Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, North Street

A parish church built in 1875–79 to the designs of Edward Haycock of Shrewsbury. Constructed of random rubble and brick with ashlar dressings and plain tile roofs, the building is designed in the Early Decorated style.

The church comprises a chancel of two bays, a north chapel, a vestry, an organ chamber, and a nave with aisles. The exterior features a plinth, quoins, sill band, buttresses, a clerestorey impost band, and coped gables with crosses. The chancel's south side is masked by the vestry and organ chamber; its east end has a 5-light pointed arched window with tracery, and the north side a similar 2-light window. Windows throughout the building feature hood moulds in various forms.

The vestry, originally intended as a tower base, has a lean-to roof and a 2-light mullioned window with cusped heads to its east end. A bell hangs on a bracket above. The south side has a chamfered shouldered doorway and single lights with cusped heads serving the stair. The organ chamber has a gable to the south containing a 2-light pointed arched window with cusped heads and a stack to the left. The north chapel has flat-headed windows: a single light to the east and two 2-light windows to the north with mullions.

The nave extends five bays and features clerestorey windows on each side: three single-light pointed arched windows with cusped heads alternate with two traceried round windows in each bay. The west end has two tall single-light pointed arched windows with cusped heads and above them a deeply recessed round window with plate tracery.

The south aisle has five bays with a doorway to the west set in a projecting gable with fillet moulding. Four 3-light pointed arched windows with tracery occupy the eastern section, and a single-light pointed arched window is at the west end. The north aisle has four similar 3-light windows. A porch at the west end, under a continuous roof, contains a flat-headed 3-light window to the north with tracery in the central light. The west end features a fillet-moulded pointed arched doorway with a traceried roundel above.

Interior

The interior reveals exposed rubble with ashlar dressings. The chancel displays a polychrome pointed arch with roll and fillet mouldings, hood mould, and imposts with Pennant stone shafts. An arch-braced roof features collars, struts and ashlar pieces. A wrought-iron screen with chamfered ashlar plinth and central gates divides the space. The north side contains an arcade of two bays with moulded pointed arches, hood moulds and octagonal responds. A quatrefoil central pier of Pennant stone and the responds are capped with square foliage capitals. A 2-light window stands to the east. The east window has a chamfered surround and hood mould with stained glass from 1892 and 1902. A wooden altar rail dated 1964 rests on wrought-iron supports. A traceried panelled wooden reredos stands behind. The south side contains a piscina and double sedilia with pointed arches. A double-chamfered pointed arch with octagonal responds and foliage capitals frames the organ.

The nave arcades, extending four bays to the south and four to the north, feature alternating octagonal and round Pennant stone piers with moulded capitals and bases, and double-chamfered arches with hood moulds. The roof structure is complex, incorporating wall shafts and arch braces on corbels, scissor trusses with struts, and triple purlins with wind braces. The west end accommodates a double stall for churchwardens and contains plain glass windows.

The aisles have double-purlin lean-to roofs with collars and wind braces. The south aisle contains a chamfered pointed arch to the east with a traceried panelled wooden reredos. South-facing stained glass windows date from 1940, 1893, circa 1920 and 1927. A baptistry at the west end has wall panelling dated 1934 and a west window of stained glass from 1881. The north aisle displays stained glass dated 1887, circa 1880, circa 1885 (probably by Kempe), and 1901. The east end has a chamfered pointed arch with a traceried wooden screen and door to the chapel, circa 1921. The west porch contains a traceried glazed screen and doors.

The chapel, converted from the original vestry circa 1921, features traceried framed panelling and a reredos with 19th-century stained glass to the east window. The vestry has a Gothic-style corner fireplace.

Fittings include a traceried octagonal ashlar font with clustered marble shafts, a traceried octagonal ashlar pulpit on a bracket with steps, and a 19th-century brass lectern with a tripod stand. Memorials include an alabaster war memorial panel with enriched Classical surround dated 1918, and several brasses from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Outside

A wrought-iron spearhead railing of the 19th century lines the north side, with a gate in return at the west end.