Parish Church of All Saints

Parish Church of All Saints

This parish church dates from the 14th and 15th centuries, though most of its visible form results from extensive reworking in 1814. It is built of coursed ironstone rubble with dressings in ironstone and limestone, with alterations and additions in red brick. Some areas are rendered. The building comprises a chancel, nave, north aisle, south aisle, south porch, and a west tower.

The chancel contains a three-light 15th-century east window and a five-light window of the same period on the south side, both reworked. A pointed-arched single light window also faces south. A blocked pointed-arched doorway on the south side was heightened in brick. To the north lies a sepulchral vault for the Byng family, built of rendered brick with a round-headed doorway facing east, dating to the 19th century. The chancel arch is also 19th century.

The nave features pointed-arched five-bay arcades with additional half bays to the west, apparently 19th century in date. A brick clerestory contains four windows per side, all of two lights under a four-centred head with wooden frames.

The north aisle contains two five-light 15th-century windows with reworked tracery, a 15th-century doorway with a pointed head, and an early 14th-century pointed-arched three-light window. A pointed doorway stands at the west end, with a doorway to the east leading to the Byng vault.

The south aisle has four three-light 15th-century windows, again with reworked tracery. A blocked pointed doorway faces east, and a blocked pointed-arched window faces west. The south porch is gabled with a pointed-arched entrance and angle buttresses.

The chancel, nave, aisles, and porch all have plain parapets. The west tower is 15th century, standing three stages high with square buttresses on the east angles and clasping buttresses on the west angles. An embattled parapet in brick crowns the tower. The top stage has pairs of two-light windows on each side, with some small single lights to the lower stages. The west elevation features a pointed-arched door beneath a square head with traceried spandrels, surmounted by a three-light window. The tower arch is blocked.

The interior fittings and seating date to the 19th century. The font was created in 1937 by Sir Albert Richardson. The church contains a variety of floor and wall monuments.

Chancel memorials include floor slabs to John Nodes (died 1666), Sir John Kelynge (died 1680), and Mary Upwood (died 1687).

The north aisle wall monuments include a white marble monument with a draped urn to Lucy Waller (died 1797), and a polychrome marble monument with an urn and festoons against an obelisk to John Ringstead (died 1738), his wife Ann (died 1757), and five children.

The south aisle monuments include a polychrome marble tablet with an urn and consoles to Edward Dilly (died 1779), and a grey marble aedicule with a broken segmental pediment and foliate apron to Nathanael Fowler (died 1710).

The Byng vault contains George Viscount Torrington, Rear Admiral of Great Britain (died 1732), and Admiral John Byng, who was executed in 1757. The inscription on the tomb of Admiral Byng reads: "To the Perpetual Disgrace of PUBLIC JUSTICE The Hon. John Byng Esq. Admiral of the Blue Fell a Martyr to POLITICAL PERSECUTION March 14th in the Year 1757 whose BRAVERY and LOYALTY were Insufficient Securities For the Life and Honour of a NAVAL OFFICER".