Church of All Saints

Church of All Saints

This church was built in 1862 by the architect G E Street for Philip Wroughton of Woolley Park. An organ chamber was added in 1884 by Edwin Dolby. The building is designed in an eclectic Decorated style, with window tracery progressing chronologically from plate tracery referencing the early 13th century, through geometric and intersecting patterns, to the reticulated tracery of the early 14th century.

The walls are constructed of coursed, rock-faced Bisley Common stone from Gloucestershire, with ashlar quoins and dressings supplemented by Bath stone elements. The roofs are tiled, with a shingled roof covering the tower.

The church comprises a tall nave with a south aisle only, a chancel, a vestry to the north of the chancel, and a tower in the south-west corner with a baptistery at its base. A south porch stands at the west end of the aisle. The vestry was divided in 1894 by Edwin Dolby to create an organ chamber to the west.

Exterior features are uniform throughout, including a plinth, moulded strings below cill levels, offset diagonal and angle buttresses, and gable parapets. The south porch has a gable parapet with a cross finial at the apex and a cusped, two-centred arched entrance. Its vaulted interior contains stone ribs; the moulded doorway features blind quatrefoil tracery above the impost. The boarded door is fitted with large wrought-iron hinges with branching leaves.

The tower rises in two stages beneath a large splayed-foot spire. The lower stage contains a four-light window on the south side lighting the baptistery, with geometrical tracery in a two-centred arch and a drip mould with carved head stops. Above this, both south and west sides display circular windows with quatrefoils. The upper stage has a two-light louvre in a two-centred arch on each side. A stair projects from the junction of the tower and nave.

The nave is lit by a clerestory of six round windows with alternate trefoil and quatrefoil openings, positioned above the aisle. The aisle contains three three-light trefoil-headed windows. To the west, the nave features a large pointed window with cusped reticulated tracery beneath a drip mould with leaf stops. To the north, three three-light, two-centred-arched windows with varied geometric tracery are set between sturdy buttresses.

The chancel has two two-light pointed windows to the south, one with a trefoil and the other with a quatrefoil apex; to the east stands a large pointed window with intersecting tracery beneath a drip mould with leaf stops. The north side of the chancel is partly obscured by the vestry and organ chamber.

The vestry was originally a lean-to structure, its roof stopping below that of the chancel. A short section remains with a two-light window to the east; the tapered stack is thought to be original. Dolby's 1884 gabled organ chamber is of double height and projects further to the north. Beneath its high lancet window, the string is stepped up to frame a blank panel. An adjoining section to the west appears to represent a modification to the scheme, featuring a pointed doorway with a boarded door and branched wrought-iron hinges. A small 20th-century boiler house fills the eastern corner between the old vestry and organ chamber.

Cast-iron rainwater-heads are decorated with lancet panels. Wrought-iron boot-scrapers stand on either side of the porch and by the vestry door.

The interior is spacious and light, with dressed stone walls and a six-bay timber roof of collars and crown posts with curved and cusped bracing to the trusses. The floor is laid with red, black and yellow tiles, with encaustic tiles in the sanctuary. The south arcade features short quatrefoiled Blue Lias piers with large, deeply cut, stiff-leaf stone capitals supporting slightly depressed two-centred arches. The arcade continues, framing the entrance and the western baptistery, which is marked by a massive stone pier.

The wide chancel arch springs from corbels in the form of three clustered colonnettes with leaf capitals. The chancel contains a low stone screen with blind quatrefoils to the face. To the north, steps lead up to a rounded stone pulpit enriched with blind tracery. The chancel roof is particularly rich, with four collars, crown posts and cusped bracing. The sanctuary is protected by a timber rail with scrolled metalwork supports.

The rere-arch of the east window is supported on marble colonnettes; the glass is by Clayton and Bell, dated 1863. The south window is likewise framed by a rere-arch on marble colonnettes and incorporates a sedile with quatrefoils to the back. Beside it stands a piscina with a cusped opening.

The vestry doorway to the north is said by some to have come from the old church, but appears consistent with Street's work. To the west of this door is an opening created in 1884 to accommodate the organ; the stone corbel course supporting the roof continues across the opening in timber, whilst a 17th-century timber screen, brought from nearby Chilton, separates the organ chamber from the chancel. The organ chamber is lined with brick rather than stone like the original vestry.

The organ is by G M Holdich, made in 1867 for the Church of St Saviour, Highbury, London, before being brought to Brightwalton.

Street's original church fittings remain largely untouched. The alabaster reredos is by Thomas Earp, depicting Christ seated within a vesica surrounded by censing angels, with symbols of the Evangelists in the four corners. The original pews remain, each with a sexfoil roundel to the ends; smaller versions serve the children. The fine choir stalls have turned balusters to the book rests. A 12th-century font with blind intersecting round arches is fitted with a metalwork cover by Street, featuring a scrolled, foliate cross. In the south aisle is another 1863 window by Clayton and Bell. The baptistery window contains brilliantly-coloured Pre-Raphaelite glass by Michael Halliday of 1868, made by Lavers, Barraud and Westlake.