Parish Church Of All Saints

MELBOURN STATION ROAD TL 3844 (North east side) 24/201 Parish Church of All Saints GV II*

Parish Church. C13 chancel, nave and part of West Tower. Much altered in C15 when West tower was almost completely rebuilt, clerestorey added and chancel roof raised. Major restoration of 1882-3 by R.R. Rowe. Plan of West Tower, nave and aisles, South porch, Chancel and North Vestry. West tower mostly C15 although the tower arch is C13. Flint and pebblestone with clunch dressings, mostly replaced by limestone. Of three stages with bell-stage, embattled parapet, octagonal turrets at the corners and a needle spire. There is a splayed plinth with frieze of flushwork and set-back buttresses. West doorway has two centred ogee moulded arch in a square head with dagger ornament to the spandrels. The west window is also contemporary of four cinquefoil lights in two centred arch with intersecting tracery. Both window and doorway are of clunch. Bell stage has in each wal , two, two-centred arches to openings with transomes. Nave: Of similar flint and pebble stone, embattled C15 clerestorey. Five windows to each side, restored, of cinquefoil lights in four-centred head. The south porch was almost completely restored c.1882-83. South chapel, early C14, with restored fenestration. South wall of chancel has C13 lancet and C14 window with decorated tracery. The East window is of clunch with flushwork to the reveals. It is of four cinquefoil lights with four centred arch and vertical tracery. Interior: C13 West tower arch reused when West tower rebuilt in C15. Three hollow and one moulded order on a high base. Nave arcade of five bays. Two centred arches, of two moulded orders, the outer roll moulding keeled, the inner chamfered, on octagonal columns with moulded capitals and holdwater bases. The roof is a C19 restoration. South chapel has two vaulted niches, now vacant, on either side of the window in the East wall. It originally contained a monument to William Ayloffe d.1691, erected by Trinity Hall, Cambridge. The chancel arch was raised in the C15 when the chancel roof was raised. The screen which incorporates some original work was given by Thomas Hitch c.1508. The chancel roof is of c.1487 and this is also the date of the nave clerestorey. The piscina is C13. Two openings, each of two centred hollow and roll moulded arches with label and vine leaf stop. To the side are a pair of aumbrys. There is another in the North wall of the chancel. The wall monument to Dame Mary Hatton, wife of Sir John Hatton is of black and white marble and is on the South wall of the chancel. The font, probably C12 origin is octagonal and has C12 intersecting arcading carved to one of the faces and recessed trefoils to the others. The stem is modern.

R.C.H.M.: Record Card (1949) V.C.H Cambs. Vol. VIII p.80 Pevsner Buildings of England p.439

Listing NGR: TL3821844833