Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

Parish church dating from the late 12th century through to the early 15th century, with major restorations undertaken in 1790 by Thomas Telford (when the north aisle was demolished), in 1885–6 by George H. Birch, and again in 1894. The building is constructed from large, regularly coursed and dressed red sandstone blocks with slate roofs featuring coped verges on carved stone kneelers.

The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, south aisle, and north-east vestry with organ chamber, plus a further vestry at the west end of the aisle.

The tower rises through four stages of early 13th-century work, with a chamfered plinth and string courses, and stepped angle buttresses at the north-west and south-west corners. The top stage with its embattled parapet was added around 1400. A conical plain tile cap sits above, topped with an 18th-century brass weathercock on a contemporary finial. The belfry contains paired louvred lancets with chamfered mullions on the north, south and west sides, with a similar opening on the east (the south light of which is infilled). Above the string course, the belfry heightening displays broad two-light windows on each side with cinquefoil heads and spheric triangles above (cusped on the north and east sides). The late 14th-century west window contains heavily restored panel tracery in four lights, with a contemporary or slightly earlier pointed doorway beneath. Oval-shaped iron discs were inserted into each face of the tower in 1834.

The nave, unbuttressed on its north side except at the junction with the tower, has a moulded eaves cornice and three two-light Decorated-style windows of 1894. The short chancel, largely dating from 1790, features a moulded eaves cornice and a late 19th-century two-light Decorated-style window on its south side, with a three-light Decorated-style east window of 1885–6. The vestry and organ chamber, built in 1894, comprises an organ chamber gable to the north and a lean-to vestry against the north wall of the chancel. The gable contains a three-light Decorated-style window, and the lean-to features a pointed doorway with hoodmould and paired rectangular barred windows to the east. An octagonal stone chimney with decorated top stands on the east side of the gable.

The south aisle, rebuilt in its present form around 1300 but with its roof heightened in the 18th century, was refaced and given new windows in the late 19th century. It is buttressed in three unequal bays, including stepped angle buttresses at the south-east and south-west corners. The south wall displays two-light Decorated-style windows, except for the east bay, which has a three-light cusped intersecting tracery window. An east window of four cusped lights with quatrefoils to the heads is paired with a 19th-century pointed doorway beneath. A three-light Decorated-style west window was inserted in 1903. An infilled pointed arch immediately to the right of the westernmost window in the south wall cuts across an apparently 12th-century infilled round-headed window. The outline of a former porch roof pitch is visible above. A moulded string course in the east bay continues around the buttress but has been shaved off where it meets the east wall. The late 19th-century flat-roofed vestry at the west end of the aisle formerly had a lean-to roof, which was removed in 1903 when the west window was inserted; the roof pitch outline remains visible against the south face of the tower. The west wall has a two-light mullion window and a pointed doorway on the south. An octagonal stack stands at the junction of the aisle and south wall.

Interior

The main interior feature is a heavily renewed late 12th-century six-bay south nave arcade, comprising circular piers (one retaining a plain moulded base) and square abaci with single-stepped round-headed arches. The eaves line of the 12th-century nave is visible on the south wall, marked by two single-splayed chamfered lancets alternating with two chamfered roundels from the former clerestory. An early 13th-century double-chamfered tower arch features corbelled responds and imposts. The nave roof is probably 18th-century work, with king-posts in seven bays and probably a further four bays extending into the chancel (the two westernmost bays structurally part of the nave), the chancel roof featuring cusped struts and Gothic tracery patterns added by Birch. The aisle roof is a nine-bay king-post structure. A pointed arched recess in the east wall and a pointed arched recess with inner trefoil-headed recess (probably formerly housing a piscina) in the south wall are both likely early 14th-century. Three tomb recesses in the south wall are also early 14th-century: two to the east display three orders of roll and fillet moulding (the easternmost with ballflower enrichment and an inner trefoil-headed recess), while the westernmost is double-chamfered. An infilled archway is visible internally. An infilled moulded half-arch in the south wall of the chancel appears to be 13th-century.

Fittings and furnishings, including pews, choir stalls, pulpit, lectern and a low stone wall with marble coping separating the chancel from the nave and aisle, are mostly late 19th-century or later. An octagonal font at the entrance to the chancel bears the inscription "JW WS 1681". An oak chest in a recess, decorated with ballflower ornament, carries painted lettering reading "John Lloyd and Tho.s Oswell Church Wardens 1775". Stained glass includes work by Kempe in the east window (1886), a window in the south wall of the chancel (1912) and a window in the east window of the nave (1920). Monuments include a wall tablet to Revd. Robert Jeffreys (died 1800) on the south side of the chancel and 19th-century wall tablets in the south aisle. A wall memorial to Thomas Corbet (died 1615) at the east end of the south aisle features Corinthian capitals enclosing an inscription panel with heraldic device above. The north wall of the nave contains 19th-century wall tablets and memorials, including one to William Basnett (died 1754), a justice of the peace for Middlesex, in rococo style with an urn before an obelisk bearing a heraldic device. Four 18th-century hatchments hang in the south aisle and three in the nave, which also displays a royal coat-of-arms of George III (1802) fixed to the north wall. Two late 18th-century benefactors' boards are located in the tower.

The church was collegiate in the Anglo-Saxon period.