Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church dating back to the 13th century, with significant alterations and rebuilding in the 14th century, and the insertion of a West tower in the early 15th century. A further restoration and re-roofing took place in 1863. The main building material is clunch, with Barnack limestone footings and quoins, while the West tower is constructed of pebble stone with Barnack dressings.

The tower is a three-stage structure with a stepped and embattled parapet, two-stage clasping buttresses, and a moulded main cornice featuring beast gargoyles at the corners. The sill is splayed. The nave has a 19th-century tiled roof that extends over the aisle, obscuring the original 13th-century clerestory windows, which were shaped like horizontal vesicas. The South aisle’s fenestration has been renewed in Ketton stone, reflecting a 14th-century style. The South porch, contemporary with the aisle, has a chamfered arch with broach stops. Within the chancel, two original windows remain in the North wall: an early 13th-century lancet and a 14th-century two-light window with a foiled head within a two-centred arch. One South wall window has a low sill. The North doorway is 14th century, with wave moulding.

Internally, the church is notable for its clunch detailing. The three-bay arcade features two-centred arches with two hollow and broach stopped orders, supported by octagonal columns with capitals carved with natural leaf foliage. The responds at the East end of the nave arcade have bell-shaped capitals with similar natural leaf foliage, attached to shafts. The chancel contains a good late 14th-century sedilia, consisting of three bays with subcusped ogee heads, running foliate ornament, finials, and a frieze of pierced arcading – all crafted from clunch. A piscina of similar date and style is also present. A restored 15th-century screen separates the nave and chancel, with three bays; the closed panels below the dado on the right-hand side date to the early 17th century. Several pews are late 15th or early 16th century, and the early 17th-century octagonal pulpit rests on a modern base. There are two squint openings, one on each side of the chancel arch, and remnants of a rood loft staircase on the North side of the chancel arch. A reset alabaster tomb monument for Edward Styward (1596) and his wife Margaret (early 17th century) is located in the South aisle. A black marble slab commemorates John Rant (1696) and his wife Johan (1663), in the nave.