Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a substantial parish church in Leamington Hastings that develops across multiple medieval periods and later centuries. The building began in the mid 13th century as a simple structure; a mid to late 13th-century north chapel was subsequently incorporated into the north aisle. The nave and south aisle were extended and a south porch added in the early 14th century. A late 14th-century phase saw the addition of the north aisle, porch and tower. The chancel was rebuilt and a clerestory added in 1677, when the south aisle windows were also altered and the aisle re-roofed. The south side was rebuilt and the porch extended in 1703. The church received significant restoration and alteration in 1875, with further restoration in 1887.

The building is constructed of sandstone ashlar, with the north aisle having squared coursed limestone and lias rubble with sandstone dressings at its west end, and the chancel built of squared coursed limestone. Moulded cornices run throughout. The chancel has a tile roof with moulded coped gable parapets, while the nave and aisles have moulded parapets.

The church comprises an aisled nave, chancel, west tower, and north and south porches. The architectural language spans Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular styles. The chancel is of three bays and the nave five bays. The chancel has diagonal buttresses of three offsets with panelled pinnacles. It features three Gothic Survival windows: a 3-light east window and two 2-light south windows and a narrower 2-light north window, all with straight heads and cinqfoiled ogee lights, hood moulds and head stops. The east window contains a datestone and is topped with a 19th-century cross on the gable.

The north aisle, accessed through a small porch with a studded door in simple moulded arch, has a double splayed and moulded plinth. Diagonal and three north buttresses feature crocketed gablets. A corbel table of carved heads runs along the wall. The north-west porch is shallow and contains a fine though eroded Decorated ogee doorway of two orders with shafts. The outer order displays a vine trail between head stops with a head at the apex, and a hood mould with finial. Old studded plank double-leaf doors remain. The north aisle windows include a 3-light east window and north windows with 19th-century curvilinear tracery, a small trefoiled ogee north-east lancet, and a 3-light west window with renewed reticulated tracery. The clerestory features paired straight-headed lights. The south aisle has a moulded splay plinth with shaped diagonal buttresses and gablets, though the south-west buttress is simpler. The porch, dated 1703, has a moulded plinth and decorated gable with an arch of two chamfered orders. Recessed studded double-leaf doors sit in a chamfered plaster arch. The south aisle windows resemble those of the chancel. A 4-bay clerestory has paired chamfered round-arched lights, with hood mould continued as cornice.

The Perpendicular tower rises in three stages with double splay plinth and string courses. Full-height diagonal buttresses of five offsets ascend the structure. The west doorway has three moulded orders with thin shafts, a crocketed ogee gable and pinnacles, framing double-leaf doors. Above it is a 3-light window with renewed uncusped tracery beneath a sill course; the hood mould and stops continue as a string course. The second stage contains a simple ogee niche with shallow canopy. The third stage holds twin 2-light bell openings with blind traceried panels below. A moulded cornice with masks and gargoyles runs beneath a moulded embattled parapet with crocketed pinnacles.

Internally, the chancel is plastered and has a king post roof of 1875 incorporating some 17th-century timbers; it was formerly ceiled. A 19th-century segmental pointed chancel arch, largely concealed by a 19th-century Perpendicular traceried, panelled and coved screen to its upper part, separates the chancel from the nave. The nave itself has a 19th-century panelled boarded ceiling with moulded ribs. The north arcade consists of three late 14th-century bays, with differing late 13th-century east bays featuring two chamfered orders, octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases, and square plinths with chamfered corners. The south arcade has three Early English eastern bays and two early 14th-century bays with moulded arches and octagonal piers; the east bay displays nailhead enrichment. The tower arch has two moulded orders, the outer continuous. The aisles have low pitched roofs on carved brackets with stone corbels. The north aisle contains a small 4-centred doorway to a blocked rood loft stair. The south aisle accommodates an east organ chamber.

The church retains extensive 19th-century fittings including altar rails and panelled pews. The hexagonal pulpit and reading desk incorporate 16th-century Perpendicular panels in later framing, whilst the stalls are 19th-century. The north aisle has a 19th-century altar table. A Perpendicular hexagonal stone font features angels holding shields and a stem with blind trefoiled lancets. Carved screens of 17th-century date line the west bays of the aisles. Stained glass in the west window displays the arms of the Trevor and Wheler families, while the east window dates to 1874.

The chancel contains numerous 17th and 18th-century slabs and wall monuments. The most prominent are attributed to the sculptor Bushnell. On the north side is the monument to Sir Thomas Trevor, 1654. On the south side are monuments to Sir Thomas, 1676, and Lady Trevor, 1695. Both Bushnell monuments are of black and white marble and feature busts. Sir Thomas's monument shows a bust against a moulded oval niche with a cartouche bearing heraldic device, drapery and balloon finials above, a gadrooned frieze and cartouche with mask below the shelf. The monument to Sir Thomas and Lady Trevor shows the pair facing each other, set above a shelf with skulls, an urn finial, gadrooned frieze with cartouche and volutes, and a large oval inscription cartouche below the shelf. John Allington, Vicar, 1682, is commemorated in an arched south recess with a large marble pedestal of curved top, moulded plinth and cornice, small cartouche and open book.