Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church of 13th-century origin, replacing an earlier building, with significant additions from the 14th and 16th centuries and further work in 1891. The building is constructed of large coursed and squared sandstone blocks with lead roofs of low pitch. It comprises a west tower, a three-bay nave with transepts and a south porch, and a three-bay chancel.

The West Tower dates to the 14th century and has three stages with angle buttresses that die into the second stage. It features a hollow chamfered parapet string and a crenellated parapet with crocketed corner finials. The west door, dating to circa 1200, has two roll-moulded orders springing from nook shafts with palmette capitals. The door itself is a remarkable two-leaf nail-studded door with an inscribed geometrical pattern made up of diamond shapes incorporating the initials T.R.I. and W.M.B. and the date 1622, along with flamboyant strap hinges. Immediately above is a pointed west window with three cinquefoil-headed lights and perpendicular tracery. A single-light window to the south has a segmental pointed head. The belfry is marked by a string and contains pointed belfry openings with two trefoil-headed lights and a quatrefoil in the head.

The South Aisle dates to the mid-14th century and was heightened in the 16th century, coinciding with a heightening of the nave arcades. Bay divisions are marked by buttresses. The pointed lower windows each have two trefoil-headed lights and an 8-lobed figure in the head with a quarter-round moulded surround; these are 19th-century restorations of 14th-century windows. Paired Tudor-arch upper windows feature Y-tracery. A 14th-century west window is similar to the south windows. A tall pointed east window of three lights has curvilinear tracery dating to circa 1340 with a quarter-round moulded surround; the tracery was restored in the 19th century. The porch, dating to 1866, is gabled with diagonal buttresses, a pointed arch with a hoodmould, and engaged columns with ballflower-decorated capitals.

The North Aisle is of late 14th-century date and was heightened in the 16th century. A 12th-century north door was re-set here; it has a single roll-moulded order springing from nook shafts with cushion capitals. The pointed lower windows to the centre and west of the north side have two trefoil-headed lights with super mullions and a quatrefoil in the head. A 15th-century square-headed window to the east has two trefoil-headed lights. 16th-century triangular-arch upper windows have three lights with cusped heads. A large pointed east window has four trefoil-headed lights with perpendicular tracery over. A pointed west window of four lights has cinquefoiled heads and perpendicular tracery, restored.

The Chancel is of 13th-century date, heightened in the 16th century and restored in 1877. It has pilaster buttresses at the bay divisions. The lower windows to north and south are lancets; the upper windows are 19th-century, probably copies of earlier windows, with pointed heads and three trefoil-headed lights with deeply hollowed surrounds. A pointed doorway to the south has a hood mould terminating in heads. The pointed east window has three pointed lights with cusped circles above; the tracery was restored in the 19th century.

Interior

The south arcade dates to the 13th century, heightened in the 16th century, with double-chamfered pointed arches on octagonal columns with moulded capitals and squat moulded bases. The north arcade dates to 1891. The tower arch is pointed and double-chamfered. The chancel arch is pointed with two continuous orders, the inner having a sunken chamfer and the outer an ogee moulding; an ogee-moulded dripstone springs from corbels, of which only the right-hand one remains, carved with a face peering out of foliage. The 16th-century roofs to the nave and south aisle have a ridge piece, one pair of purlins and cambered tie beams, all moulded, with carved bosses. The 19th-century roofs to the north aisle and chancel are in a similar style. The 13th-century sedilia and piscina in the south wall of the chancel have pointed and chamfered arches, with the seats of the sedilia stepped up towards the east.

Fittings include a 15th-century octagonal font with a panelled and traceried pedestal and basin, and grotesques to each corner of the base. A poor box, inscribed "REMEMBER THE POOR" and dated 1710, survives. Two oak chests reinforced with iron straps, probably of 14th-century date, are present. A semi-octagonal pulpit dated 1639 has carved panels. Two 16th-century oak benches with carved panels and poppy heads remain. A former communion rail, now at the west end of the north aisle, is of 17th-century date with turned balusters. A reredos by Basil Champneys was added in 1892. Remains of 15th-century wall painting survive on the north side of the chancel.

Monuments include a wall memorial to William and Elinor Turton, died 1681 and 1683, with an aedicule on console brackets with Corinthian columns and a semi-circular pediment broken by a coat of arms. A wall plaque to John Turton, died 1707, by Thomas White of Worcester, has an aedicule with fluted pilasters and drawn-back curtains, surmounted by a coat of arms with flanking urns spouting flame. A bracketed wall plaque to John Turton, died 1771, displays a sarcophagus and obelisk, the latter bearing a coat of arms. A bracketed wall plaque to John Bradley, died 1708, has an aedicule with panelled pilasters and an open semi-circular pediment.