Parish Church of All Saints is a Grade I listed building in the Bedford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 13 July 1964. A C15 Church.
Parish Church of All Saints
- WRENN ID
- steep-barrel-cedar
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Bedford
- Constituency
- North Bedfordshire MP: Richard Fuller (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 13 July 1964
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Parish Church of All Saints, Grange Lane, Cople
- OS grid reference
- TL 103 484
- Coordinates
- 52.12355, -0.38993
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Parish Church of All Saints is a significant church dating from around 1430, with additions from the 16th and 18th centuries. It features a mix of construction materials, including courses of rubble, primarily limestone, an ironstone tower, and ashlar dressings. The church comprises a chancel, north and south chapels, a nave, north and south aisles, a south porch, and a west tower. The plain parapets on the south chapel and aisle contrast with the embattled parapets found elsewhere.
The chancel, dating from the 15th century, has a four-light east window and arcades with two four-centred arches on each side, the southern arch being taller. The chancel arch mirrors the nave arcades. The north chapel, from the 16th century, features a three-light east window that incorporates some 15th-century work, along with two three-light windows on the north side. The south chapel, also from the 16th century, has one east window and two south windows that were reworked in the 19th century. The archway leading to the south aisle resembles those in the chancel.
The nave, dating from the 15th century, has three-bay arcades on both sides and a clerestory with three square-headed two-light windows on each side. The north aisle, also from the 15th century, has windows that were reworked in the 19th century, and the north doorway incorporates some 14th-century work. The south aisle, similarly from the 15th century, has reworked 19th-century windows and extends westward to form a vestry south of the tower, which is lit by a two-light window. The south porch, dating from the 18th century, has been altered in the early 20th century and features five-light windows on each side.
The west tower, constructed in the 15th century, has three stages, diagonal buttresses, and an octagonal stair turret at the northeast corner. It includes a pointed-arched west doorway topped by a pointed-arched three-light window, with a 19th-century parapet and belfry windows.
Inside, the chancel contains two altar-tombs, one for Walter Luke (1544) and his wife Anne Launcelyn (1538), with brass that retains traces of inlaid colour, and another from the 16th century with brasses for Thomas Grey and his wife Benet (Launcelyn), along with their children. The chancel floor features a brass for John Launcelyn and his wife Margaret (1435), which reuses a 14th-century brass. Additional 15th and 16th-century brasses can be found in the north and south chapels. Angel corbels bearing the shields of Grey and Launcelyn adorn the chapel arcades. The chancel roof is from the 20th century, while the others date from the 15th century. The choir stalls retain four late 15th-century poppy-heads and two old linenfold panels, with late 16th-century pewing. The three central bays of the five-bay rood screen are from the late 15th century.
Local climate
Parish Church of All Saints sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 96% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 89% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 51% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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