Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church of 15th and 16th century date, partially restored around 1860 and fully restored in 1878. It is constructed of ashlar with slate roofs and single ashlar ridge crosses at the east end of the chancel and at the west and east ends of the north aisle. The building is buttressed and set on a plinth with a string course running over it. All parapets are embattled except for the west wall of the north aisle and the east chancel wall, with guttering running underneath.

The church comprises a tower, nave, north aisle, north vestry, chancel and south porch. The diagonally buttressed tower is in two stages with a string course at the junction between them. The west window of the tower is a restored arched three-light opening with panel tracery and cusping, with a hoodmould above and string course below. The bell chamber contains four arched two-light openings with cusping and hoodmoulds. Small single fixed lights are positioned on the west and south sides, with a clock face beneath the south belfry opening. Gargoyles appear on the north and south sides, with single crocketed pinnacles at the angles of the parapet.

The restored west window of the north aisle is an arched three-light opening with panel and reticulated tracery, cusping and hoodmould above. The diagonally buttressed north aisle has four windows, all under flat heads: three have arched lights while the easternmost has five arched lights. Beneath the second window from the east is a narrow 16th century arched priest's doorway with a wooden door. The parapet has four crocketed pinnacles. The north wall of the vestry has a single window under a flat head with three arched lights and a single crocketed pinnacle. The east vestry wall contains a similar window.

The diagonally buttressed chancel has a five-light arched window with panel and reticulated tracery and cusping. Single crocketed pinnacles occupy the two corners. The south wall has six windows under flat heads, each with three arched lights. Beneath the second window from the east is a narrow 16th century arched priest's doorway with a wooden door. Four crocketed pinnacles surmount this wall. The diagonally buttressed south porch has a moulded arched entrance with 20th century half-glazed double doors and a 20th century iron lamp above.

Internally, the porch roof has stone transverse arches supported on stone corbels. The interior doorway is arched with a wooden door. A three-bay arcade separates the nave and aisle, comprising octagonal columns with moulded capitals and chamfered arches. Single carved grotesque heads replace the responds. The chamfered tower arch, supported on corbels, has a 19th century gallery beneath. The chamfered chancel and north aisle arch is supported on corbels, with an arched doorway leading to the vestry. The south wall of the chancel contains a piscina with chamfered surround. In the south wall of the north aisle is a small arched niche opening through to the nave.

The font, pulpit and lectern are 19th century. Several decorated wall tablets are present. The tablet to Catherine and Lidley Simpson (1773) has a small coloured and decorated shield on the apron and is surmounted by a decorated urn. The tablet to William Simpson and his wife Frances (1768) features a sarcophagus with decorative scrolls supporting an obelisk bearing the inscription and a carved, coloured and decorated shield. The tablet to John Simpson and family (1727) is topped with an open segmental pediment containing a blank shield decorated around its outer edges, flanked by single cherub heads with a small urn above. The monument to Arthur Bridgeman Simpson (1827) has a sarcophagus set on the ground. The tablet to Reverend John Simpson (1784) consists of a long horizontal rectangular tablet topped by a decorated urn and is signed by Waterworth. The tablet to the Honourable Anna Maria Vane (1759) is an inscribed tablet under an arched head with foliated scrolls along either side.

The congregation became Separatist on 11 July 1586 when Reverend Richard Clyfton became Minister. He was deprived of his living in 1604. William Brewster and William Bradford worshipped here until the Separatist Church was formed at Scrooby in 1606, when they and Clyfton moved there. Clyfton escaped to Amsterdam in 1608 and died there on 20 May 1616. A street in New Plymouth, Massachusetts is named after him.

The 1878 restoration was carried out by John Loughborough Pearson of London, with contractor Shilito & Morgan of Doncaster. The work was officially unveiled on 1 January 1879.