Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This is a church comprising a nave accessed through a south porch, with two transepts and a chancel to the east, a vestry to the north and a timber belfry surmounted by a splay-foot spire at the west end.

The main materials are London Stock brick faced with Kentish rag and Carr stone, with Bath stone dressings, occasional brick, tiles and flint panels. The roof is tiled, and the spire is covered with shingles.

The gable roofs have cresting and stone cross finials to the nave and chancel. The elevational treatment is uniform, comprising randomly coursed, roughly finished stone interspersed with string courses and occasional flint panels. The window and door openings, and the staged, diagonal and set back buttresses, have ashlar stone dressings. At the apex of the gabled roofs are stone and flint panels with central trefoiled apertures. There are two pointed-arch lancet windows at the west end and a three-light pointed-arch window at the east end, each light with a cusped ogee head and two cusped roundels flanking the central light. Other windows in the nave are single or pairs of lancets with ogee heads; the transept windows have pointed-arch heads and two lights with cusped heads and a trefoiled opening above. The staged belfry has exposed timber framing with arched braces and decorative foils, and is topped by a splay-foot spire.

The interior of the nave has a crown-post roof with arched braces, resting on stone corbels; the chancel roof is scissor-braced. The moulded pointed belfry arch rests on corbels with foliate carving. The chancel arch has a similar form, but rests on a group of three pilasters with moulded capitals. The inner rib of the arch has carved detailing. The arch has a hood mould which terminates in bosses sculpted with the heads of a king and queen on either side. The chancel rail is of moulded stone with foiled openings and a deeply carved handrail. Quarry tiles cover the nave and transepts floors, but the chancel has an encaustic tiled floor. The choir stalls are simply carved with ogee and foil openings to the rails. Behind the altar is an ornate reredos of five niches with ogee heads divided by columns. Each niche has a carved quatrefoil with a relief; the central panel depicts the Lamb of God. Above the reredos are the carved words 'Ye do shew the Lord's death till He come'. On the north side of the chancel is an aumbry and on the south side to the rear of the choir is the organ with polychromatic pipes bearing a plaque with the date 1936 and stating that the builders were Bevington and Sons.

All of the interior fixtures and fittings are contemporary with the church. The pews are simply carved without decoration. The font and pulpit are crisply carved, the latter with ogee and quatrefoil motifs and carved figures. Most of the windows are plain with stained glass borders. Four of the windows are by A.O. Hemming. There are memorial windows of 1898 and 1901 toward the transepts. The two lancet windows at the west end (originally part of the original east end window) feature medallions of the four Evangelists' symbols: Saint Matthew (angel); Saint Mark (lion); Saint John (ox) and Saint Luke (eagle). The east window of 1898 depicts the Crucifixion scene with figures of Christ on the cross, his mother Mary (unusually shown wearing a wedding ring), Mary Cleophas, Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross, Saint John and the Centurion. On the north and south walls of the chancel are single lancets showing Christ with the words 'I am the True Vine' and 'I am the Bread of Life'. At the south transept is a stained glass window showing the Annunciation, a gift of the parishioners to mark Queen Victoria's death in 1901. On the north transept the window depicts the Parable of the Sower and was given in memory of M. Sacre, a brother of a former Rector.