Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a church built in 1871-72, designed by John Cotton. It is constructed of coursed blue lias stone with sandstone ashlar and buff brick dressings, and has tile roofs. The church is Gothic in style.

The building comprises a two-bay chancel and a three-bay nave, with a north-east angle tower and a north porch. The exterior features off-set buttresses and coped gables. The chancel has off-set angle buttresses; a brick cornice and sill course; a three-light east window with a hood featuring stops, and a foundation stone dated 1871 with a cross within a circle. There are two traceried lights to the north and one to the south, next to a canted vestry projection with a short finial, and an east entrance with a shouldered lintel. The north-east angle tower has a diagonal buttress, a cinquefoil to the east with dripstone, and a north lancet. A string course runs to a broached octagonal stage with slots, topped with pointed bell-openings and a swept slate spire with a wind vane. The north side of the nave has a two-light window and a lancet. An open timber gabled porch has trefoil-headed lights set within low stone walls, enriched framing, bargeboards with a finial, pierced-work inner fascias, and a double-chamfered arch to a pair of doors with chamfered reveals. The south side has a two-light window with flanking lancets. The west end has diagonal buttresses and lancets flanking a tall central buttress.

Inside, the chancel has a coupled rafter roof, a recess for an organ loft with a vestry entrance to the left, and a moulded chancel arch supported by corbels carved as musical angels. The chancel steps have stencilled texts. The nave has a scissor truss roof. Fittings include plain stalls and pews; a stone pulpit with a cross and dog-tooth moulding, some remaining paint; and a font from the previous church, constructed on a reused churchyard cross base featuring an octagonal stage on a square plinth with a quatrefoil frieze. Monuments include brass wall tablets, one on the west wall within a cusped arch and marble columns; the inscription is indecipherable. The church contains a complete set of stained glass windows dating from around 1870.

The church replaced a previous building situated north of the village green, which was believed to be the location of William Shakespeare’s marriage.