Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a parish church of early 13th-century origin, comprising a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, with a west tower that began in the early 13th century but was continued through the 14th and completed in the 15th century. The north aisle was enlarged and a clerestorey added in the late 14th century. The building is constructed of dressed clunch with some limestone, and some of the clunch is rendered with Roman cement.

The West Tower rises in four stages from a moulded plinth. The plinth has some limestone, but otherwise the tower is dressed clunch with some limestone repairs to the fenestration. The tower features angle buttressing, a stepped embattled parapet, and a main cornice with central gargoyles. The ground stage dates to the late 13th century, whilst the upper stages are of 14th and 15th-century date. The first stage has a lancet window to each side, both of 13th-century date. The bell stage contains two cinquefoil openings set in four-centred arches. The west window was restored in the 15th century. The original gable of the nave remains visible in the west wall of the tower.

The Nave features a late 14th-century clerestorey and a low-pitched roof. The clerestorey has five windows to each side, each consisting of two cinquefoil lights in pointed arches with square heads and dagger tracery to the spandrels. Inside, the nave has a five-bay arcade of early 13th-century date, with two-centred arches of two orders. Each arch has two hollow mouldings and is supported on columns of quatrefoil section with moulded capitals enriched with nail-head ornament and bases. The roof is of late 14th-century date, consisting of five bays with king posts on arch-braced tie beams decorated with dagger and quatrefoil ornament to the spandrels. The jack-posts have stone corbels carved with angel and mask heads. The westernmost columns of the nave arcade are partly obscured by the late 13th-century west tower.

The South Aisle is of 13th-century origin, though its openings are of late 14th to 15th-century date. It contains two original windows of three cinquefoil lights with vertical tracery. The south porch is also of late 14th-century date and has a much-worn outer arch with a 13th-century inner archway that has been restored. The inner arch is a two-centred arch of keeled roll moulding with dog-tooth and other ornament, set on engaged shafts with leaf capitals and hold-water bases. The south door is of vertical planks with moulded cover strips, the head featuring blind tracery. A 19th-century vestry stands on the south side of the south aisle. A reset 13th-century arch with nail-head ornament leads to the 19th-century vestry, which stands on the site of the former south chapel.

The North Aisle is partly obscured by the Bendyshe mortuary chapel, which dates to the 15th century and was formerly a chantry chapel. The north aisle has a late 14th to early 15th-century roof. The chapel contains two bays of 15th-century date, with two-centred arches of two orders; the outer arch is continuous whilst the inner is on half-octagonal responds. Inside the chapel, there is 18th-century stone paving with black sets, and wall monuments to members of the Bendyshe family, including Robert Bendyshe (died 1687) and his wife Margaret (died 1673), Thomas Bendyshe (died 1684), and Constantia Gyles (died 1663), daughter of Thomas Bendyshe. Late 14th to 15th-century windows are present in the north wall of the north aisle.

The Chancel has an early 13th-century arch, a two-centred arch of two hollow-moulded orders on responds of semi-quatrefoil section, one capital enriched with nail-head ornament. The north wall of the chancel is partly of 13th-century date and contains a lancet window with a deep splay. The south wall has a piscina with an ogee arch, label, mask stops, and finial. There is a blocked doorway in the north wall, dating to the 14th or 15th century, with a continuous moulded two-centred arch. The chancel contains early 14th-century flowing tracery in two windows in the south wall, and an east window of 14th to 15th-century date with vertical tracery. A wall monument to Anna Lyng (died 1586) is located on the north wall of the chancel.

Interior Fittings include an oak pulpit of early 17th-century date with an original sounding board, though the stem has been cut down. Pews of late 15th or 16th-century date stand in the nave, made of oak with some repairs, though others retain original seats. The pews have panelled ends and fronts with tracery to the heads and two-stage buttressing, together with moulded rails. The font is of 13th-century date, comprising a limestone bowl with shafted corners on a 14th-century clunch base with panelled sides. A 16th-century oak chest with interlacing iron straps is present, and there is a coffin bearer in the north aisle. The church contains numerous scratchings dating from medieval to modern times, and late medieval wall painting is visible on part of the south wall of the nave arcade.