Parish Church Of All Saints

Parish Church of All Saints

This Grade I listed church is located on the south side of High Street in Ellington and dates largely from the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Elements of an earlier church survive, including a 13th-century chancel arch that remains in situ, fragments of 13th-century stone window jambs rebuilt into the chancel, and a reset late 13th-century doorway in the south wall. A mid-13th-century doorway is preserved in the north wall of the north aisle. The south aisle dates to the 14th century, while the tower dates to around 1400 and was rebuilt at the same time as the nave arcades, north aisle and south porch. The south wall of the south aisle was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century and a clerestory was added. The south porch is 16th-century in date. The roofs to the nave and aisles are contemporary with their rebuilding, though they were restored in 1907–08. The chancel was rebuilt in 1863, possibly to designs by Scott. The spire was restored in 1889. The walls are constructed of rubble and pebble rubble, originally plastered, with Barnack and Ketton limestone dressings. The roofs are covered in lead, slate and tile.

The north-facing elevation shows the chancel rebuilt in the 19th century with three buttressed bays and a steeply pitched roof, containing two two-light windows with geometric tracery and a late 15th-century two-light window with transome and four-centred head. The late 15th-century clerestory has an embattled parapet and low-pitch roof to the nave, with four three-light windows in four-centred arches and three gargoyles. The north aisle, dating to around 1400, has three three-light windows with tracery in four-centred heads, an embattled parapet, and angle buttresses at quoins and bays of two stages. The north porch, also around 1400, features a two-centred outer arch of two continuous moulded orders with a square label. The spandrels are carved with wheat-ear designs. Above the arch is a small niche. The porch has embattled parapets with remains of pinnacles and a diagonal buttress. The inner north doorway is a reset 13th-century two-centred arch of two richly moulded orders resting on jambs with one detached and two attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The late 14th-century west tower has three stages, with a moulded plinth and an octagonal broach-spire rising from a moulded cornice. The buttresses, set in from the angle, rise to the full height of the tower. Below the cornice is a band of quatrefoils. The belfry windows are two transomed lights with a quatrefoil in each two-centred head. There are three tiers of spire-lights, those of the bottom and top tiers on the cardinal faces.

The interior contains a 13th-century chancel arch that is two-centred with two chamfered orders, the inner order resting on semi-circular attached shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and moulded bases. The nave arcades comprise four bays with two-centred arches on columns of four semi-circular shafts with hollow mouldings between and moulded capitals and bases. The labels form a small ogee at the apex of each arch. A blocked doorway with four-centred arch provides access to the rood stair. The tower arch is two-centred with two chamfered orders with attached semi-circular shafts and moulded capitals. A low side rebated window survives in the chancel, and there is a restored 14th-century piscina in the chancel and a 14th-century piscina with ogee head in the south aisle.

The roof timbers are of exceptional quality. The very fine early 15th-century and late 15th-century roofs to the nave and aisles are particularly notable. The nave roof comprises four bays with moulded and carved braces forming two-centred arches below principal rafters, which are moulded with embattled collars. The ridge and purlins are also moulded. Intermediate principal rafters have a centred angel at their feet. At the base of each wall-post is a small carved figure, probably an apostle. The roofs of both north and south aisles are similar in design, comprising four bays of moulded principal rafters with braces and wall-posts bearing carved figures of saints. Each bay is subdivided by intermediate rafters, each with a large carved angel at its foot. A 15th-century font has an octagonal bowl with panelled sides. A 13th-century stone coffin was found beneath the floor of the south aisle in 1915. A wall tablet on the south aisle wall commemorates Mary Ladds, dated 1811.