Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A parish church with a 12th-century core, extensively remodelled in the 14th and 15th centuries. The chancel was rebuilt in 1872 by Charles Lynam when the whole building was restored. The church is constructed of pink sandstone ashlar with stone slate, plain tile and lead roofs.

The building comprises a nave, chancel, west tower engaged to north and south aisles, north and south transepts, a north chancel chapel, south porch, and an organ chamber located in the space between the north chancel chapel and transept.

The tower probably dates to around 1400. It features stepped buttresses and a rectangular stair turret at the south-west corner. The parapet has been restored with embattled stonework, crocketed corner pinnacles and gargoyles beneath. The belfry openings are two-light trefoil-headed. The west window displays Perpendicular tracery with carved heads as labels, and the west door sits beneath a Tudor arch.

The nave retains partly 12th-century fabric, though only the 15th-century clerestory with restored tracery and crenellated parapet is visible above the later aisles. Both aisles are of two bays; the north aisle now contains a Decorated window with renewed tracery dating to around 1870, while the south aisle displays Perpendicular work of the same period as the clerestory. A 14th-century north doorway features double chamfering and a hoodmould. The long gabled south porch was probably extended in the 17th century, as evidenced by a straight joint, though the south door itself dates to the 15th century. Both transepts are 15th-century work with renewed Perpendicular tracery and grotesque heads as labels.

The chancel is arranged in two bays. The 1872 rebuilding replaced a 13th-century structure and is executed in Decorated style with reticulated tracery. The north chancel chapel, now serving as a vestry, dates to the 15th century. The organ chamber between the chapel and transept was added in 1872.

Interior

The interior features a tall, narrow double-chamfered tower arch. To its north stands a wide, stepped buttress that cuts through the west respond of the late 12th-century north nave arcade, suggesting there was probably once a section of nave wall to the west and that the present west bay of the north aisle is a 14th-century addition. The arcade itself comprises four bays with octagonal piers and octagonal scalloped capitals. A former external lancet in the section of 12th-century wall east of the eastern respond of the arcade was made redundant first by the extension of the aisle eastward in the 14th century and then by the construction of the transept itself. A two-light square-headed window above the eastern bay of the north arcade, cut externally by the pitch of the north transept roof, demonstrates that the nave once had a clerestory before the transept's construction. The north transept contains the remains of a piscina in its east wall.

The 15th-century south nave arcade comprises three bays with octagonal piers and capitals. A short section of blank wall separates it from a similar arch of the same period leading to the south transept. The wide, pointed double-chamfered chancel arch dates to the early 13th century; otherwise the chancel is entirely of 1872, with the south side and a piscina on the north.

Fittings and furnishings include king-post roofs, probably 19th-century, with painted decoration to the nave and transepts, and a panelled, painted roof to the chancel dating to 1872. The aisle roofs are medieval: 14th-century to the north and a good panelled, coffered, cambered beam type to the south dating to the 15th century. A screen to the tower gallery from 1635 features heavy square balusters. A 17th-century pulpit displays richly carved arches filled with paintings of the symbols of the Evangelists among other subjects (redecorated 1872). At the east end of the south aisle stands a restored 15th-century openwork screen with twelve one-light divisions. In the south transept sits a small 17th-century communion table, and in the north chancel chapel an oak chest inscribed "RSWS/CW/1625". An octagonal Victorian font and an early 20th-century marble reredos (next to a blocked rood stair) stand in the south transept.

The stained glass throughout is of high quality. The east window by Clayton and Bell dates to 1872. The south transept contains Kempe glass in its south and east windows. At the west end of the south aisle, glass by William Morris depicts St Peter by Morris himself, with St Philip and Noah by Ford Madox Brown and a small crucifixion below by Burne-Jones.

Monuments include a 15th-century alabaster tomb-chest in the north transept for Randolph Egerton (died 1512) and his wife, featuring incised figures on top, weepers within an architectural framework and twisted colonettes at the corners. In the north chancel chapel stands an elaborate and large memorial to John Crewe Offley (died 1688) with coat-of-arms and urn. The south transept contains floor brasses to John Egerton (died 1518) and his wife Elyn, and on the east wall an elaborate tablet to Sir Holland Egerton (died 1730) with a three-quarter bust in relief. A tablet to Elizabeth (died 1705), first wife of Sir John Egerton, features a segmental broken pediment and two winged cherubim at the bottom, erected by Sir Holland Egerton. Smaller monuments include a brass wall tablet with a kneeling figure to Robert Hawkins (died 1586) in the north aisle and a simple brass tablet to Charles Shaw (died 1762) on the chancel south side.