Church Of All Hallows

Church of All Hallows, Gedling, Arnold Lane

A parish church of the 13th and 14th centuries, extensively restored in 1890, with a vestry and organ chamber added in 1925. The building is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with dressed stone and ashlar dressings. It features gabled and lean-to roofs of plain tile and slate, with moulded and chamfered plinths, moulded sill bands, and coved and chamfered eaves.

The church comprises a west tower, nave, north and south aisles, chancel, vestry, organ chamber, and south porch.

The west tower, dating from around 1300 and 1320, rises in three stages with two string courses and a mask corbel table with corner spouts supporting a crenellated parapet. Four pairs of corner buttresses with three setoffs provide structural support. A setback octagonal broach spire rises above, decorated with four gabled lucarnes containing double lancets and four niches with figures. Above these are four smaller lucarnes and a weathercock. The first stage contains a restored double lancet window to the west with hood mould. The second stage has four cusped double lancets and a clock face on each side. The third stage displays four larger double lancets with hood moulds, stops, and finials.

The nave dates from around 1200, 1300, and the 15th century. Its west end features a sill band, coped gable with cross, and a restored 13th-century doorway with shafts and hood mould. Above this sits a triple lancet with reticulated tracery, hood mould, and stops, flanked by single gabled niches with mask corbels—the right niche containing a figure. The crenellated clerestory displays five square-headed untraceried triple lancets on each side.

The north aisle comprises four bays with a coped parapet and a diagonal buttress to the east. Its north side features two buttresses, and to the east are two 13th-century triple lancets, followed by a chamfered doorway and another triple lancet, all with hood moulds. A small cusped lancet completes this elevation.

The south aisle also spans four bays with a sill band, coved eaves with gargoyles, and a crenellated parapet. Its east end has a restored 13th-century triple lancet with hood mould and stops. The south side contains three buttresses. To the east are two 13th-century triple lancets matching those on the north aisle. To the west is a 14th-century cusped triple lancet with hood mould.

The vestry is a single bay with a parapeted roof. Its north side has a mullioned casement and door, with a large copper lamp on brackets above. The east side projects with a mullioned casement. The organ chamber features a sill band, coped gable, and a buttress. Its north face displays a lancet window with Y tracery.

The chancel dates from the 13th century and comprises four bays. It retains a sill band and a coped east gable with cross. The east end has two corner buttresses and a small central buttress, with three splayed single lancets having shafts. Above these sits a quatrefoil window. The north side contains a late 14th-century cusped triple lancet with panel tracery and hood mould. The south side has three buttresses, a central 13th-century priest's door with filleted moulding and shafts, and four single lancets with filleted shafts and moulded heads beneath a linked hood mould. To the west is a rectangular low side window, with a restored 14th-century double lancet above it featuring a hood mould.

The south porch dates from the 14th century and features two diagonal buttresses with crocketed finials, a moulded coped gable with cross, and a moulded doorway with impost band and hood mould with stops. Above stands a crocketed gabled niche. The interior contains stone benches and a pointed barrel vault with a moulded impost band. A 14th-century inner doorway has a hood mould.

The interior contains nave arcades of five bays dating from around 1300, with octagonal piers bearing moulded bases and round seats. The arches are double chamfered and rebated with hood moulds. The low-pitched roof of the 15th century features bosses, wall shafts, and struts. The west end has a doorway with a window above displaying shafts and hood moulds.

The north aisle's west end incorporates a wooden screen with 15th-century fragments. Windows on the north side contain stained glass from the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1903). The east end features a 14th-century cusped tomb recess and an aumbry. The south aisle east end contains a stained glass window of 1926, while the south side has a window displaying the Bardolph Arms from the late 20th century. Both aisles have 18th-century boarded roofs.

The 14th-century chancel arch is double chamfered and rebated. The chancel retains a sill band, with two triangular-headed aumbries on the north side to the east. The east end displays a stained glass window of 1919. The south side has a restored 14th-century double piscina and matching sedilia with clustered shafts to the east. The roof is a carved and painted late 19th-century principal rafter roof.

Furnishings include an octagonal 19th-century font, a 17th-century octagonal chip-carved pulpit on a 19th-century plinth, two 17th-century carved armchairs, and an early 17th-century carved communion table. Panelled stalls, desks, and a screen date from 1925. Cross frame benches are 19th century in date, and a lectern was added in 1951.

Memorials comprise a fragment of a 13th-century cross, a foliated cross slab, a 15th-century incised slab, five Stanhope hatchments, early 19th-century panels bearing the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Commandments, classical marble tablets from 1734, 1824, and 1836, and a mosaic war memorial tablet of 1918 set in an alabaster frame.