Parish Church of All Saints

Parish Church of All Saints

This is a parish church with origins in the 13th century. The chancel dates from that period, extended in the mid-14th century when the west tower was also rebuilt. The spire is late 14th century. The nave arcades and aisles are 14th century work. A clerestorey was added and the aisles widened with the addition of a south porch in the mid-15th century.

The nave roof is 15th century, incorporating reused 14th-century tie beams. It was restored in mansard form possibly by John Tinkler, who was Rector in the 19th century. The south aisle window was replaced during restoration work in 1878. A vestry was built on the site of a former Lady Chapel that had been demolished in the 18th century by Robert Masters. The north aisle and nave roof were restored by Rattee and Kett in 1983.

The building has flint and rubble walls, plastered, with limestone and clunch dressings. The roofs are lead and plain tiles.

On the south elevation, the tower is three stages high with a moulded plinth band and embattled parapet with corner gargoyles and four stage angle buttresses. The belfry window is two-light with Y-tracery. The spire has spire lights alternating on each face. The nave clerestorey has an embattled parapet with four windows of trefoiled-lights in two-centred arches. The south-aisle windows, partly restored, are of three cinquefoil-lights in two-centred arches. The chancel and nave have gable parapets. The chancel has one two-light window in a four-centred arch and a 19th-century two-quatrefoil-light window. The south porch bears a stone date of 1613 and has a two-centred arched doorway with two reset gargoyles.

Interior

The nave has arcades of four bays with octagonal clunch piers with moulded caps and bases, and two-centred arches of two-chamfered orders. The nave roof spans four bays with carved angel hammer beams alternating with earlier 14th-century tie beams. The principal timbers are moulded with carved bosses at intersections, and the cornice and soffit of the tie beams are enriched with fleurons and other details. The aisle roofs are four bays with pierced decoration to braced wall posts supported on carved angel corbels.

The north aisle, originally extended as a chapel, was rebuilt as a 19th-century vestry and partly converted to an organ chamber. The chancel arch is two-centred with two-chamfered orders and semi-octagonal piers with moulded caps and bases. The chancel screen is of three bays with ogee heads, restored and removed from the tower arch by Robert Masters. The roof of the chancel is 19th-century scissor-braced work. The tower arch is two-centred with two continuous orders to a moulded plinth.

Wall painting survives in the nave. The font is modern but mounted on a medieval base. Piscenae and a stoup are present in the south aisle. The Easter Sepulchre in the north aisle was altered as a monument. The church contains 15th-century glass fragments in the windows, some pieces identified as depicting Lady Margaret, foundress of St John's and Christ's Colleges, and her parents John and Margaret Beaufort.

The chancel retains stalls with misericords. There are restored 15th-century pews. A pulpit removed from Jesus College in 1778 has carved panels depicting smiths' tools. A lectern, possibly 17th-century Dutch work, stands on a wooden angel pedestal. A 13th-century tomb canopy is in the nave. Two boards of commandments are displayed. Monuments include fine brass indents and a tomb to William Master, died 1798.