Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A church rebuilt in 1826–29 by Thomas Lee, incorporating a refaced medieval tower, and subsequently restored by A.P. Brevitt in 1883. The building is constructed of ashlar faced with hammer-dressed Gornal sandstone, with the nave roof slated and the aisles leaded.

The plan comprises a six-bay nave with full-length aisles, a slightly projecting chancel, and a tower attached at the centre of the south aisle. A west gallery was originally installed; the side galleries were removed in 1882–83.

The exterior displays solid and well-observed Gothic forms that create the general impression and massing of a Perpendicular church, though the tracery is closer to Geometric Decorated in style. The refaced medieval tower remains attached to the south aisle in the same position as its predecessor. It is squat, with diagonal buttresses, embattled parapets, and crocketed pinnacles. The windows and bell openings contain tracery of 1826–29. An octagonal spire with large lucarnes rises from within the parapet. The aisles and nave have solid parapets with angle pinnacles. The aisle windows are of two lights with a transom. A west porch, originally open, had doors fitted in 2003; its parapet is inscribed 'Rebuilt by John William, Earl of Dudley, July 6, 1829'. Notable label stops with characterful heads occur throughout the building. The chancel projects slightly beyond the aisles and contains a five-light east window with one transom and tracery featuring quatrefoils in circles. The east walls of the aisles are blind but have large cinquefoiled niches. The clerestory contains single cusped lights.

The interior is high and light, with rendered and painted walls and stone dressings also painted. There is no chancel arch. The nave and chancel feature a continuous plaster tierceron vault with large foliate bosses. The piers are raised on high plinths, are of quatrefoil section with attached shafts having capitals, with hollow mouldings running continuously between them. Shafts continue up the walls from the inner faces to serve as vault springers. The aisles have plain lean-to ceilings with moulded cornices. The west gallery rests on cast-iron columns of 1829, with a gallery front of 1903. Floors are mostly of encaustic tiles, probably dating to around 1883, with cast-iron hot air gratings. The east wall below the window has a screen of applied plaster mouldings of around 1829 serving as a reredos, consisting of a blank rectangular centre with side panels of two arches ornamented with quatrefoils in circles. In 2003 the entrance was redesigned with inner doors set in a glass screen beneath the west gallery, together with a vestry to the south and a concealed kitchen to the north. The base of the tower is now a vestry. The painted walls are of reddish sandstone, and the ringing chamber and bell chamber have round arches, some brick-lined and some blocked. The interior of the spire is of hammer-dressed ashlar, resting on medieval stone squinches.

The principal fixtures include traditional Gothic choir stalls with flat top rails by Warwick Scott, 1948. The font has a shallow bowl with a quatrefoil frieze, dating to 1829, and is accompanied by a font cover carved in oak depicting Mother and Child, by Sir Charles Wheeler, 1947. The stone pulpit dates to 1901 and was designed by F.T. Beck. Pine pews were installed by Brevitt in 1883. In the north aisle is an inscribed oak pew-front for the Parkhouse family, dated 1626 with a tulip motif. Another pew rail "set up at the cost of Joseph Smith", dated 168–, is located in the south aisle. Of approximately the same date are two small brass memorials. Among the nineteenth-century tablets, the finest examples are a monument to the Fereday family, 1832, featuring a lavishly draped urn, and a polychrome Gothic tabernacle to the Reverend William Lewis, 1870, carved by J. Smith of Birmingham.

Of the stained glass, the only survival from 1829 is in the east window tracery lights, which contains brightly coloured armorials by J. Helmle of Freiburg, Germany. The rest of the window was replaced in 1971 by D. Brooke. In the south aisle is a war memorial window by Pearce & Cutler, 1922. The north aisle contains a window by Rosemary Rutherford, 1972, and an abstract design by Alan Younger, 1975. Victorian glass includes two windows by T.W. Camm, 1883–84.