Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish Church, dating from the 11th to 16th centuries, with significant restoration in 1845 and again from 1895 to 1896 by Temple Moore. The building is constructed of coursed limestone rubble and ashlar with slate and lead roofs.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, south porch, and rectangular chancel. The west tower has a 14th-century ashlar base with plinth, though the upper parts date to the 18th century. It rises in three stages with stepped angle buttresses and is lit by two-light windows with Y tracery beneath pointed heads with chamfered hood moulds and human mask label stops. The tower pinnacles are 18th-century restorations featuring a curious dogtooth motif. Only the ground floor window on the west side of the tower appears entirely 14th-century.

The north wall of the nave is built in coursed limestone rubble and features four paired clerestorey lights with cusped trefoil heads under pointed arches with chamfered hood moulds and human-headed label stops, gargoyles, and a moulded blank parapet above. The north aisle, also of coursed rubble, contains a 19th-century three-light window in the west wall and two large three-light 15th-century windows with cusped heads and segmental arches in the north wall. At its east end, two large three-light early 16th-century windows are built in ashlar and distinguished by the flatly rounded heads of their lower lights. A 13th-century north door has a deep, heavily moulded head with human mask label stops. The blank parapet and projecting gargoyles appear to be early 16th-century, being larger and more naturalistic than the 15th-century examples. The east wall of the aisle has a 19th-century door.

The chancel's east wall contains a large leaded three-light Venetian window now blocked internally by a 19th-century reredos. Its south wall has a large leaded 18th-century semi-circular-headed window. The south wall of the nave features two-light 14th-century clerestorey windows beneath a blind parapet with small quatrefoils on the underside of the springing course. The south aisle has 19th-century windows in the east and west walls, and a pair of two-light reticulated tracery lights beneath flat hood moulds in its south wall, with a further single 14th-century light west of the porch. A 15th-century blind parapet and projecting gargoyles stand above.

The south porch dates to the 15th century and features an outer four-centred arch with a sundial above. The roof has four stone ribs and a pinnacled decorated gable with a gabled and floriated niche above the crest.

Interior: The south nave arcade is 12th-century with double stepped arches, moulded cushion capitals, and chamfered hood moulds arranged in a rhythm of one and a pair with a masonry pier between groups. This masonry appears 11th-century, containing the western reveal of a three-stepped window cut by a 12th-century arcade arch. The nave walls are notably tall and narrow and may also be 11th-century. The north arcade dates to around 1300 and has octagonal piers supporting pointed, stepped, and chamfered arches with moulded capitals.

A section of repositioned Anglo-Saxon cross shaft, probably 10th-century, is mounted over the south door, displaying flaccid interlace and knotwork in a plain panel. A 19th-century pierced stone screen in Gothic style separates the Thorold mortuary chapel at the east end of the north aisle. The chancel arch is 14th-century, matching the north arcade but with castellated capitals and human mask label stops. There is a first-floor entry to a 14th-century rood loft to the south of the chancel arch, and a ground floor doorway with flat lintel in the north wall of the south aisle, with a blocked ogee-headed door above. The south aisle also contains a slightly ogee-headed piscina and four 14th-century castellated statue brackets at its east end. The east wall has a blocked square stone squint. The chancel's north wall contains a 16th-century arch opening into the north aisle; the head comes to an awkward point with severely moulded jambs featuring one concave order, probably early 16th-century. The corbels and principal timbers of the south aisle roof are probably 16th-century, with grotesque mask corbels on the north and pendents on the south.

Fittings: The chancel roof and panelled screen at the base of the tower date to the 18th century; all other fittings are 19th-century, including a Norman Revival font.

Monuments and memorials include an early 13th-century recumbent knight in chain mail with surcoat, sword and shield, head on cushion, and feet resting on a lion, possibly Sir Hugh de Bussey, a crusader. A small rectangular inscribed brass panel on the south chancel wall records Robert Meres, died 1652, Professor of Theology and Chancellor of Lincoln Cathedral, with coats of arms. A marble wall plaque on the south chancel wall shows a still life of chalice and books to Rev. George Thorold, died 1832, by P. Rouw. A horizontal marble block in the north aisle, with crowned cross and sacred monogram, commemorates Arthur Thorold, died 1854, by A. Boauneau, and rests upon a 15th-century monumental brass matrix of a knight and lady with shields beneath.