Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a parish church, now redundant, dating back to the 11th century and restored in 1868 by the Rev. E.R. Benyon. The nave and chancel are constructed of rubble flint, mainly coursed, with a 19th-century bellcote of kidney flint on the west wall. The building features freestone dressings and plaintiled roofs. Each window is individually designed, all in the Decorated style. A mid-19th century timber south porch provides access.

The north and south doorways display a significant Saxon influence in their decorative elements. Both doorways share an identical form, with nook-shafts, capitals featuring volutes, and a heavy roll-moulding to the arch above, each enclosing a carved tympanum. The tympanum above the south doorway displays a striking and well-executed design of two dogs facing each other, with an intricately interlaced tree of life between them. A single small figure is carved on the side of the right-hand capital of the south doorway. The tympanum above the blocked north doorway has decoration facing inwards, depicting two figures – possibly St. Katherine holding up a ring, and St. Lawrence with a gridiron – separated by a grid-like implement. The inner arches of both doorways are plain.

The interior of the nave contains 15th-century benches with poppy-heads; the eight front benches also feature carved animal figures alongside the poppy-heads, as well as traceried and panelled ends and backs. The fourth bench on the south side is carved with a lively design of wild boars and figures with human faces and animal or grotesque bodies, the latter wearing pointed caps. A plain, circular Norman font sits on a heavy, repaired base with a central supporting shaft and three outer shafts, the latter featuring damaged carved heads below the bowl. The chancel arch exhibits a similar decorative treatment to the doorways, including nook-shafts, volute capitals, and a roll-moulding on the west side of the arch, with unusual chain-like motifs carved into the abaci. The remainder of the interior, including the chancel, the pulpit, and the roofs, dates from the 1868 restoration.