Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Worcester

This parish church stands on Deansway in Worcester. It has a documented history extending back to 1125, with the earliest surviving fabric dating from the 15th century in the tower, though evidence suggests probable 12th-century origins and possible incorporation of part of the City Walls. The church was substantially rebuilt between 1739 and 1742 by Thomas White. Alterations were carried out by Aston Webb in 1889, the tower was restored in 1913, and further restorations took place around 1990 to 1995.

The church is constructed of Cotswold stone ashlar with sandstone rubble to the south-west side, and has a concealed roof. The plan comprises a three-stage west tower, a six-bay aisled nave, and a shallow chancel.

The tower's first stage features angle buttresses with offsets. The entrance on the north side has a pointed plank door with hollow moulding to the head, set in a square-headed recess. A four-light west window with Perpendicular tracery sits above. The second stage has clasping paired pilasters with horizontal rustication, round-arched windows to three sides in tooled surrounds with imposts, keystones and shaped sills, and a moulded cornice. The third stage contains two belfry openings to each side with round-arched imposts, keystones and sills, topped by a crowning moulded entablature with low parapet and four renewed urns with gadrooned bases.

The nave's main north facade has a chamfered plinth, end pilasters with horizontal rustication, and a crowning cornice with low parapet. The entrance in the second bay from the west consists of double eight-raised-and-fielded-panel doors with blind panelled fanlight over, set in a tooled surround with impost and angel keystone within an architrave with fluted Doric pilasters, frieze with triglyphs and metopes, and a segmental pediment. Five round-arched windows with tooled surrounds, imposts, keystones and moulded sills on plain corbels run along this facade. A similar round-arched window appears at the west end of the nave. Curvilinear gable ends flank the tower. The south side has four windows, with the westernmost bay blind; the second bay from the west has an eight-raised-and-fielded-panel door with blind panelled fanlight in tooled surround, and otherwise matches the north side fenestration.

The east end, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "the real facade" with the most impressive architectural treatment, features paired fluted giant Doric pilasters on a continuous moulded plinth at either end of the chancel. A large central round-arched window has an architrave with panelled pilasters and a cherub-head to the keystone, with triglyphs and metopes over the pilasters, a continuous cornice, and a pediment containing a bust of Bishop Bough. The east end of the south aisle has a blank round-arched opening in tooled surrounds with an oculus above. The east end of the north aisle has double eight-raised-and-fielded-panel doors with blind panelled fanlight over, set in a tooled surround with impost and keystone, and an oculus above.

The interior features a pointed tower arch with two orders of hollow moulding and one order of roll-moulding. A six-raised-and-fielded-panel door leads to the vestry. The north entrance porch contains eight raised-and-fielded-panel double doors with a panel over, set between pilasters with a cornice. The nave has an arcade of Doric columns on tall plinths that retain 18th-century raised-and-fielded panelling, with half-columnar responds. The dado is finished with 18th-century raised-and-fielded panelling to approximately 1.75 metres high. The aisles have flat ceilings. The nave has a segmental vault with panelled "ribs" rising from the columns. At the chancel end the vault becomes more elaborate with decorative panels and arcades on fluted Corinthian columns, with bands of foliate decoration.

The reredos is tripartite with Corinthian pilasters and a segmental pediment, and contains a painting by Josiah Rushton of the Royal Worcester Porcelain Works, dated 1867. The pulpit incorporates 15th-century panels depicting the four evangelists. A screen between the chancel and chancel aisles was designed by Aston Webb. The communion rail features fluted Doric columnar balusters and a shaped handrail.

The stained glass includes 15th-century fragments in the west window and in windows at the east and west ends of the aisles. An east window in Pre-Raphaelite style is complemented by 15th-century-style wall painting on the east wall, presumably executed in 1889. A Norman font was in continuous use until 1878, after which a late 19th-century replacement was installed.

Monuments in the church include an important group. A kneeling monument to Edward Hurdman, who died in 1621, and his wife comprises two large figures by a prayer desk, though the original context has been destroyed. A painted wall monument to Samuel Matthews, Alderman (died 1684), features a demi-figure and barley-twist columns with a broken segmental pediment. A wall tablet commemorates Margery Symonds (died 1683). A significant group of architectural-type 18th-century wall tablets, mainly by Richard Squire of Worcester, includes a commemoration plaque dating to around 1762 with a medallion portrait of Queen Anne. Greek Revival wall tablets by Preece of Worcester also survive.

When the tower was restored in 1913, traces of Norman work were discovered. The westernmost bay on the south side originally housed a school room.

The Church of All Saints is one of four important 18th-century churches in Worcester, the others being the Church of St Martin, Cornmarket; the former Church of St Nicholas, The Cross; and the Church of St Swithin, Church Street. Their towers, together with Worcester Cathedral and St Andrew's Church Tower on Deansway, form the most significant features of Worcester's skyline.