Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church with origins in the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations spanning the 13th to 15th centuries. The chancel arch dates to the 12th century, the nave around 1200, the south aisle was built in the 13th century, and the West Tower is from the 14th and 15th centuries. An extensive restoration took place in 1870, affecting the north and south walls and fenestration of the nave. The West Tower’s spire was removed and the tower remodeled and repaired in 1774, now featuring a pyramidal roof. The west window is of Ketton limestone, restored in a 14th-15th century style with vertical tracery. The nave's north wall is of gault brick with a slate roof, featuring 13th-century style windows, although a 12th-century north doorway has been reinstated. This doorway has a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders, with the outer order on columns, one capital carved with volutes and the other with foliate ornament. The south aisle was narrowed by three feet in 1774, and the chancel was repaired in 1777; the walls are now rendered, with a 19th-century roof. A late 17th or early 18th century headstone is set into the north wall of the tower.

Inside, the tower arch is from the 14th and 15th centuries, a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders, the outer continuous and the inner on half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals. The south arcade, dating to around 1200, originally had four bays, with part of a fifth bay presumably removed when the tower was built. The arches are two-centred of two hollow moulded orders on piers of quatrefoil section with moulded capitals. Two of the bases are unmoulded, suggesting a previous alteration. The 12th-century round-headed chancel arch has a roll moulding on angle shafts with capitals, one carved with volutes and an abacus with a chamfered lower edge. A 13th-century trefoil arch of clunch, roll moulded, is set south of the chancel arch, likely serving as a squint opening from a south chapel to the chancel. A 13th-century blind opening on the north side has been partly removed by the 19th-century north wall of the nave. A monument to John Layer (c.1586-1640), an antiquarian, is within the chancel’s north wall. The early 17th-century oak pulpit stands on a modern base, and there are 15th to 16th-century enriched poppy head finials reset on modern bench ends. The 13th-century font has an octagonal bowl with volutes at the corners, a central stem, and four supports.