Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church built over several periods from the 13th to 15th centuries, with restoration and rebuilding of the south porch in 1877. The church is constructed of roughly squared and coursed red sandstone with dressed red and grey sandstone and ashlar dressings throughout. The red sandstone ashlar tower is particularly fine. Roofs are plain tile, running continuously over the nave and aisle.

The building comprises a 4-bay nave, south aisle, south porch, 2-bay chancel and west tower.

The tower dates to the 15th century. It has two external stages with a chamfered plinth topped by a moulded string course. The belfry features a moulded cornice with central water chute, and a battlemented parapet below a pyramidal roof with flagpole. Set-back belfry openings contain two louvred cinquefoil-headed lights with Y-tracery, moulded reveals and hoodmoulds with carved stops. The first stage has a single chamfered square-headed lancet to north and south, the southern one containing two small lights. There is a round-headed niche to the left and a curved-headed niche lower down, also to the left. The west window is a four-centred arch of three cinquefoil-headed lights with panelled tracery, hollow-chamfered reveals and a hoodmould with carved stops. A short stair turret at the south-east corner has a chamfered top and boarded door. The tower has diagonal buttresses with six offsets. Weathering on the east side of the tower does not quite match the present pitch of the nave roof.

The 13th-century nave has chamfered lancets on its north side, with three windows of circa 1870 on the right. The 13th-century south aisle was altered in the 14th century. It has a parapeted verge, two 19th-century windows with paired chamfered trefoil-headed lights, and 14th-century windows in the return fronts with chamfered trefoil-headed lights. The south doorway has a chamfered Tudor archway and two 2-panelled doors.

The south porch was rebuilt in 1877. It features a plinth, low angle buttresses, a cill string and gable string course with a parapeted gable. The porch reuses a 13th-century moulded archway with hood mould and carved stops. Above this is a chamfered lancet in the apex, with pairs of square quatrefoil side windows with chamfered reveals.

The 14th-century chancel has a chamfered plinth and parapeted gable end. Its south side contains two trefoiled ogee-headed chamfered one-light windows, a 19th-century window with two chamfered trefoil-headed lights and cinquefoil tracery, and a round-arched priest's doorway with a boarded door. Beneath the doorway is a 17th-century memorial plaque beneath a moulded hood, inscribed: "HERE BELOWE WAS BURYED THE BODY OF THOMAS FARMER THE SONNE OF ANDREW AND FRANCIS FARMER OF BROMPTON IN THIS PARISH WHO DECEASED THE 8 DAY OF FEBRUARY ANNO DO1 1648 IN THE (?) YEARE OF HIS AGE HE BEING A BATCHELER". The chancel's north side has a 19th-century window with two chamfered trefoil-headed lights and quatrefoil tracery. The east end contains a 14th-century window with three cusped lights and flowing tracery.

The interior contains a 3-bay aisle arcade in the former south wall of the nave with square piers chamfered up to outer arches and inner chamfered arches resting on chamfered capitals. The tower arch is double chamfered with moulded capitals. The roof structure is 4-bay, dating to the 14th century, with arch-braced collars, arch-braced rafters, moulded collar plate and moulded single purlins. The chancel roof is 2-bay and also 14th-century. There are carved demi-figures high up in the angle of the nave and tower, each with a chamfered square surround. The south aisle contains a chamfered trefoil-headed piscina.

Fittings include a 19th-century openwork chancel screen above a chamfered tie-beam with king post and trefoil-headed lattice infill. There are plain 19th-century altar rails and choir stalls, and 19th-century low stone walls to the chancel. A richly carved 19th-century hexagonal wooden pulpit stands in the nave. The font is a 12th-century circular stone vessel with rude carving.

The east window contains stained glass from before 1820 by David Evans.

Monuments include a 13th-century wooden effigy of a cross-legged knight with a chamfered-arched tomb recess in the south aisle. There is a tablet to Mrs. Greaves (died 1628) with Ionic columns flanking a kneeling female figure. A tablet to William Frank has Ionic columns supporting a swan-necked pediment with shield in the tympanum. A tablet to Rebekah Gillam Greaves (died 1827) was created by John Bacon the younger and shows a kneeling female figure with her arm resting on a sarcophagus and crossed palms beneath.

The church stands within a roughly circular raised churchyard.