Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a church of 12th-century origins with significant later additions and modifications. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 13th century, with a north aisle and arcade added in the mid 13th century. The south aisle and arcade date to the early 14th century. A clerestory was added to the nave in the 15th century. The south porch is dated 1820, and the tower was added by R.C. Hussey in 1845.

The building is constructed of sandstone, mostly in regular coursed work, except for the tower which is built of ashlar. The chancel has lower parts of rubble. The roofs are low-pitched and lead-covered, largely hidden by parapets with moulded cornices and copings. The plan comprises an aisled nave, chancel, west tower, and south porch, with three bays to both the chancel and nave.

The chancel has buttresses of two offsets. The three-light east window features late 19th-century geometrical tracery. On the north side are two buttresses, with two chamfered 13th-century lancets having moulded sill courses and string courses above. A large round-arched three-light western window displays Perpendicular tracery. A two-bay clerestory has double-chamfered two-light mullioned windows. The south side has a buttress with a scratched sundial. A moulded doorway with hood mould and head stops contains a 19th-century plank door. There is a blocked central lancet and fragments of an eastern lancet. A blocked large straight-headed eastern window has a small buttress below. A three-light western window has largely renewed reticulated tracery. The clerestory has a blocked central window.

The nave clerestory has straight-headed windows of two ogee lights in the Decorated style. The south aisle is of Decorated style. The south porch is rendered, with a slate roof and concave stone-coped gable parapet containing a datestone. The porch has 20th-century double-leaf doors in a plain arch, with return sides featuring three blind lancets.

The interior is almost wholly plastered. The chancel, nave and south aisle have very shallow pitched, almost flat, plaster roofs with moulded ribs and foliage bosses, probably dating to around 1845. The chancel has a mid to late 19th-century stone south arch to Chetwynd chapel of two moulded orders on Early English style columnettes with foliage corbels and an outer segmental pointed arch; the east jamb contains a squint with a detached shaft. An early 14th-century chancel arch has two chamfered orders, the outer continuous and the inner with responds and moulded capitals. The nave has a north arcade of two chamfered orders with octagonal piers and an east respond, with moulded bases and capitals featuring nailhead ornament. A taller and wider Decorated style south arcade has two sunk quadrant orders with quatrefoil piers with fillets and moulded capitals. The north aisle has a lean-to roof.

Inside is a 14th-century doorway of two continuous moulded orders, the outer with ball mouldings, and a 19th-century door. The aisle has a moulded plinth. There are angle and two south buttresses of two offsets, mostly with trefoiled gablets to the first stage, and a splay sill course. The tracery throughout is largely renewed. A four-light east window has cusped intersecting tracery with hood mould, head stops and fleuron. Two-light south windows have reticulated tracery. A cornice has a ball flower frieze. A large west window has had its tracery removed, probably in recent times. The north aisle has four buttresses of two offsets to the east and west. A three-light east window has reticulated tracery. A moulded 13th-century north-west doorway has hood mould and plank door, with 19th-century straight-headed north windows of two ogee lights. A rendered straight-headed two-light Perpendicular west window is also present.

The tower is in Gothic Revival Perpendicular style, but still within the Georgian pre-archaeological tradition with inaccurate details. It has three stages with moulded string courses, splay and moulded plinth and moulded sill course. Full-height angle buttresses have gablets to offsets. Moulded low west and south doorways have hood moulds with lion masks and studded panelled doors. The north side has a three-light straight-headed window. Two-light windows on each side have hood moulds with head stops. A band of two widely-spaced mouldings separates the stages. The low second stage has a narrow lancet to each side. The high third stage has two-light openings with hood moulds and louvres to the bell chamber. Above are blank moulded circles, with a clock face to the south. A deeply coved cornice supports a crow-stepped embattled parapet above, with octagonal pinnacles having moulded cornices and finials.

The church contains significant fittings. Commandment boards have panelled surrounds, possibly 18th-century, with Ionic capitals and flaming urns. Late 17th-century altar rails have twisted balusters, a carved frieze and terminal figures. An early to mid 17th-century pulpit features elaborate arcaded and carved decoration. There is a simple 15th-century octagonal font and an 18th-century marble font with oval basin.

The nave west pew, said to have been the Mayor's Pew, came from the Church of St. Mary, Stafford. It is inscribed "RICHARO DRAKEFORO STEPHEN WINKLE CHURCHWARDENS ANNO DOMINI 1618". The pew has a carved and ornamented three-bay arcade with openwork volutes and Ionic pilasters, and plain and carved panels. The south side has a scrolled half-door. It is enclosed within a 19th and 20th-century Tudor-arched frame supporting the organ, with a piece of 18th-century Rococo panelling, possibly re-used from the reredos. A five-bay screen of around 1680 to the south chapel of the Chetwynd family has moulded and ornamented arches with panelled Corinthian piers and winged head spandrels, and above, two trumpeting angels, a large cartouche of arms and flaming urns. 19th-century stalls are also present.

The east window features stained glass from 1861. The Chetwynd chapel east window has heraldic glass, probably early 19th-century but with earlier fragments.

The church contains a significant collection of monuments. These include a mid 15th-century alabaster effigy of a lady and an incised effigy slab of Margaret Chetwynd dated 1539 in the chancel. There are many monuments and hatchments to the Chetwynd family. In the chapel is a large tablet with balusters, shields and painted decoration, and inscriptions to John dated 1593 and Margaret. Wall monuments with cartouches, panels and varying ornament in the chancel and chapel bear inscriptions to Walter, Frances and William, all dated to the 17th century. In a chancel recess is a life-size statue of a mourning woman and an urn, signed by Robert Taylor, with an inscription to Mary dated 1750. Architectural tablets include those to Frances dated 1686, Sir George dated 1850 (but in 17th-century style), Nicholas Penny dated 1707, and Nicholas and Francis Penny from the late 18th century.