Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A substantial church spanning the 15th, 16th, and early 17th centuries, built entirely in red brick laid in English bond, with stone dressings of 8 inches by 4 inches by 2 inches (0.2 metres by 0.1 metres by 0.05 metres), originally fine oolite but repaired with various stones. The roofs are peg-tiled.

The building comprises a 15th-century nave and chancel, which are misaligned and probably built over an earlier structure, with north and south transepts projecting from the nave and a projecting north chapel to the chancel. A 16th-century chapel stands to the south of the chancel, with a south porch added in the same period. The west tower dates to the 16th and 17th centuries, with its upper stage and west side rebuilt in the 17th century.

The south elevation features a central prominent gabled transept with a porch on its west side as a lean-to with a continuous catslide roof. The transept has a rectangular stone window with label comprising three cinque-foiled lights with grilles and plain leaded diamond panes. Above is a smaller brick window with a flattened triangular head, now containing two 20th-century diamond-paned lights in wooden frames. A sundial occupies the gable, set in a square stone plate that is now virtually illegible. A pilaster buttress marks the transition to the porch, which has a two-centred arched doorway with a 20th-century two-leaf boarded door. A small trefoil-arched recess and an angle buttress at the west corner complete the porch. To the east of the transept, the south chapel to the chancel breaks forward with diagonal buttresses at its east and west corners. It comprises two bays with a central plain buttress and two similar rectangular stone windows with labels, cinquefoiled lights, grilles, and diamond-leaded panes—one of three lights, one of two lights. To the west of the transept and porch stands a tall recessed brick window with a four-centred arched head, half-height grille, and diamond-leaded panes, with an angle buttress nearby. The square west tower has its west side and upper stage rebuilt in the 17th century, featuring a large diagonal double-shouldered corner buttress. The ground floor contains a small wood-latticed arch-headed window, above which runs a string course with clasping octagonal corner buttresses rising to a cyma and ovolo-moulded cornice, with a stepped parapet between buttresses that continues upward as turrets. A belfry opening in the upper stage is set in a projecting brick panel with an elliptical head and wood-latticed infill, topped by a shingled pyramidal roof with weathervane.

The north elevation has a central transept with windows similar to those on the south side, plus small stone square-framed quatrefoiled lights to the east at the level of the lower window head. Single angle buttresses stand at the east and west corners of the transept, and seven cant roof truss members are visible in the brickwork of the gable. To the east, the chancel has a 20th-century replaced stone window with a cinquefoiled arched head. The projecting north chapel has a lean-to roof grading into the chancel roof, with no windows but two large crosses on pedestals in burnt headers, one partly obscured by a later memorial plaque. The east end of the chancel contains a shallow recess with twin trefoil heads on a corbel table, all in brick, with a corner diagonal buttress. To the west of the central transept, the nave wall is blank except for a stone 14th-century doorway with a two-centred arched head, double chamfer mouldings, and a hollow-moulded label, fitted with a boarded door whose lower section is trapped by a raised concrete sill cast against it. The west tower has a similar elevation to the south side. The east end elevation displays twin gabled ends of the chancel and smaller south chapel with plain central and outer diagonal buttresses. The chapel is marked by prominent burnt-header bricks with remnants of upper "X" patterning. The chancel features a 19th-century stone east window surrounded by brickwork with three cinquefoiled lights and supermullions containing four trefoiled heads. The south chapel has a stone window with a depressed arched head and label containing three cinquefoil leaded lights. At the west end, the tower has large double-shouldered diagonal buttresses rising to a string course at the base of the belfry stage. The ground floor contains a plain rectangular wooden-framed doorway with a 20th-century boarded door; immediately above are twin elliptical-headed lights closed by simple wood latticing.

Interior: The nave comprises three bays with a crown-post roof. Two crown-posts of square quadrate section are four-way braced to the soulaces of seven cant trusses. The tie-beams are moulded, as are the wall-plates, which are embattled. A doorway to the tower is contained within a 17th-century timber-framed partition. The south doorway is of stone, dating to the early 16th century, with a two-centred arched head in a rectangular surround with label, all moulded. Quatrefoils in the spandrels contain a shield and rose, with traces of red colour surviving. A ritual protection graffito is visible on the label head. The contemporary door comprises five vee-grooved boards, each with a slight central arris, a rear portcullis frame, two strap hinges decorated with punched chevrons, a pull ring, and a rear plate, with a wooden lock case. A square spy hole with bars was later cut through the door. The north doorway is now blocked by a monumental stone slab.

Both transepts have upper galleries with guard rails to the nave featuring early 17th-century turned balusters, and evidence of a linking rood loft or gallery between them. A principal stair occupies the north transept, whilst the south transept contains a fireplace in its south wall. The chancel roof is arched and boarded with moulded ribs arranged in a rectangular pattern, with carved bosses depicting flowers, birds, and shields at their intersections. The north chapel walls contain two ranges of foiled sunk panels. A brick curved vault with ribs runs through the chapel, with shield bosses at the intersections. The south chapel is reached through two stone arcade bays, featuring four-centred arches of two moulded orders (cyma and hollow chamfer) with a deep central cavetto. The arcade columns have quatrefoil-section shafts with deeply cut elegant octagonal capitals, traces of red paint surviving. The ceiling of the south chapel features roll and hollow-moulded axial and common joists set closely together with an oak-board infill. The west tower contains a free-standing 17th-century internal timber sub-tower supporting the belfry frame, with four outer posts braced down to north and south sills.

Several monuments have been removed for safekeeping. The most notable monument in the church is that of Alice (Cogesale), wife of Sir John Tyrell, dated 1422—an incised limestone slab depicting a woman in a horned head-dress and fur-lined cloak beneath a vaulted canopy with shafts containing figures of children, described as "one of the outstanding flat engraved monuments of Europe" and now raised on a 20th-century brick platform beneath the arcade to the south chancel chapel. In the north chapel is an indent raised on a 20th-century brick base with a marginal inscription partly surviving to Sir Thomas Tyrell [1476] and Anne (Marney), his wife. The south chapel's south wall bears a monument to Sir John Tyrell (1676) and Martha (Washington), his wife (1679), and another to Sir Charles Tyrell (1714) and Martha, his wife (1690), both executed in marble with fluted pilasters and broken pediments.

This remarkable church has undergone a chequered history of decay, theft, and vandalism. In 1970, it was declared redundant, and extensive conservation work began, leading to its adoption by the Redundant Churches Fund (now The Churches Conservation Trust). Excavation revealed fragments of indurated conglomerate beneath the chancel and south chapel arcade, reinforcing plan evidence of a probable earlier Saxon or Norman building. The Church of All Saints forms a group with the stable and the Freman monument, both located in the churchyard.