Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints in Huntingdon is a building of medieval origin that has been substantially reconstructed over the centuries. Evidence suggests a church existed on this site from the 12th century or earlier. The south tower arch dates from the 13th century, and the tower itself was built in the late 14th century. The remainder of the church was entirely rebuilt during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The tower underwent brick repairs, probably in the 17th century. By the late 18th century the church had acquired galleries, but these were removed during a restoration in 1859 carried out to designs by George Gilbert Scott. The northeast organ chamber and vestry were added during this same restoration. Harold Doe undertook extensive restoration work in the 1950s, and in 1990 the base of the tower was converted to a kitchen.

The church is constructed of stone rubble with some ashlar work at the east end of the south aisle. The tower is partly built of brick. Dressings are of Ketton and Barnack stone, and the roofs are covered in lead.

The plan comprises a chancel with north vestry and organ chamber, a nave with north and south aisles, a northwest tower and south porch, creating an almost square layout.

The exterior is predominantly late Perpendicular in character and forms an important element in the vista of Market Square. It features low-pitched roofs and prominent embattled parapets throughout. The chancel, nave, north and south aisles and south porch all display richly decorated late 15th and early 16th-century work. The chancel has a parapet string course decorated with heraldic motifs, including a knot and shield inscribed "R Nowell", probably identifying the builder of the chancel. The chancel east window has a four-centred head and four lights; its label is crocketed and terminates in a finial. The south windows of the chancel are similar in design, and the south buttresses have carved grotesques on their copings. Traces of a blocked south door remain in the chancel. The 19th-century northeast organ chamber, also designed in the Perpendicular style, has a triplet of two-light windows with vertical tracery separated by pinnacles supported on carved angels in its north wall. Its parapet is embattled and displays Victorian heraldic devices. The 19th-century northeast vestry, likewise Perpendicular in style, is of low height and has an angled northeast wall to accommodate the road.

The nave clerestory contains four windows on the south side and three on the north, all with four-centred heads and three lights. The nave west window has five lights with vertical tracery and a hood mould with headstops. The north aisle windows, all of four traceried lights, have crocketed labels, and the buttresses bear carved figures and beasts. The south aisle is lavishly decorated. Its buttresses have pinnacles rising through the parapet and statue niches, and the windows display complex vertical tracery with transoms and sub-lights; blind tracery panelling appears in the lower parts of the windows. The two eastern bays were rebuilt in 1861 reusing older materials. The south porch has a small canopied statue niche in the parapet. The outer opening is of two orders, the inner on attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. There is a two-light window on each side with moulded inner reveals.

The northwest tower is 14th-century in origin, but was rebuilt or strengthened in the 17th century, and the parapet, pinnacles and bell openings were rebuilt in the 19th century. Externally of two stages, it has an embattled parapet with pinnacles, and two-light bell openings with Perpendicular-style vertical tracery. There is a small 19th-century west door. The walls are largely 17th-century brick and stone rubble, with massive brick buttresses on the north and west sides.

The interior is lofty, very tall for its length. The late 15th-century chancel arch is of two orders: the outer with continuous double chamfers, the inner possibly incorporating partly reused 14th-century material and having half-round responds and moulded capitals. The openings from the chancel and north aisle into the 19th-century northeast organ chamber are Perpendicular in style, and there is also a 15th-century doorway from the chancel to the vestry. The nave arcades have four-centred arches and quatrefoil piers with tall bases and moulded capitals. The south aisle has four bays, the north aisle three, with the north tower arch forming the fourth bay. In comparison to the arcades, the tower arches are very low. The north tower arch, now partly hidden behind the inserted ringing floor and gallery under the tower, is 13th-century. Its east respond has an attached shaft with a moulded capital, the west respond is on a short shaft; they almost certainly belonged to a 13th-century north arcade that was otherwise rebuilt in the later Middle Ages. The south tower arch is 14th-century and has a continuously chamfered outer order and an inner order on attached shafts; both are largely concealed behind a large timber ringing chamber inserted in 1990. The former rood stair is visible at the east end of the north aisle. The mullions of the south aisle windows continue downwards internally to form blind tracery panels. The central two sections of the panelling under the south aisle east window formed a reredos for an altar and feature angels supporting shields. The east bay of the south aisle was refitted as a chapel in 1932 to designs by Ninian Comper, and the canopied statue niche in the southeast corner dates from this period.

The church has been refurnished several times, most recently in the 1950s when the present chairs and pulpit were installed. The font is of particular interest, with a plain polygonal bowl and a polygonal stem decorated with delicate intersecting blind arcading, both dating from around 1200. It is said to have come from the demolished church of St John's, Huntingdon, and to have been the font in which Oliver Cromwell was baptised; it was installed in 1927, having previously been in the garden of a nearby building. The font cover, dating from the late 19th or early 20th century, has an elaborate tracery dome topped by a small cupola. There is a 14th-century piscina in the chancel.

The choir stalls are very good 19th-century work, with ends featuring angels playing musical instruments. The late 19th-century chancel screen, in a good Arts and Crafts Gothic style, is now reset at the east end of the north aisle. The late 19th-century reredos has figures of saints under a crocketed ogee arcade. There is some good 19th and 20th-century glass, including the clerestory windows of 1860 by Clayton and Bell, and the west window of the south aisle (formerly the east window), also by Clayton and Bell. The west window of the nave is by Kempe of 1900 and the east window dates from around 1920 by Tower.

The excellent late 15th or early 16th-century chancel roof is low-pitched and has moulded main timbers with curved braces to the tie-beams and good carved bosses. The posts stand on carved corbels, possibly 19th-century, and there are traces of original colour, although most of the colour dates from around 1950.

The nave roof is 19th-century, although it is said to be an exact copy of its medieval predecessor, and has arched braces with open tracery in the spandrels; there are angels on the ends of the intermediate principal rafters. At least some of the carved figures supporting the wall posts are medieval, however, and there are also three early 16th-century wall posts with carved figures in the 19th-century north vestry.

There are very few monuments, the most notable being the wall tablet to Alice Weaver, who died in 1636, with an early use of a scrolled pediment. A plaque in the floor marks the location of the Cromwell and Fulwell burial vaults, sealed during the 1950s work.

There is evidence for a church on this site in the late 10th century, when it was given to Thorney Abbey, and 12th-century fragments were found during restoration in the 1950s. By the 13th century the church was clearly a substantial structure with at least a north aisle. A northwest tower was built over the west bay of this aisle in the late 14th century. The rest of the church was entirely rebuilt in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. A will of 1479 left money for making the desks in the chancel, a badge for the Drewell family on the chancel may be connected with the member of that family buried in the church in 1499, and the "R Newell" commemorated on the chancel cornice is probably Robert Newell, burgess of Huntingdon, who died in 1509. There was a Lady Chapel in the north aisle, and in the 16th century the church had a Corpus Christi guild. The northwest tower was rebuilt or strengthened in the 17th century, possibly in connection with damage during the Civil War, but this is not certain. By the early 19th century the tower had large bell openings with pointed heads and no tracery.

By 1775 the church had north, south and west galleries and box pews, and had been painted internally and apparently rendered externally. The west gallery was rebuilt in 1836-8 to designs by James Pocock. There was a proposal in 1802 to pull down both All Saints and St Mary's and build a new church, but this was not carried out.

The church was restored in 1859 to designs by George Gilbert Scott. The work included the construction of the northeast organ chamber and vestry, the removal of the galleries and reseating of the church, the restoration of the roofs, west window and west tower, including the insertion of tracery into the bell openings. In 1861 the two eastern bays of the south aisle were rebuilt using older materials and to their original design, also by Scott. A number of early 16th-century monuments were removed during this work. The east bay of the south aisle was converted to a chapel in 1923 to designs by Ninian Comper and paid for by Lady Sandwich in memory of her mother. The church was extensively restored and reordered in the 1950s, with the removal of many of the 19th-century furnishings and seating, and extensive restoration of the fabric and roofs, including recolouring the chancel roof. A ringing chamber was inserted under the northwest tower in 1990.