Church of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a building of group value, dating back to the 12th century, with extensions from the 14th century. The chancel was rebuilt and the church underwent extensive restoration in 1876 by J.W. Hugall and E.C. Christian. It is constructed of flint with Bath stone dressings, brick and Bath stone bands, chalk elements, and a slate roof. The church follows a cruciform plan, incorporating a central tower, a 14th-century North Chapel, a south aisle, and a porch.

The tower has three stages with a crenellated parapet and grotesque gargoyles. It features paired trefoil-headed lights under a square label mould above a clock face in the bell chamber. The south aisle features a crenellated parapet and moulded cornice with angle and central buttresses supporting square-headed windows with two and three ogee-headed lights. The south porch is stone-faced with a crenellated parapet, moulded cornice, and a simple semi-circular headed doorway with a label mould. The south transept has a gable parapet and incorporates a stone sundial set at an angle in the gable on a corbel with a carved head; above is a two-light window. The chancel has three two-light windows with trefoil heads under pointed arches, a label mould, a moulded cill string, and corner buttresses. The east window is in a geometric style, featuring three large pointed lights below a circular light, all under a two-centred arch and label mould with carved heads as corbels.

The North Chapel has a gable parapet with a moulded string and three carved heads. A curious three-light East window, possibly inserted around 1684, is notable for its intricate cusping and flowing tracery under a deformed two-centred arch with a plain label mould, alongside a corner buttress. The north elevation of the nave features two-light and one-light windows with plain pointed arches.

Inside, the walls are plastered and painted. The chancel has a painted timber ceiling and occasional paintings of saints on the walls. The tower’s crossing arches were rebuilt in 1876. The North Chapel features an ornate cusped kingpost truss, a painted reredos by Westlake, a piscina in the south wall surmounted by a carved head and flanked by escutcheons, and 18th-century marble memorials to the Seymour family, including an aedicule with a curved broken pediment enclosing arms. In the nave, a Tree of Jesse was painted by Westlake on the east wall around the tower arch. A three-bay arcade with simple two-centred arches was rebuilt around 1876 to the south aisle. A C17 hexagonal carved timber pulpit stands on a 20th-century base and steps. The south aisle contains a C19 font set inside the south door, and a holy water stoup is set into the wall beside the south door. The south door itself has a C12 semi-circular arch with a square block and keeled roll ornament on columns with trumpet scallop caps.