Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Langton Green

A parish church built in 1862–63 on a small plot of land on The Green, donated by Charles Powell of Hollonds. The original architect was Sir George Gilbert Scott. The building has undergone significant expansion: in 1889 the small original vestry was demolished and replaced with an organ chamber; at the same time a north aisle was constructed and dormer windows were inserted through the nave roof on that side, with a new vestry (now the south transept) built to create a cruciform plan. In 1902 the east end was extended to accommodate the present sanctuary, the south aisle was added, and the vestry was absorbed into the church. The south aisle was built from designs by John Oldrid Scott. A further vestry was built in 1912. The church is constructed of coursed sandstone ashlar rusticated with chisel marks, with a peg-tile roof.

The plan consists of a nave with north and south aisles, north and south transepts (the former serving as the organ loft), and a lower chancel. A vestry is attached to the north transept parallel to the chancel. A bellcote sits over the east end of the nave, and a south porch is positioned at the west end of the south aisle.

The exterior displays consistent Early English style. Windows are predominantly lancets, set singly or in series of two or three, with chamfered reveals and hoodmoulds featuring label stops carved as stiffleaf foliage. Most lancets on the south aisle have cusped heads. The west end features two gables with stone coping and fleuree apex crosses. Above two tall lancets in the nave's west end sits a vestica window. Buttresses articulate the nave section. The lean-to north aisle has a pair of lancets with a gabled end, while the south aisle's gabled end features a taller pair with cinquefoil heads. Angle buttresses occupy the corners. The south porch at the west end of the south aisle is tall and steeply gabled with low clasping buttresses. Its outer arch is two-centred with a moulded surround, shafts on the outside, and imposts tapering to stiffleaf corbels. The south door is set within a two-centred arch with moulded surround and hoodmould, containing a double plank door with ornate strap hinges. To its right are three triple lancets. The south transept displays double lancets, with the eastern example surmounted by a gable. On the chancel, buttresses rise past the eaves with gabled tops; single and double lancets here have moulded reveals and trefoil heads. The large east window comprises five lancet lights, rising higher towards the centre. The north aisle has a lean-to roof with windows in a more vernacular style: timber-gabled windows of three lights with trefoil heads and shingled gables featuring cusped bargeboards. Nave dormer windows are similarly timber with gabled roofs.

The interior features a nave with an open common rafter roof, scissor-braced with ashlar posts. The south aisle has a four-bay roof of tie-beam trusses with octagonal crown posts. The north aisle has a common rafter lean-to roof. The chancel roof matches the nave except in the sanctuary, which has a boarded ceilure. Four-bay arcades run along the nave, comprising low octagonal piers with moulded capitals including friezes of nailhead ornament, with hoodmoulds and label stops carved as human heads. A double arch links the south aisle to the transept with central twin octagonal piers. A plainer arch connects to the north transept and organ loft. The chancel arch is a richly moulded tall two-centred arch on clustered shafts; the outer shafts have moulded caps while the inner shafts rise from corbels carved as angels. A further full-height stone arch separates the chancel from the sanctuary. Most windows have plain rere arches, but those in the chancel have shafts, and the east window rere arch is moulded. The floor comprises red and black tiles with encaustic tiles in the baptistry and marble in the chancel. The sandstone walls are bare.

Fittings include a large and highly ornate Decorated style reredos of carved coloured marble with mosaic decoration depicting the Supper at Emmaus, flanked by sandstone blind arcades carved with foliage in their spandrels. A Gothic-style piscina and sedilia sit to the south. The sanctuary is lined with wainscotting dated 1935. The altar table, from the 19th century, has sides carved with Gothic tracery including the Sacred Monogram in a cusped roundel, with a similar though less elaborate version in the south transept chapel. Ornate oak Gothic-style stalls with poppyhead finials, arcades along the frontals and bench ends, date from 1912. A semi-octagonal pulpit is built into the church masonry, its panels carved with quatrefoils containing Sacred Emblems on a Gothic diaper ground. The front corner features a marble shaft with a stiffleaf capital supporting the bible rest. Plain pine benches furnish the nave. A good alabaster and coloured marble font with a square bowl carved on one side with the return of the dove to Noah's ark is present, complete with a font cover dated 1901 featuring a pulley chain and counterweight.

The stained glass is of excellent quality and high importance, including significant early work by Morris and Company to designs by Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown, as well as Morris himself. Other glass is by Clayton and Bell and by Kempe. The east window is an excellent product of the Kempe workshop, featuring the Tree of Jesse. Memorials are few and of local interest only.

The Church of All Saints forms part of an attractive and varied group of buildings around The Green.