Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Benhilton

This church was built between 1863 and 1866 to serve the expanding local population after the opening of the London to Epsom railway in 1847. The architect was Samuel Sanders Teulon, a prominent Victorian church architect known for his work with Low Church clients. The tower was added in 1867, and the north aisle, vestries and related structures followed in 1873. The building arose from the generosity of Thomas Alcock, lord of the manor, who provided the land, contributed substantially to the building costs, and had previously built the church of St Andrew, Kingswood. The foundation stone was laid in 1863 and the church was consecrated on 3 March 1866 with seating for 584 people, though the full scheme envisaged 874 places. The south Lady Chapel was fitted up in 1900. A flying bomb caused extensive damage in 1944, which was subsequently and carefully repaired.

The church is constructed of flint-faced masonry with limestone dressings and sandstone bands, topped with red clay tile roofs. It is designed in the Decorated style of the early 14th century, though notably without the structural polychromy and exotic details characteristic of Teulon's other work.

The building stands on an artificial platform built up on a south-facing slope. The plan comprises a nave, north and south aisles, a west tower, north and south porches, a south chapel, and north vestries with an organ chamber.

The prominent four-stage west tower dominates the composition. It features a west doorway and a four-light west window with flowing tracery, repeated in the principal windows throughout the church. The tower's third stage displays a clock under a gable with flowing tracery on its north, south and west faces. The belfry stage has two-light reticulated windows on each face. Diagonal buttresses support the west face, and a northeast stair turret rises above the plain parapets. A distinctive feature is the widespread traces of putlog holes left visible in the outside walls, showing their original forms with side pieces and cappings clearly evident—an unusual choice for a Victorian building, where such holes were typically filled and obliterated. Similarly, the hood stops of arch heads have been left largely uncarved. The aisles have lean-to roofs, and above these runs a narrow band containing a clerestory with circular windows featuring alternating triskele and mouchette-and-quatrefoil infilling. The aisle windows are broad with three-light flowing tracery, varying in design across each bay. The south chapel and north vestry and organ chamber each lie under their own gables with florid three-light fenestration. Both porches have moulded outer doorways, with the north porch being vaulted.

The interior impresses through its spacious and luminous character, with plastered and whitened walls. The nave and aisles are notably wide, connected by five-bay arcades with double-chamfered arches. The piers feature four demi-octagonal elements in the cardinal directions, with moulded capitals and bases. The chancel arch follows this form, while the tower arch is plain, with its arch dying into the jambs. Between the chancel and chapel runs a two-bay arcade with a quatrefoil pier and fine foliage carving in the capitals of the piers and responds.

The hammer-beam roofs over the nave and chancel are extraordinarily intricate and impressive. Their effect derives from extensive ornamental detail in the spandrel tracery, E-W traceried arching over the clerestory, and small whitened panels in each bay set against the darkness of the structural woodwork. The aisles have plain lean-to roofs. The lower parts of the sanctuary walls are decorated with repainted ashlar work in 13th and 14th-century style. The floors throughout are stone.

Principal interior fixtures include an impressive timber rood screen dating from 1911, with a heightened central part supporting the rood group. Other traceried screens separate the choir from the organ chamber, and the south aisle from the south chapel. Chancel stalls appear to be mid-20th century. The pulpit is a fine piece with a polygonal alabaster top decorated with tracery in square panels, mounted on a stone base. The font is modest, octagonal with two blind ogee arches on each face of the bowl.

The original stained glass was lost in bombing in 1944. The east window, created in 1965 by J and M Kettlewell, is richly coloured and strongly detailed, depicting Christ in Majesty flanked by St Dunstan, St Peter, St Lawrence and St Nicholas. The south aisle contains figurative stained glass of 1965 by John Hayward in the west windows and the second window from the east; Hayward's work also appears in the tracery lights of other aisle windows. The three windows of the Lady Chapel are by Goddard and Gibbs, with the east window dated 2001.

To the south and west of the church, flights of steps lead down into the lower parts of the churchyard. The southern flight retains remnants of cast-iron lamp-standards. Immediately south of the tower stands a First World War memorial cross with a Crucifixion beneath a gabled canopy.