Parish Church Of All Saints

Parish Church of All Saints

This Grade I listed parish church in Leek was designed by the renowned architect Richard Norman Shaw and completed in 1887. Built of coursed and squared rock-faced rubble with plain-tiled roofs, the building exemplifies Shaw's architectural approach while accommodating the sloping site through its considered plan.

The structure comprises a wide nave and aisles beneath a heavy roof, a massive crossing tower, and a high chancel positioned over a vestry. The western front features a striking 9-light window divided by two mullions and a transom with reticulated tracery. Narrow 2-light foiled windows pierce the western aisle walls. A deep north-west porch with a wide shallow-arched entrance is internally divided into two bays, each with small windows; three of these contain stained glass by Morris and Company, dated 1895, 1897 and 1898, whilst the others are by Wooliscroft and Sons. The south doorway has a simple moulded archway.

The long nave features lean-to aisles and a low clerestory. Four-light Perpendicular-style windows light the aisles, whilst square-headed 3-light windows serve the clerestory, all beneath overhanging eaves. Heavy buttressing at the crossing clasps the aisles. The tower itself is austere and heavy with clasping buttresses, two simple 3-light Decorated-style windows, and relieving arches spanning paired lancets recessed in square panels in the upper stage. Small louvred openings appear above, and a heavy parapet minimally stepped to suggest embattling supports a pyramidal roof topped with a weather vane. Paired Decorated windows with reticulated tracery sit high in the chancel wall, and a wide 9-light east window completes the exterior.

Internally, the church achieves a wide and well-lit span in accordance with Tractarian principles. The nave arcade comprises four bays carrying multiple-chamfered arches on short octagonal piers, with the western bay somewhat narrower than the rest. The arcade continues as a single bay into the crossing. The west window contains clear glass with three-arched recesses beneath painted to designs attributed to William Morris with foliage, flowers, and an angel in the central arch. A shallow crown-post roof structure spans the nave. A wide crossing arch springs from between the arcade arches, with the tower's flying buttresses straddling the aisles at this point. The chancel arch at the east of the crossing is narrower than the western crossing arch, carried from semi-octagonal responds. Steps descend from the east end of the north aisle to the vestry beneath the chancel.

The church contains significant interior fittings. A panelled wood screen with one painted panel separates the aisle from the organ chamber. A low stone screen with central cast-iron gates guards the chancel. The chancel walls were entirely painted by Gerald Horsley with emblematic high dado incorporating castles, crowns and pomegranates overlaid with text of the Virtues, and figurative painting above depicting the Heavenly City and the Tree of Life. The ceiling features emblematic painting with two panels representing the Annunciation and Christ in Majesty. A triptych designed by Lethaby was originally painted by F Hamilton Jackson and subsequently repainted. The reredos comprises stained wood panelling with vine scroll canopy frieze. A painted chancel chair in Pre-Raphaelite style is also present.

The Lady chapel to the east of the south aisle features stained wood dado panelling with incised frieze. Its east wall was painted by Horsley with the Annunciation; the remaining walls and ceiling were painted by Edgar Platt (executed and signed by Thomas Shaw, 1915) depicting St Francis with the birds, Adam and Eve expelled from the garden of Eden, and Noah's Ark.

The font, positioned directly facing the altar in accordance with Tractarian principles and set against the west wall, was designed by Lethaby and dated 1886. It comprises green marble formed as a heavy, austere octagonal basin with lettering in low relief in a band towards the top and symbols of the evangelists at the cardinal points at the base. The pulpit, also designed by Lethaby, features a stone base with an octagonal wood body in which projecting ribs at the angles are intricately carved with foliate openwork, with scalloped moulding to recessed panels containing filigree openwork and a canopy hood above.

The stained glass represents a comprehensive scheme. An overall plan submitted by Morris and Company in 1893 was never fully implemented, but the company contributed extensively to the church's glazing over many years. The north aisle contains mostly Morris and Company windows to designs by Burne-Jones executed during the 1930s, with the easternmost window by John Platt employing a Pre-Raphaelite style. The east window, also by Morris and Company, depicts the Tree of Jesse and dates to 1923. Windows in the Lady chapel include a Morris and Company east window from 1887 and a south-east window by Gerald Horsley from 1891. South-west windows were painted by John Platt of Leek and Harold Rhodes of York in 1920. A south aisle window by Morris and Company dates to 1947–8. The church also houses an important collection of work by the Leek School of Embroiderers, and includes a wood-panelled war memorial in the north aisle with a central panel painted by C Davidson.