Church of All Saints

CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS, SPETCHLEY

The Church of All Saints is a parish church of 14th-century origin, with a 17th-century tower and family chapel. It contains monuments dating from the 16th to 19th centuries and stained glass by Hardman of Birmingham.

The church is constructed of grey lias rubble with local sandstone dressings and tile roofs. It comprises a nave with a lower and narrower chancel, a south chapel, an embraced west tower, and a west porch.

The 18th-century west porch is timber-framed on a dwarf wall of hand-moulded brick. The round-headed west doorway is probably 17th century with a continuous chamfer and a later ribbed door. Above it is a 2-light west window. The 17th-century tower rises two short stages above the nave roof, with an embattled parapet and small square-headed bell openings with louvres.

The nave's south wall has a pointed doorway, blocked behind a door with plain strap hinges. A tall cusped window stands to its left, with single-light and 2-light Decorated windows to its right. The north side has corresponding openings, though the western window is blocked and the doorway is blocked behind a door with a strap hinge. Angle and central freestone buttresses are present, with later larger rubble-stone buttresses between them.

The chancel has a 19th-century 3-light Perpendicular east window. On its north side is a late 16th-century 4-light mullioned and transomed bay window with ovolo mouldings, beside a single-light window. The Gothic-revival south chapel has an embattled parapet with pinnacles. Its west wall contains a Tudor-headed studded door beneath armorial bearings in a recessed surround. The south wall has two 2-light windows and the east wall a 3-light window.

Internally, a vestibule has been created beneath the tower with a partition across the west end of the nave. This partition incorporates a door to the tower stair and a cupboard, with panel doors opening from the vestibule and a 3-light window with intersecting tracery above, looking into the ringing chamber. The nave has a plaster barrel ceiling and two tie beams. A trefoil-headed piscina occupies the south-east corner. The double-chamfered 14th-century chancel arch opens to a chancel with a plaster barrel ceiling and one tie beam. A wide moulded timber lintel spans the chapel entrance with moulded reveals incorporating a sunk roll moulding. The chapel has an ovolo-moulded joist-beam ceiling with scribed plaster walls. The nave floor is laid with 19th-century tiles, the sanctuary is stone-paved, and the chapel has 19th-century decorative tiles.

Principal fixtures include a large round post-medieval font on a round stem, early 19th-century benches with simple poppy heads, and a polygonal panelled pulpit painted blue of similar date. The sanctuary contains a wooden communion rail on iron standards and an early 19th-century panel reredos, behind which 16th and 17th-century wall painting has been discovered.

The church's chief interior feature is an outstanding collection of funeral monuments. In the chancel's bay window is a late 16th-century tomb chest behind iron railings, intended as the tomb of John Slade (died 1597), though he was buried elsewhere. Heraldic shields in relief appear in the window reveals. The space between chancel and chapel contains a monument, possibly by Samuel Baldwin, to Sir Rowland Berkeley (died 1611) and his wife Katherine, who purchased Spetchley Park in 1606. It has effigies on a tomb chest with inscription panels, corner obelisks set diagonally, and a coffered arch on square fluted Ionic pillars with an achievement. Iron railings and gates on its east and west sides divide the nave from the chapel.

The chapel's principal monuments include one to Sir Robert Berkeley (died 1656), sergeant-at-law, with a tomb chest bearing an effigy in judge's robes and an inscription panel with achievement against the wall behind. Thomas (died 1693) and Anne (died 1692) Berkeley have a large wall monument attributed to James Hardy, featuring an apron and inscription panel framed by Ionic pilasters with a broken pediment and achievement. Robert Berkeley (died 1694) has a large Baroque monument attributed to Grinling Gibbons, with mourning cherubs on a sarcophagus and an inscription panel with drapery framed by panelled pilasters and entablature. Robert Berkeley (died 1804) has a wall monument with sarcophagus by W. Stephens & Co. Three 19th-century funeral hatchments commemorate Sir Robert Berkeley (died 1804), Robert Berkeley (died 1874), and Henrietta Sophia Berkeley (died 1857). A wall tablet in the chancel commemorates Anne Smyth (died 1638), featuring Corinthian columns and entablature with achievement. Seventeenth-century brass plaques occupy the chancel floor, alongside grave slabs dated 1719 and 1762.

Stained glass windows are by Hardman of Birmingham. In the chapel, the east window depicts the Resurrection (1874), the south-east window shows the risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene and disciples (1876), and the south-west window depicts Saints Robert and Catherine. The chancel's north window shows the Annunciation (1860).

The stone churchyard wall bears dates 1629 and 1714.

The church is of at least 13th-century origin, but the oldest surviving parts are the 14th-century nave and chancel. The south chapel was built in 1614 by Sir Rowland Berkeley, a Worcester wool merchant who had become owner of Spetchley Hall. The tower is also probably 17th century, with an entrance vestibule created beneath it. The porch was added in the 18th century. Restoration in 1857 was undertaken by Henry Rowe and retained earlier plasterwork. The church was declared redundant and has been cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust since 1987.