Anglican Church Of All Saints

The Anglican Church of All Saints in King's Heath is a Grade II listed building dating from 1859–60, designed by Frederick Preedy (1820–1898). The spire was added in 1866, also by Preedy. The north aisle was added in 1883 by Julius Alfred Chatwin (1830–1907), and the west end was enlarged in 1899 by J P Sharp (died 1915).

The church was built following the arrival of the railway to King's Heath in 1840, which led to gradual development of the area. In 1857, Preedy was chosen to design a low-budget church for the growing population. The builder Isaac Clulee reduced the quotation to £1,945 10s, and building began in early 1859. The church was consecrated in July 1860. Described at the time as being "in the early decorated style", it was designed as an extensible structure to allow for future growth as funds became available. A new parish for All Saints was created in 1863 from parts of the parishes of St Nicolas, King's Norton and St Mary, Moseley. The spire was added in 1866 at a cost of approximately £1,200. A new reredos was installed in 1892.

The walls are constructed from brick with Bromsgrove stone cladding, under plain clay tile roofs. The plan comprises a chancel with north organ chamber, choir vestry and boiler room; a five-bay nave with north and south aisles; a Lady Chapel at the east end of the south aisle; and a south-west tower housing the main entrance. The north aisle contains a projecting (now unused) main entrance and a baptistery in the west end. The westernmost bay of the nave and aisles is separated from the body of the church by a modern screen, beyond which the vestries have been converted to office space.

The exterior is eight bays long and arranged around an off-centre tower above the entrance. To the left of the tower at ground level are the former vestries. The ground floor entrance is framed by buttresses and a tower stair built into the south-west corner. A Gothic-arched entrance projects forward as a sharp gable with parapet coping. The tower is in three stages: a deep base with buttresses; a belfry section rich in detail; and a tall broach spire. Detail concentrates on the belfry with clustered colonnettes dying into a deeply splayed base picked out in lighter stone. The clustered colonnettes support coupled Gothic arches with recessed plate tracery containing quatrefoils. The broach spire has gabled dormers or openings, also in lighter stone. To the right of the tower, the south aisle comprises three bays with buttresses supporting a low roof. Deeply recessed beyond the aisle is the chancel, with a plain elevation of two window bays and a central door.

The interior of the nave has north and south arcades of pointed arches on octagonal piers. The arches and piers are picked out in alternating bands of reddish and cream stone, with plastered wall elevations. The piers have simple moulded capitals. The roof is an exposed arched-braced construction with alternating arched braces resting on carved stone corbels, all rising to collars. The aisles are of lean-to construction with exposed timber roofing and wainscoting on the walls.

The carved wooden pulpit sits on a carved stone base with engaged colonnettes and features an ogival arch motif on its facets. The church's foundation stone is housed at the back of the pulpit and is accessed by an integrated stone stair. The chancel arch is supported on engaged columns with naturalistically carved capitals and adjacent headstops. The rood screen wrought-ironwork is of considerable complexity. The north side of the chancel has a screen of coupled Gothic arches springing from a freestanding central pier with a naturalistically carved capital, a feature repeated on the engaged piers on either side. The capitals throughout this section have fine and crisply realised detail. A reredos dating from 1892 features wainscoting and considerable ornament including crocketing over miniature ogival arches. The south wall of the chancel is wainscoted. The servers' vestry has original deep cupboards.