Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Trysull

Parish church of 12th-century origin, though only fragments of that date survive. The building underwent major works in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, with further substantial alterations in 1843-4 by Robert Ebbels. The church was restored in 1889, and in 1897 the tower was restored and a new porch built by F.W. Simon of Edinburgh.

The church is built of sandstone ashlar with plain tile roofs featuring coped verges on shaped kneelers. The plan comprises a west tower, four-bay nave, north and south aisles, south porch, single-bay chancel, and north-west vestry.

The tower dates from the 15th century and features clasping buttresses with two offsets, a moulded parapet string, and a crenellated parapet. The west door of 1897 has five roll-moulded orders with panelled spandrels and a hood mould terminating in large heads. The belfry openings are two-light and pointed.

The north aisle is 13th-century but much restored, with an eastward extension of one bay added in 1843-4. Bay divisions are marked by buttresses, and the windows are lancets with trefoil cusping. Below the westernmost window is a blocked round-arched door on corbels, possibly 12th-century. The east window is three-light with a quatrefoil above.

The south aisle dates to around 1300 but was altered in 1843-4. It has buttresses at bay divisions and clasping buttresses at the corners. The windows are two-light with Decorated tracery. The east window features intersecting tracery with a quatrefoil above and a small lancet in the gable. The 19th-century west window has cusped intersecting tracery.

The gabled south porch has north and south windows with square heads and Perpendicular tracery. The outer arch is pointed, flanked by shafts with moulded bases and stiff-leaf capitals.

The vestry, built in 1843-4, forms a canted link between the tower and north aisle. It has diagonal buttresses, windows matching those of the south aisle, and a crenellated parapet.

The interior features a 13th-century north arcade with cylindrical columns, squat incised capitals, and pointed chamfered arches. The south arcade, dating to around 1300, has pointed arches and octagonal columns with moulded bases and squat moulded capitals. At the junction of the two western arches towards the south aisle is a curved face. The tower arch is a semi-circular single step, probably 12th-century. All windows have pointed rere arches with roll-moulded surrounds.

In the chancel is a piscina with a rounded trefoil arch and projecting basin. At the west end of the north aisle, above the vestry door, is a 13th-century sculpture of a bishop under a pointed trefoil arch. Two 15th-century roof trusses each feature four raking struts extending from a cambered tie beam to collar and principals.

The fittings include an iron-bound chest hewn from a single oak log (probably 13th-century) next to the door, a probably 15th-century stone font with a moulded base, pedestal, and octagonal basin with quatrefoil panels. Above the tower is the royal coat of arms of 1817. An early 17th-century oak pulpit features blank arches and arabesque panels. A 15th or early 16th-century rood screen has Flamboyant pierced panels.

Monuments include tablets to Thomas Pudsey (died 1715) with coat of arms and urn, Samuel Peach (died 1801) with an obelisk and oval inscription plaque, and Sarah Aston (died 1838) with a tablet capped by an urn.

The stained glass includes a chancel east window of 1844 incorporating two late 14th-century figures, and chancel north and south windows of 1857 by D. Evans of Shrewsbury depicting the Four Evangelists. The south aisle east window dates to 1856 and the west window to 1865; the south windows are early 19th-century.