four three light side windows, a continuously moulded doorway, and an east window of three lights. The clerestory features a battlemented and pinnacled parapet with gargoyles and five two light windows.

In the chancel, the north wall contains a bricked-up three light window, while the east window of three lights sits in an original moulded surround with 19th-century tracery. The south wall holds a 19th-century two light window and an original three light window beneath a continuously moulded priest's doorway. The east nave parapet has quatrefoil piercings and crockets, while the south aisle east wall displays a crocketed parapet and corner pinnacles. The south wall, partly constructed of limestone rubble, contains two three light windows and one of four lights, with the easterly pair featuring cambered heads, plus a three light west window.

The gabled south porch has a continuously moulded outer arch, side benches, and a low-pitched lead roof. The inner door is continuously moulded with a striking ogee head, while the rear arch is rounded.

Interior features include north and south nave arcades of five bays with octagonal piers, responds and double chamfered arches. The north wall of the nave incorporates many fragments of 12th-century chevron and beakhead voussoirs. The double chamfered tower arch is continuously moulded and shows the scar of an earlier nave roof above. The chancel arch is concave moulded and octagonal. The nave roof is of arch braced queen post construction with restored moulded principals bearing coats of arms of donors and fleurons; both aisle roofs match the nave design and are substantially intact.

A medieval altar slab stands in the east wall of the south aisle beneath a stone reredos consisting of a moulded frame with quatrefoils, fleurons and human heads, with a cusped triangular top surmounted by a crocketed pinnacle flanked by lower pinnacles. Fragments of post-medieval texts appear on the north walls of both aisles. The north aisle contains a further medieval altar stone, a statue bracket, and a door to the rood loft.

In the chancel, the north side has a blocked window while the south side contains triple sedilia supported on apparently reused 12th-century shafts, with a piscina beyond. The east wall holds two human head statue brackets. Fragments of 15th-century glass appear in the south aisle window.

The fittings include fine early 18th-century turned altar rails in the chancel and a delicate marble altar table with turned legs presented in 1717. The 15th-century chancel screen of seven bays is enriched with panelled tracery in the upper parts and bases, topped with an early 18th-century marbled cornice. Parclose screens of 1535 flank either side, their upper panels bearing finely wrought pierced Renaissance carvings of coats of arms, grotesques and human heads. The pulpit and lectern are 19th-century, while the pews retain 16th-century poppy head ends; the rear pews feature contemporary brattished back rails and blank ogee tracery. A late 17th-century richly carved oak pulpit, removed from Skidbrooke Church, stands at the rear.

The font is 15th-century and octagonal with quatrefoils, fleurons and human heads, featuring an 18th-century openwork wooden cover. On the west nave wall is a section of lead roof bearing two graffiti of 18th-century Ships of the Line. The west end preserves a 15th-century wooden pinnacle from the tower roof.

Among the monuments, the south aisle chapel contains a brass to Sir Robert Hayton, died 1424, shown in plate armour with feet resting on a lion, and the matrix for a double brass of which only one shield remains. The chancel holds two early 18th-century marble wall plaques to members of the Newcomen family with cartouches, arms and scrolls, and a fine marble monument to the Honourable Charles Bertie and his wife Mary, died 1727, with sarcophagus, obelisk and portrait busts beneath an open pediment supporting a cartouche of arms, made by Andrew Carpenter of London. An early 19th-century monument in the Greek Taste completes the ensemble.