Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Evesham

This parish church stands on the east side of Market Place in Evesham and is principally dated to the 15th and 16th centuries, though it retains some 12th-century masonry in the west wall of the nave. It was substantially restored in 1874–76 by Frederick Preedy, architect of Worcester, following initial plans prepared by Barry & Sons of Liverpool.

The church is built of local grey lias rubble and buff limestone in regular courses, with ashlar used for the porch and south chapel. It has tile roofs throughout, except for the slate roof of the vestry. The plan comprises an aisled nave with a west tower and west porch, south chapel, transepts, and a chancel with a north-east organ chamber and vestries.

The exterior is predominantly in Perpendicular style. The porch is notable for its unusual plan and lavish decoration, featuring a deep embattled parapet with tall corner pinnacles, richly carved panelling, quatrefoil friezes, and north and south doorways with carved spandrels. A five-light straight-headed west window sits above. The slender three-stage tower has diagonal buttresses, two-light belfry windows, an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles, and a tall parapet spire with lucarnes.

The south transept and south aisle are embattled, with buttressing and renewed gargoyles added in the 1970s. The aisle is lit by two triangular-headed three-light south windows and a four-light west window. The south transept has five-light south and four-light east windows. The south chapel, built for Abbot Clement Wych around 1505–10, matches the porch's quality. It is buttressed with diagonal buttresses, has pierced battlements, and is lit by tall three-light transomed windows.

The north aisle differs from the south aisle, with a steeply pitched roof and 1870s windows including two three-light Perpendicular windows, a two-light Decorated window, and a four-light Perpendicular west window. The north transept retains a five-light 14th-century window with intersecting tracery. The nave has three quatrefoil clerestory windows on the north side, two two-light east windows above the chancel, and two west windows at similar level.

The chancel is unbuttressed with a five-light geometrical east window and a frieze of blind quatrefoils beneath the sill. Its south side includes a priest's doorway, two large three-light windows, and a lancet. A small two-light north window lights the north side. The north-east organ chamber has a two-light transomed east window, and the embattled north-east vestry has a hipped roof.

The interior is notable for several medieval and later features. The porch ceiling is flat and panelled, with a large 16th-century central boss depicting the Five Wounds of Christ. The doorway into the nave at the base of the tower is 12th-century, featuring a round arch on responds with capitals. The chancel arch is 14th-century in style; its inner order sits on corbels, though only the upper part is medieval. The 15th-century nave arcades are similar on both sides but the north is lower; their piers have hollow mouldings that continue into the arches.

The roofs are 19th-century but may reproduce earlier designs. The nave has a six-bay crown-post roof with four-way bracing. The north aisle has a plain five-bay arch-braced roof on corbels. The south aisle has a restored cambered roof with moulded cross beams and painted bosses. The transepts have wide double-chamfered arches into the nave. The north transept has a cambered panelled roof with richly moulded ribs and gilded bosses. The south transept has a shallow king-post roof on foliage corbels. The south aisle chapel has a tall panelled arch and retains its original fan vault, decorated with friezes of large quatrefoils on the walls. The chancel has a cusped arch-braced roof with cusped wind braces; its walls are unplastered and comprise bands of different-coloured stone. A 14th-century doorway from the chancel to the vestry has two orders of decorative cusping. A cusped north aumbry and canopied piscina survive. Other internal walls are plastered and painted. The nave has a parquet floor, while the chancel and south chapel have 19th-century encaustic-tile floors by Godwin of Lugwardine.

Principal fixtures include a good Perpendicular font with an octagonal bowl decorated with quatrefoils on an arcaded stem. Most other fittings are 19th and early 20th-century. The alabaster reredos, showing the Deposition from the Cross, was designed by Preedy and made by Boulton of Cheltenham. A polygonal stone pulpit from 1875, also by Preedy, features figures of the Evangelists in niches and angels in the spandrels; a wooden tester was added by Francis Bligh Bond in 1911.

The 1905 wooden chancel screen, by C. Ford Whitcombe, includes rood figures of which the Crucifixion was carved at Oberammergau and the Virgin and St John were carved by Richard Haughton of Worcester. Iron chancel gates of 1910, by Blunt and Wray, are in Arts-and-Crafts style. A canopied reading desk behind the screen dates to 1911 and is also by Bligh Bond. Bligh Bond's main contributions were the screen between the south aisle and chapel and a wooden reredos in the chapel. Early 20th-century choir stalls have shaped bench ends and poppy-head frontals. Nave benches have shouldered ends and apex roundels.

The church contains numerous wall monuments, predominantly from the 18th and 19th centuries. The grandest is to Elizabeth Baylies (died 1754), attributed to Henry Cheere, featuring a wreathed urn surmounting a convex inscription panel. Others include monuments to Elizabeth and Ann Cave (died 1728) by Richard Squire, William Baylies (died 1760) possibly by Cheere, and Thomas Dunn (died 1781) by W. Stephens. One small 14th-century stained glass figure of Christ remains in a tracery light in the north aisle, above figures of Saints Oswald and Wilfrid by Percy Bacon of London. The remaining stained glass is late 19th and early 20th-century, including the north transept window by Capronnier of Brussels (1882) and the south transept window, designed by Henry Holland for Powell's of London (1882–83).

All Saints is one of two parish churches within the former precinct of Evesham Abbey. Beyond the 12th-century masonry in the nave's west wall, the fabric is predominantly 14th and 15th-century, with the porch and chapel added around 1505–10 at the expense of Abbot Clement Wych, the last abbot of Evesham Abbey. The major restoration of 1874–76 enlarged the chancel, added a new vestry and organ chamber, rebuilt the north aisle, and provided new seating. The south chapel was further restored in 1895. The outer choir vestry was added in 1897 by R.A. Briggs.