Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

A parish church originating in the 14th century with 15th-century alterations, including the tower. The building was restored in 1873 and 1886. It is constructed of Quaternary flint and chert with Lincolnshire Limestone ashlar dressings. The composition comprises a nave with aisles, a chancel, and a west tower. The nave roof is thatched, the aisles are leaded, and the chancel roof is slate.

The three-stage west tower is supported on diagonal buttresses and features a tall flushwork plinth course decorated with a trefoiled arcade. The west door sits within an arch enriched with hollow casement and wave mouldings. Above it is a three-light Perpendicular window of 19th-century date. Quatrefoil ringing chamber ventilation panels are set within square surrounds. A string course runs below the belfry. Two-light belfry windows have mouchette tracery. The flushwork parapet displays triple-stepped crenellations with corner turrets finished with finials. The stair access is to the south-east.

The aisles have three-light west windows with reticulation units split by rising supermullions, dating to the 19th century. East aisle windows are cusped three-light designs. Diagonal east and west buttresses support the aisles, with a central buttress to the flanks. Three three-light 19th-century cusped south aisle windows sit under segmental arches, while three two-light north aisle windows feature cusped Y tracery, also 19th century. An arched south doorway has sunk quadrant and hollow mouldings. A gabled 19th-century north porch is present. Four clerestory windows on both north and south elevations display encircled quatrefoil designs.

The chancel's south side is lit by a two-light 14th-century Y window with lights supporting rounded trefoils and a quatrefoil vesica. To the east is a cusped two-light 14th-century Y tracery window. Diagonal eastern buttresses are present. A four-light 19th-century intersecting east window contains encircled quatrefoils within the intersections. A 19th-century lean-to organ chamber projects from the north chancel wall, to the west of which sits a two-light 14th-century cusped Y tracery window.

Interior

The interior contains a five-bay octagonal arcade with piers on moulded bases. Moulded capitals support double hollow chamfered arches. Clerestory windows are deeply splayed. A tall tower arch with semi-circular responds and chamfered arch opens to the nave. A double hollow chamfered chancel arch on polygonal responds, identical to the arcade, separates nave from chancel. A scissor-braced 19th-century nave roof is present, as are 19th-century aisle roofs with moulded rafters.

The font is re-cut 13th-century Purbeck marble of octagonal form, with a central column surrounded by eight orbiting marble columns and two incised arches on each facet of the bowl. Holy water stoups flank the north and south doors. An arched 13th-century tower stair door of timber is decorated with closely set vertical and horizontal wrought iron straps; the lock, guard plate, and handle remain intact. A south-east nave chapel is marked by a trefoiled piscina and a 20th-century aumbry.

An early 16th-century polygonal pulpit features two panels on each facet, each decorated with quatrefoils below and mouchette tracery above. The 15th-century dado of the chancel screen comprises two bays on each side of the opening, each containing two Perpendicular traceried panels painted with figures of saints. The top rail of the dado bears relief carving of a painted vine trail. The traceried head of the screen dates to 1886 and is executed in Perpendicular style. A 19th-century arch-braced chancel roof has ashlaring boarded and pierced by a wavy motif.

Two wall monuments are present. To Charles Lucas (died 1831), created by Joseph Hermann of Dresden, is a marble monument with an inscription panel surmounted by a relief stele depicting a standing genius bearing an extinguished torch, flanked by the capital of a broken Ionic column on the right and an urn inscribed OSSA on the left, with a pedimented top. Immediately to the east is a wall monument to Gibson Lucas (died 1790), executed in black and white marble. It comprises an inscription panel surmounted by a black marble obelisk against which a mourning Greek figure in classical dress is seated upon a sarcophagus and embraces two urns. To the east is a mutilated piscina.