Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a medieval parish church with Anglo-Saxon origins that has undergone successive phases of development and a dramatic 20th-century expansion. The original nave dates from the 11th century and retains a late 12th-century west door. The chancel and northeast tower were built in the early 13th century. Late 14th-century work included the addition of the west porch, which contains the tomb of Nicholas de Ystele. The northeast Rufford chapel was added in the 15th century, and the northeast vestry is also medieval in origin, though its precise date is uncertain.

The upper part of the tower was rebuilt in the 1770s following storm damage and again in 1809 after a fire. The church was restored in 1874 when the northeast vestry was added, and there was some refurnishing in the early 20th century. In 1957-8, a major transformation took place when a large new south extension was built to designs by Geddes Hyslop, comprising a new church with an integral vestry and parish rooms complex. The old nave became an ante-chapel. The interior was refurbished and painted in the early 21st century.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of flint rubble with stone dressings, with some brick used on the 20th-century parish rooms. The piers and vaults of the new church are concrete. The roofs are tiled throughout.

Plan

The orientation of the church was altered during the 20th-century work. The medieval church comprised an unaisled nave with a west porch and northeast tower, and a chancel with a northeast chapel and 19th-century vestry. The extension of 1957-8 added a large new church to the south with east and west aisles, a chancel with a southwest organ chamber and choir vestry, southeast porch and clergy vestry, and a large parish rooms complex to the south. The medieval church now forms an ante-chapel at the north end of the new church, with the former chancel serving as a chapel.

Exterior

The church presents contrasting exteriors. From the north it appears wholly medieval, albeit much restored, but from every other aspect it is entirely dominated by the 20th-century extensions.

The late 14th-century west porch has a low-pitched roof. The outer opening, now closed by a door, has continuous chamfers and a hood mould with headstops. One 14th-century window with an ogee head stands next to it. Inside the porch is a good late 14th-century tomb recess with a depressed ogee head and cusping. The late 12th-century west door features chevron and roll mouldings with jamb shafts having early leaf capitals; a later stoup has been cut into the jamb on the south side. Above the porch is a three-light 15th-century window and a 19th-century roundel in the gable.

The north wall of the old church nave has two 14th-century two-light windows and a blocked 14th-century door. There were formerly three similar windows in the old nave south wall.

The northeast tower is very short and does not rise above the nave roof. Of two stages, the lower stage is buttressed and has a narrow 13th-century lancet in the north wall. The short upper stage has late 18th-century or early 19th-century bell openings with pointed heads and an embattled parapet.

The northeast chapel has a restored four-light 15th-century window. The north wall of the chancel has a 13th-century lancet and the remains of another that was blocked by the northeast chapel. Below them is the northeast vestry of uncertain, probably medieval date. It has a blocked west door with a pointed head and continuously chamfered opening, 19th-century windows in a 13th-century style in the east and north walls, and also in the north wall, a small, probably reset late 12th-century window with a pointed head.

The chancel has a triplet of 19th-century lancets in the east wall. The chancel south wall has a restored 13th-century lancet, a pair of 19th-century windows in a 13th-century style (each with a pair of lancets) and a plate tracery roundel. Between them is a heavily restored 15th- or 16th-century door with a four-centred head in a square frame. The rest of the south side of the old church is entirely covered by the new church.

The new church is oriented north-south and is in a stripped-down late Gothic style that takes its cue largely from late medieval domestic buildings. To the east it has four transverse gables, three of which have large windows with triangular heads and mullions; the fourth serves as an entrance porch and has a brick statue niche without a statue and a door with a heavy surround and the date 1957. On the west there are five transverse gables, each with a window like those on the east. The contemporary south parish rooms complex is distinguished from the church by the use of brick, and has lancet windows in the side walls and brick diapering on flint and a roundel in the south wall.

Interior

Like the outside, the inside is in visually distinct sections, although the difference is lessened by the plastering and painting of both the new and the old sections. The south wall of the former nave is pierced by an arcade of three large, plain pointed arches, and the old nave forms an ante-chapel for the new church. The new church has four-bay arcades with a central barrel vault and groin vaults in the aisles. The piers are square with chamfered corners and the transverse ribs also have a square profile. The last transverse arch acts as the new chancel arch. A late 15th-century door that formerly served the rood stair in the southeast corner of the old nave is reset in the new chancel west (liturgical south) wall.

The early 13th-century chancel arch is pointed with a roll moulding and slender jamb shafts with stiff leaf capitals on both the inner and outer faces. The door to the north vestry is probably very early 13th century and has a round head and a continuous roll moulding. There are 19th-century marble detached shafts on the east windows.

The south tower arch of about 1200 has two slightly chamfered orders and chamfered imposts. The lower part of the tower has a quadripartite vault with slender ribs. It formerly had an east lancet, parts of which are visible internally. A 15th-century arch leads into the adjacent northeast chapel. The northeast chapel has a 15th-century arch on polygonal responds with moulded capitals to the chancel, and a narrow 15th-century door with a pointed head and hollow chamfered moulding leads to the northeast vestry.

The considerable later 20th-century alterations have been executed with care and endow the church with a large and luminous interior.

Principal Fixtures

An Anglo-Saxon sundial with a partial inscription in Old English and Latin, discovered during construction in 1957, is reset in the western pier of the new south arcade.

The octagonal late 12th-century or early 13th-century font stands on four marble shafts with moulded bases around a central core. It has a 15th-century cover with ogee ribs and a foliate finial.

There are probably 13th-century sedilia consisting of a single round-headed arch with roll mouldings, large enough to seat two; two probably 15th-century aumbries with depressed heads, one on each side of the chancel; and a small 13th-century piscina in the tower.

An excellent rood screen of 1916 by W D Caroë is in a flamboyant late Gothic style with a very deep coving supporting a rood loft. The coving has very good blind tracery.

A large late 19th-century reredos has a tiled dado and blind arcading in an Early English style, the central three bays more elaborate and framing a carved Last Supper. The backs of the arcading, the sculpture and the walls around the east window were painted in 1909.

The 19th-century choir stalls have some openwork tracery on the fronts. All the other seating is 1950s. The 19th-century trussed rafter roof in the nave of the old church reuses older tie beams.

The windows of the old church are of 1955 by L C Evett, replacing glass destroyed in the Second World War. The reredos in the new church was designed by Geddes Hyslop and painted by Brian Thomas.

Monuments

A fine late 14th-century tomb recess in the west porch commemorates the rector Nicholas de Ystele, who died in 1370 and built the porch. There is a brass to Thomas Wilkynson, rector 1475-1511, and another to John Gower, vicar 1518-22. A few good 18th-century and early 19th-century wall tablets include three to members of the Gee family by Chantrey. Some good 17th-century ledger stones survive in the chancel.

Subsidiary Features

Part of the churchyard wall is 18th-century brick and was formerly the boundary with Bark Hart House. There is a large lychgate of 1879.

History

There was a church at Orpington in the early 11th century, when Eadsige, a priest and royal chaplain, gave land to Christ Church cathedral, Canterbury. By the time of the Domesday Book, there were two churches in Orpington, almost certainly All Saints and the church at Hayes. In the 19th century, Anglo-Saxon long and short work was said to have been visible in the southeast corner of the nave before the restoration, and a Saxon sundial was found during the work in 1957.

The nave was rebuilt or extended in the late 12th century and has a Transitional west door. The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, and the northeast tower was also added in the early 13th century. The northeast vestry was added at an unknown date, but may also be 13th century. The west porch was added in 1370 by the rector Nicholas de Ystele, who desired to be buried there. The northeast chapel was added in the 15th century and was a chantry chapel for members of the Rufford family. There was also other work in the 15th century, including the installation of the south chancel door and the former rood screen.

In 1771 the tower was damaged in a storm and reduced in height. The upper part caught fire in 1809 and the present top of the tower is probably of that date. By 1840 it had a west gallery and a triple-decker pulpit, both removed during 19th-century restorations. The medieval screen, described as "a curious Gothic carving in oak, in excellent preservation", appears to have survived until at least the early 19th century, but a new screen was installed in 1869. There was further restoration in 1874, and some refurnishing in the early 20th century.

In line with Orpington's dramatic growth as a suburb in the mid-20th century, the church was hugely extended and reoriented in 1957-8 with the construction of the new church to designs by Geddes Hyslop, relegating the old church effectively to becoming an ante-chapel. There was some reordering in the early 21st century.